{"id":26634,"date":"2015-03-27T15:12:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T19:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=26634"},"modified":"2015-03-27T18:19:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T22:19:08","slug":"concert-review-the-unmistakable-elliot-madore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2015\/03\/27\/concert-review-the-unmistakable-elliot-madore\/","title":{"rendered":"CONCERT REVIEW | The Unmistakable Elliot Madore"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Baritone,
Baritone, Elliot Madore Photo: Eric Woolsey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Music Toronto: Baritone Elliot Madore at the Jane Mallet Theatre, Thursday, March 26.<\/h3>\n

There are some singers who sound great in opera productions. And there are also singers who excel in Lieder. But, unfortunately, there aren\u2019t very many who are masters of both genres.<\/p>\n

Is Elliot Madore<\/a> one of these rare creatures?<\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, when Music Toronto presented baritone Elliot Madore at the Jane Mallet Theatre, vocal enthusiasts had the opportunity to hear how the native Torontonian sounds in a song recital. For the occasion, he and pianist Rachel Andrist prepared Schumann\u2019s Liederkreis<\/em>, Poulenc\u2019s Banlit\u00e9s<\/em> and five songs by Charles Ives.<\/p>\n

Madore, who is still in his 20s, has already made a name for himself in the opera world. In 2010 he won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and also the George London Prize. Since then, he has sung major roles at the Glydebourne Festival, the Philadelphia Opera, and Amsterdam\u2019s Netherlands Opera \u2013 and he holds a contract with the Zurich Opera. This summer he\u2019ll appear as Pell\u00e9as in Munich.<\/p>\n

To be sure, his recital revealed him to be an uncommonly gifted artist. Madore possesses a rich and resonant voice, as well as clear and strong delivery. A lyrical legato is his strong suit, which gives his phrases a seamless and fluid quality.<\/p>\n

His approach to Schumann was sentimental (and I mean that in a good way), delivered with heart-on-sleeve emotion. Moreover, he brought a fresh, convincing approach to each of the dozen songs in the cycle. \u201cMondnacht\u201d was sweet and tender. \u201cAuf Einer Burg\u201d was dark and solemn. And I especially enjoyed his dramatic rendition of \u201cIn Der Fremde.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well, Madore\u2019s performance of the Liederkreis<\/em> cycle offered an answer, to the question posed near the top of this review. Madore is a genuine, bone fide Lieder singer \u2013 when he wants to be.<\/p>\n

There were times when he was entirely in the \u201cart-song zone.\u201d But there were also times when his performance seemed too much informed (or, rather, misinformed) by his already substantial experience as an opera singer.<\/p>\n

In \u201cWehmut,\u201d \u201cZweilicht\u201d and \u201cFr\u00fchlingsnacht,\u201d he displayed a penchant for over-singing \u2013 producing a big, \u201cimpressive\u201d sound, as though he were accompanied by an orchestra instead of a piano. And in \u201cWaldesgespr\u00e4ch\u201d he encountered technical problems in his upper register that a lighter approach might have alleviated.<\/p>\n

This tendency sometimes reared its head in the Poulenc, as well. The \u201cChanson d\u2019Orkensise\u201d and \u201cFagnes de Wallonie\u201d both had a harsh and aggressive edge. However, there was pleasantly relaxed and languid quality to \u201cH\u00f4tel,\u201d and a clever charm to the little \u201cVoyage \u00e0 Paris.\u201d \u201cSanglots\u201d received a heartfelt performance, ending with a hint of mystery.<\/p>\n

The Ives songs were a mixed bag. And here, Madore rose to the occasion by embracing the composer\u2019s eclectic style. \u201cThe Circus Band\u201d was sung with Yankee directness, whereas \u201cIch grolle nicht\u201d was treated like the serious German Lied it (almost) is. He had fun with the silly little waltz-song \u201cThe Side Show,\u201d and more fun with \u201cMemories A. Very Pleasant.\u201d The Ives set ended with \u201cB Rather Sad,\u201d sung with a delicate sotto voce<\/em> \u2013 a nice touch that showed how effectively less can be more.<\/p>\n

At several points in the recital, Madore spoke from the stage about his selections \u2013 and when he did so, it was evident that, despite his international success, he\u2019s still a \u201cregular guy\u201d from Etobicoke. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that \u2013 on the contrary, there\u2019s something kind of reassuring about it.<\/p>\n

It was also evident, from the enthusiastic response of the audience, that many friends and family were in attendance. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, either.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are some singers who sound great in opera productions. And there are also singers who excel in Lieder. But, unfortunately, there aren\u2019t very many who are masters of both genres. Is Elliot Madore one of these rare creatures?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":26642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,76,19,52,70],"tags":[5357,2314],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2015-03-14-at-6.59.00-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-6VA","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26634"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26645,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26634\/revisions\/26645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26634"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=26634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}