Review: Singers add drama to symphony stage

Four fine young singers joined Eckart Preu and the Spokane Symphony Orchestra on Friday for a delightful evening of arias, ensembles and orchestral works from the world of opera. 

The program, called “Amore,” was not intended to give connoisseurs a peek into the works of obscure and forgotten composers. It aimed, rather, to provide as much pleasure as possible to as wide a public as possible, and it succeeded very well, if not perfectly.

Perhaps the most completely finished artist of the evening was Marcus DeLoach.  In the aria “Non piu andrai,” from W.A. Mozart’s “Le Nozze de Figaro,” DeLoach displayed a beautiful baritone voice easily and evenly produced throughout the whole of its range, superbly clear diction and a commanding dramatic presence.  As soon as he walked onto the stage at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, he owned it.

Perhaps his dramatic projection of Don Giovanni’s character in “La ci darem la mano” was a bit less sharply etched, as though he had not inhabited that part as long or as deeply as that of Figaro, but, in the “Toreador’s  Song” from Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,” his embodiment of the character’s arrogance and egotism, as well as his command of French diction, were absolute.

Lyric soprano Mela Dailey displayed an exceptionally lovely voice in the ubiquitous “O mio babbino caro,” from Giacomo Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.” The voice is pure and well-supported, reminiscent of Anna Moffo. 

Dailey also showed great dramatic versatility, moving from the tender pathos of Mimi in selections from Puccini’s “La Boheme,” and the clowning sexiness she assumed in Musetta’s “Waltz” (“Quando m’en vo”) from that same opera, to Gilda’s horror in witnessing the cynicism and lechery of her lover in Giuseppe Verdi’s masterful “Quartet” from “Rigoletto.”

It took a while before Jami Tyzik’s lovely mezzo-soprano started to show to its best advantage.  Her opening “Habanera” from “Carmen” was shaky and showed that there is more wrestling to be done with the French language. As the evening progressed, however, she appeared to grow stronger.  Her duet with Dailey in the delectable “Sous le dome epais” could not have been more leisurely and luxuriant, and her dramatic and vocal command of the ambiguous character Maddalena made an exceptionally strong impression in the Verdi quartet.

The puzzle of the evening was the tenor, Brandon Wood, a handsome young man with a terrific voice that was undercut by his lack of focus and preparation.

 Throughout the program, the symphony gave the artists sensitive support and played splendidly in overtures by Mozart, Verdi and Richard Wagner, as well as in the “Bohemian Dance” from Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 2.

The brass in Verdi’s Overture to “La Forza del Destino” were glorious, and the flute duet of Bruce Bodden and Alaina Bercilla in “Carmen” were memorable for their perfect matching of phrasing and tone.