Thursday, May 28, 2009
Samantha Jeffreys Debut at Carnegie Hall
LLOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Samantha Jeffreys, a young lyric soprano and an authentic child of the T&V country, who grew up and still lives on East 17th Street, gave her debut recital in Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, on Friday, May 15, to the delight of her friends and neighbors and opera lovers, some traveling from afar. The sold -out performance was the culmination of successes in auditions that brought her to soprano in residence status at Nashville Opera (not to be confused with another, more venerable institution) asPanina in Magic Flute, and in other stellar roles, as Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Martina Arroyo Foundation, Mimi in La Boheme at Queens Opera Association, a heady set of principal performances. She has won the DeCamera/Guido Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Operas National Council Auditions, a giant first step to the nationals in NYC, the beginning point of many illustrious careers.
Her program was unique, a combination of lesser known arias from Mozart, Verdi and Puccini, her opera guiding stars, with Lieder by Franz List, Erich Korngold, a Viennese opera prodigy who spent his refugee years as a composer in Hollywood, and Joaquin Turina, portrayer of Iberian culture and Andalusian emotion. The concer closed with contemporary songs by Leonard Bernstein and Ricky Jay Gordon, who combines art song and Broadway musical comedy aura, “caviar for a world of pizza,” (that NYTimes' bon mot, wish I could write like that).
The listener approval was impressive.The comments from the music lovers cited Samantha’s lustrous tone and clarity, rich voice and extensive range with easy movement up and down the scale. The emotional range in the Gordon songs was noted, as was the sincerity and intensity in the Liszt “Comment disaent-ils,” with a high B in the final cadenza shimmering and reaching all the way to the back of the house. Other listeners remarked about the strength of her voice, holding up during the two-hour performance, and mastery of five languages. A non-fan of opera went home converted, impressed with tunefulness of classical music and determined to look for more.
Samantha, who is going back to Nashville Opera and Carnegie Hall later in the year, lists as her personal singing favorites Mirella Freni and Barbara Fritolli, and considers Kornhold’s “Marietta’s Lied” from Die tote Stadt one of her signature arias. She is a 2005 graduate of SUNY Purchase Conservatory, with a 2007 Masters Degree from Manhattan School of Music, and also has won Connecticut Opera Guild and Florida Grand comperitions. One senses that much more is to come.
The piano accompanist was Djordje Nesic.
‘ .
Samantha Jeffreys, a young lyric soprano and an authentic child of the T&V country, who grew up and still lives on East 17th Street, gave her debut recital in Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, on Friday, May 15, to the delight of her friends and neighbors and opera lovers, some traveling from afar. The sold -out performance was the culmination of successes in auditions that brought her to soprano in residence status at Nashville Opera (not to be confused with another, more venerable institution) asPanina in Magic Flute, and in other stellar roles, as Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Martina Arroyo Foundation, Mimi in La Boheme at Queens Opera Association, a heady set of principal performances. She has won the DeCamera/Guido Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Operas National Council Auditions, a giant first step to the nationals in NYC, the beginning point of many illustrious careers.
Her program was unique, a combination of lesser known arias from Mozart, Verdi and Puccini, her opera guiding stars, with Lieder by Franz List, Erich Korngold, a Viennese opera prodigy who spent his refugee years as a composer in Hollywood, and Joaquin Turina, portrayer of Iberian culture and Andalusian emotion. The concer closed with contemporary songs by Leonard Bernstein and Ricky Jay Gordon, who combines art song and Broadway musical comedy aura, “caviar for a world of pizza,” (that NYTimes' bon mot, wish I could write like that).
The listener approval was impressive.The comments from the music lovers cited Samantha’s lustrous tone and clarity, rich voice and extensive range with easy movement up and down the scale. The emotional range in the Gordon songs was noted, as was the sincerity and intensity in the Liszt “Comment disaent-ils,” with a high B in the final cadenza shimmering and reaching all the way to the back of the house. Other listeners remarked about the strength of her voice, holding up during the two-hour performance, and mastery of five languages. A non-fan of opera went home converted, impressed with tunefulness of classical music and determined to look for more.
Samantha, who is going back to Nashville Opera and Carnegie Hall later in the year, lists as her personal singing favorites Mirella Freni and Barbara Fritolli, and considers Kornhold’s “Marietta’s Lied” from Die tote Stadt one of her signature arias. She is a 2005 graduate of SUNY Purchase Conservatory, with a 2007 Masters Degree from Manhattan School of Music, and also has won Connecticut Opera Guild and Florida Grand comperitions. One senses that much more is to come.
The piano accompanist was Djordje Nesic.
‘ .
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 4:04 PM 
