By Lloyd Schwartz, The Pheonix, 9/26/06
Richard Conrad’s the Bostonians recently offered two “Art of Song” concerts at MIT’s Killian Hall. In August, Conrad, now in his early 70s, presented a delightful and stylish evening of Noël Coward and Cole Porter (“Noelie and Colie”), accompanied by the superlative William Merrill, and I heard some of his most accomplished and effortless singing in several years. This month, mezzo-soprano Delores Ziegler (six years ago she made an enormous hit as Liza Elliott in Conrad’s Boston Academy of Music production of Kurt Weill’s Lady in the Dark) and pianist John Greer, an accompanist of rare sensitivity, gave an extraordinary Schumann recital that included the familiar Frauenliebe und -Leben (“A Woman’s Love and Life”) and far less familiar songs and, with the help of Conrad and soprano Ellen Chickering, duets.
Ziegler, who’s better known and greatly admired in Europe (she sings Dorabella on both the Haitink and Harnoncourt Cosí fan tutte recordings), is an opera star who’s equally at home in recital. She’s completely natural. Nothing comes between her and the music or the words. Her diction is impeccable; her emotional shading is nuanced (how many colors did she convey in the young wife’s ecstatically tender reference to her “Ringelein” — her little wedding ring?); and she can scale her rich voice down to the most radiantly indrawing intimacy while those nuances play across her expressive face (as in the long, eloquent postlude to the last and saddest of the Frauenliebe songs). She and Greer are both now on the faculty of the New England Conservatory. I hope they’re planning more recitals.
By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff, 9/23/05
Not many singers are in a position to celebrate their 70th birthday with a recital as demanding as the one baritone Richard Conrad offered at MIT's Killian Hall Saturday night. Time takes its toll on the muscles that support the breath and the voice, but Conrad is master of his metier, and there were many professional singers in the audience listening -- and applauding vigorously.
Of course, Conrad doesn't sound the way he did 40 years ago, when he was a light-voiced tenor with an amazing command of coloratura, a singer who made albums with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne. But he did sound the way he has for the last quarter-century, since he reconstructed his voice following an accident. Conrad's bittersweet baritone timbre may be an acquired taste, but the tone is still loud and steady, clear and in tune, and in his encore, ''Home, Sweet Home," he provided some graceful bel canto ornamentation and even a couple of rapid, even trills that recalled his youth.
Conrad sang a varied program that reflected an unusual singing career devoted to Italian opera and florid song, early music, Gilbert and Sullivan, and musical comedy of many periods. Few singers can follow, as he did, a group of songs by Noel Coward with Ralph Vaughan Williams's sublime ''Five Mystical Songs." In the first half Conrad offered Daniel Pinkham's ''Letters From Saint Paul," songs and ballads by Sir Arthur Sullivan, and songs from Janet Hood's score for the 1989 Actors Equity AIDS show ''Elegies for Angels, Punks, and Raging Queens." Conrad acted but did not sing in that production, and later asked Hood to prepare a group of the songs for use in recital; the composer played the piano for them at the concert.
The expert string players were Krista Buckland Reisner, Rohan Gregory, Emily Rome, and Jan Muller-Szeraws; bassist Susan Hagen joined them for the Vaughan Williams. William Merrill was deft, stylish, and supportive in the piano accompaniments. Enthusiasm ran high in the audience. Conrad has lived in Italy and New York, but he has spent many years in Boston as singer, stage director, teacher, and impresario. For 23 years he led the Boston Academy of Music, which morphed into Opera Boston, leaving him behind; he now heads the Bostonian Opera and Concert Ensemble. Above all, he has been mentor and friend to generations of local musicians.
TO: All News Media
FOR: Immediate Release 6/8/05
Contact: June Kfoury McNeil
SECOND SEASON OF THE BOSTONIANS' ART OF SONG SERIES
The Bostonians (The Bostonian Opera and Concert Ensemble) will present three concerts in their second Art of Song Series at Killian Hall in the MIT Hayden Library, at 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27 at 7:30 Clara Sandler, Soprano William Merrill, Pianist Sabrina Avilès, Spanish dancer MUSIC of SPAIN Turina, DeFalla, Halffter, Granados, and Obradors
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10 at 7:30 Philip Lima, Baritone Beverly Orlove, Pianist SCHUBERT DIE WINTERREISE
SATURDAY, September 17 at 7:30 Richard Conrad, Baritone GALA 70th BIRTHDAY CONCERT (to benefit The Bostonians) String ensemble William Merrill, Pianist Janet Hood, Composer-Pianist Music of Pinkham, Sullivan, Hood, Coward, and Vaughan Williams
Tickets for each concert are $25; Seniors and students $20; and can be reserved on line at www.thebostonians.org
TO: All News Media
FOR: Immediate Release
Richard Conrad's THE BOSTONIANS aka The Boston Opera and Concert Ensemble, will inaugurate a continuing series of vocal recitals entitled "The Art Of Song " on Tuesday evening, August 24th at 7:30 at MIT's Killian Hall. Featured artists are Philip Lima, baritone, and William Merrill, pianist, who will perform Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Brazilian songs, and works by Copeland & Donizetti.
On Friday, September 17th at 7:30, BOCE's Artistic Director, Richard Conrad, will sing songs of Rossini & Donizetti with pianist, William Merrill as well as with French Hornist, Kenneth Pope, who will perform two extended songs of Donizetti with Mr. Conrad and Rossini's Prelude, Theme and Variations.
Once an important part of the concert scene, the song recital, or Liederabend, has experienced a sad decline in the U.S., although it remains a greatly loved genre in Europe and Britain. During the 20th century Boston could boast of twenty to thirty major recitals a year, performed by world class artists. The great Irish tenor, John McCormack, gave eleven Symphony Hall song recitals in one season! In The Art of Song series, The Bostonians will explore this vast repertory, featuring beloved, familiar songs along with lesser known masterpieces.
Tickets are $25; $18 for Seniors and Students. To place orders, please call 617-242-4015 or visit our website at www.thebostonians.org where you can charge your ticket order with Visa or MasterCard.
By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff, 12/23/2003
Gian-Carlo Menotti's ''Amahl and the Night Visitors'' was the first opera written for the brand-new mass medium of television. On Christmas Eve 1951, the work became an instant classic: That first ''Amahl'' was seen by more people than many operas with a century of international performance history. It remains a great seasonal favorite (though fully professional productions are now rare), and the annual royalties have probably paid for the composer's castle in Scotland.
Richard Conrad, artistic director of the Bostonians, would like to see ''Amahl'' join the other local Christmas attractions of long standing, so he chose it for the first operatic production of the new company, which has carried over many of the performers from the former Boston Academy of Music. The venue (First and Second Church in the Back Bay) was small, and the pretty set (designed by Laura McPhearson) was modest, but the musical standard was high, and Conrad's staging was skillful, so there was hardly a dry eye in the house by the end of Menotti's little fable about the disabled shepherd boy who encounters three kings following a star. When he offers his crutch to the Christ child, there is a miracle, and he walks and even dances.
The music is evocative, tuneful, and charming, and there is genuine emotion when Amahl's mother sings of her love for her child and of the desperation of poverty. D'Anna Fortunato sang and acted the role with passion, sympathy, and lustrous tone. (Having broken her ankle in a fall on ice, she was on crutches, too -- not a directorial gimmick, Conrad said.)
Christopher Feth, a 10-year-old soprano from the South Shore, was outstanding as Amahl, singing with musical confidence and an utterly natural way of enunciating words; he made himself at home on the stage. The Three Kings, sumptuously costumed by Denise Ambruson, made a lively and sonorous trio -- tenor Craig Hanson, baritone Philip Lima, and bass David Cushing. Ambruson doubled as choreographer, and there was charming dancing by young Brittany and Krysta Ambruson and ultimately most of the chorus of shepherds (which included Conrad and the company's reigning diva, Ellen Chickering). The Boston Chamber Orchestra played beautifully for conductor Brenda Lynne Leach, who kept the show moving and didn't dawdle over the sentimental passages.
After intermission there was a grand celebration of traditional Christmas carols, with an all-star chorus and solos by company principals new and old, accompanied by Leach at the organ and Beverly Orlove on piano. Primo tenore Ray Bauwens glowed on top in ''O Holy Night'' and Chickering nailed a tricky pianissimo in every verse of ''I Wonder as I Wander.'' Stanislav Albonov displayed a Slavic bass of promise, and Bryan MacNeil was fervent in ''The Birthday of a King.'' Lima brought down the house with his lively and soulful spiritual, ''Sister Mary Had-a But One Child,'' and Conrad sang a lovely carol by Joaquin Nin, full of Spanish cantillation that he delivered with the bel canto fluency of his youth. The evening concluded with a rousing ''Hallelujah'' Chorus, and this debut event took a proud place in the company of the best the season has to offer.
This story ran on page D14 of the Boston Globe on 12/23/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
Published on September 24, 2003
Author(s): Richard Dyer, Boston Globe Staff
Richard Conrad told a story about Elizabeth Schwatzkopf Saturday afternoon. The celebrated German diva once told him, "I have no jewels, but I have an orchestra" after her husband, Walter Legge, put all his money into creating London's Philharmonia Orchestra. Conrad used the story to describe his own current situation. "I have no money," he said, "but I have these artists."
Singers from the old Boston Academy of Music, which jettisoned founding father Conrad a year ago, remain loyal to him and have created a new institution for him, The Bostonians. The group made its bow with the kind of concert the Boston Academy used to put on back in the days before money appeared: a piano-accompanied marathon of arias and ensembles from all the operas of a great composer - in Saturday's instance, Wagner. Also, members of the old Boston Academy orchestra volunteered a performance of the "Siegfried Idyll."
The last third of the six-hour program brought some unusual repertoire and some splendid singing. A long sequence from "Tannhaeuser" featured a rapt "Elizabeth's Prayer" by soprano Jane Leikin and an eloquent "Song to the Evening Star" by baritone Philip Lima, who has made a quantum leap forward since we last heard him. There was also a first-rate ensemble of men's voices for the "Pilgrim's Chorus."
Soprano Bonnie Scarpelli and tenor Mark Nemeskal didn't look swept away by passion in an episode from Act I of "Die Walkuere," but they sounded that way in a soaringly idiomatic performance. Marion Dry delivered Waltraute's narrative from "Die Goetterdaemmerung" with dark-toned urgency. Conrad contributed a meaningful performance of Amforta's prayer from "Parsifal," and younger singers Laura Bewig Chritton, Maryann Mootos, and Daniel Lockwood offered lively performances of rarely heard music from Wagner's youthful operatic version of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," "Das Liebesverbot."
Gale Fuller's delivery of Fricka's harangue from "Die Walkuere" would be at home on any international stage; she was magnificent in tone, intent, and presence. And then company diva Ellen Chickering brought down the house (not to mention the universe) with the "Immolation Scene" from "Die Goetterdaemmerung," singing with great dignity and flinging out top notes with fearless command.
There was able accompaniment from pianists Beverly Orlove, Christopher Dwyer, and William Merrill, who sounded like a whole orchestra in the "Tannhaeuser" scene. One left inspired, and a little melancholy; Opera faces many challenges in Boston, but lack of resident talent is not one of them.
Handel and Haydn’s Monteverdi,
The Bostonians’ Wagner
BY JEFFREY GANTZ, The Boston Phoenix, 9/26/2003-10/02/2003
SATURDAY AT THE FIRST AND SECOND CHURCH, after a heroic Siegfried fanfare from French-horn player John Aubrey, Richard Conrad introduced the debut of the Bostonians by noting that his idea of a Wagner marathon had been called "either an oxymoron or a redundancy." I’d have called it a bargain: some six hours (including two half-hour intermissions) of prime Wagner singing and playing, up close and personal, for $30. Conrad set the tone for the afternoon with "Blick’ ich umher," in which Wolfram von Eschenbach addresses the company in the hall of the minstrels, singing, "I look about at this noble gathering, whose lofty appearance warms my heart." It was a tribute both to the 75 audience members and to those 45 of Conrad’s friends who were about to make the First and Second Church a Boston hall of minstrels. And the sentiment was upheld in his performance, which was warm and noble and delivered from memory.
The other highlight of the first three hours (after which I had to leave, with extreme reluctance) was "Weiche, Wotan, weiche," in which Erda tells Wotan to give back the ring; also singing from memory, Marion Dry was so natural, so earnest, and so commanding that I wanted to plop George W. down in front of her (not that it would have done any good). The worst that could be said for the rest was that Thomas Hojnacki’s uncertain piano accompaniment took the zing out of the Walküre chorus "Hejotoho" and that sopranos Jenny Lind Robinson and, to a lesser degree, Andrea Matthews were reduced to shrieking by their arias from Die Feen. But the eight Valkyries — Ellen Chickering, Margaret O’Keefe, Bonnie Scarpelli, Gale Fuller, Marion Dry, Laurie Lemley, Laura Bewig Chritton, and Jenny Lind Robinson — ranged across the stage were a visual and vocal feast; and as Conrad reminded me at intermission, those arias — "they’re killers" — are one of the reasons the early Die Feen didn’t premiere till 1888, after Wagner’s death.
There was animated, characterful singing all around: Susan Forrester and Wayne Rivera in Rienzi; Rivera, Margaret O’Keefe, and David Cushing in Der fliegende Holländer; Mark Morgan, Andrea Matthews, Bryan MacNeil, Mark Nemeskal, Craig Hanson, and Laurie Lemley in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. There was exemplary accompaniment from Beverly Orlove, Michael Budewitz, and William Merrill. There were witty introductions, like Rivera’s explanation that the Steuermann’s aria "is usually accompanied by a chorus, but they’re still on vacation in Norway, so the tenor gets a workout." Conrad still knows how to put on a show; this one should whet appetites for his production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in December.
Published on September 20, 2003
Author(s): Dalia Geffen, Stylus
The newly formed Bostonian Opera and Concert Ensemble (the Bostonians for short), with founder and artistic director Richard Conrad at its helm (see the interview), presented a rare musical event of excerpts from Wagner’s entire operatic oeuvre plus two of his piano pieces. Wagnerian music making of this caliber has rarely been heard in Boston (if at all). From the first thrilling notes of the trumpet (the Siegfried fanfare) to the last mournful cadences of Götterdämmerung, this ensemble of twenty-three singers and fourteen instrumentalists surpassed all expectations. Most of the singers, who donated their time and effort to this six-hour fundraiser, are eminently worthy of being on the Met stage or at Bayreuth.
Bonnie Scarpelli’s Siegliende was astonishingly good, among the best I have ever heard on any stage or recording. The contralto Marion Dry sang both Erda and Waltraute (an indication of her wide range) with excellent musicianship and a commanding stage presence. In Lohengrin’s “Das süsse Lied verhallt,” one of this opera’s high points, Alan Schneider equaled the golden-age Heldentenor Franz Völker. With a little more softness and subtlety, he should soon surpass him. His partner, Jane Leikin, was a delightful Elsa, sweet and poignant, and in the end crestfallen, as befits the role (her Elisabeth was equally delicate). David Cushing, who sang the Holländer with great care, is a bass-baritone to watch. His big, sonorous voice might prepare him for Wotan some day. Philip Lima’s Wotan was too low for this velvety baritone, but he had the perfect timbre for Wolfram; his “Abendstern” (Tannhäuser) seemed somewhat affected, but his musicianship was never in question. Andrea Matthews, who sang Ada in Die Feen, is endowed with a true Wagnerian voice. This dramatic soprano glides from a gorgeously produced, tender pianissimo to the most passionate note with great ease. In “Mein Arindal,” she was enchanting as she swooped over the notes with her accurate and well-supported modulation. Her true fach may well be the Wagnerian repertoire.
During the “Ride of the Valkyries,” the ensemble of eight women filled the hall with joyous voices (to the accompaniment of Thomas Hojnacki’s able piano) that thrilled the audience. The quintet in Act 3 of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was magical. The two violinists in the Siegfried Idyll (Hilary Foster and Heidi Braun-Hill) were outstanding, and although the conducting by Dirk Hillyer needed a small infusion of energy, the sounds he elicited from the players was terrific.
Given the dearth of good Wagnerian singers on the world’s stages, this outstanding undertaking proves that a fully staged Wagnerian production in Boston is well within the realm of possibility. -Dalia Geffen
Published on May 30, 2003
Author(s): Richard Dyer, Boston Globe Staff
Baritone Richard Conrad and former members of the Boston Academy of Music have created a new organization called the Boston Concert & Opera Ensemble, or "Richard Conrad's The Bostonians," which will make its bow in September with a Wagner marathon featuring selections from all of Wagner's operas in chronological order, presented with piano accompaniment.
Conrad, founder of the Boston Academy of Music, was ousted as artistic director by the board last summer; that group has sinced changed its name to Opera Boston. One-third of the former Boston Academy board left with Conrad, as did the singers who regularly appeared with the company.
According to Conrad, "All of us had a meeting last January to investigate the possibility of doing something else together. It was not a question of 'if,' only of 'when.'"
Among the singers signed on for the first Bostonians season are sopranos Ellen Chickering and Andrea Matthews, mezzo-sopranos Gale Fuller and D'Anna Fortunato; tenors Ray Bauwens, Mark Nemeskal, and Alan Schneider; and baritones David Murray, David Stoneman, and Keith Jurosko.
Repertoire plans for the first few seasons parallel some of the agenda of the old Boston Academy -- Gilbert & Sullivan ("The Mikado and "Yeoman of the Guard") and lesser-known operas by major composers (Mozart's "Idomeneo" and "La Finta Giardiniera"). The group also plans to explore classic but unfamiliar American musical theatre, including DeKoven's "Robin Hood," Sousa's "El Capitan," Victor Herbert's "Eileen," Kurt Weill's "Street Scene" and "Knickerbocker Holiday," as well as a popular hit such as "The Fantasticks" and Noel Coward's "Conversation Piece" from England.
"We started out the Boston Academy on a very modest budget, and that's what we will need to do now," Conrad says. "I would love to do great big, wonderful, fully staged operas, but we have to start with what we know we can do; this repertory for the early seasons uses limited orchestras, for example -- not that there is anything limited about these pieces."
A brochure will appear this summer; information is available by calling 617-242-4015. A website is under construction at www.thebostonians.org.
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