Miami Summer Music Festival: Pt 2

For the second half of its second season, the Miami Summer Music Festival presented two more operas at the Shepard & Ruth K. Broad Performing Arts Center at Barry University.

On July 30 and August 1, Jules Massenet's opera "Cendrillon" (aka "Cinderella") was the offering. The opening night performance was beautifully sung.

Mezzo-soprano Chelsea DeLorenz was initially planned to be the cover for the role, but at the last minute due to the illness of the originally slated performer, she had to step into the title role. She pulled it off without a hitch and treated the audience to some of the finest singing in the entire festival. Her velvety voice was a delight from the top to the bottom of its range. She gave a star performance in a star role.

Mezzo-soprano Louisa Waycott gave a delightfully comic performance as Madame de la Halti�re, the selfish stepmother. Waycott has the comic timing down nicely and this young singer shows the promise of developing into a fine singing actress.

Soprano Sarah Saturnino gave a charming performance as the Prince. Massenet wrote this role for the "Soprano Falcon" which requires a singer of extensive range and a strong lower register coupled with a darker than usual tone. Saturnino's lovely voice overcame her less than flattering costume and won the audience's hearts.

Coloratura soprano Jana McIntyre gave a fine performance as the Fairy Godmother and baritone Matthew Maisano was pleasing as the bumbling father.

The orchestra was expertly conducted by Grzegorz Novak and musically it was a near perfect performance.

The final opera of the season, Mozart's "Don Giovanni," was less successful. The initial performance on July 31 featured some fine singing, but it also suffered from some not-so-fine singing and a poorly guided directorial concept.

Soprano Betsy Diaz, long a favorite with Miami audiences, gave a fine performance as Donna Anna even though the role is not completely suited to her massive dramatic soprano voice. The lighter coloratura sections of her "Non mi dir" aria in Act Two were not as delicate as they could have been but the rest of her performance was stellar.

Tenor Todd Barnhill sang the role of Don Ottavio and he was one of the best singers on stage. Barnhill has a beautiful lyric tenor voice and dashing good looks. His rendition of "Il mio Tesoro" was beautifully done and his "Dalla sua pace" was lyrical and lovely.

Miami soprano Rebecca Henriques gave a fine performance as Zerlina. Henriques is a former Florida Grand Opera Young Artist as well as a participant in last year's music festival.

Bass Baritone Roberto Lopez-Trigo was charming as the cuckolded Masetto and Soprano Allison Lonstein gave a nice performance as Donna Elvira.

Baritone Clayton Matthews was less successful in his portrayal of Don Giovanni. Matthews' voice, while full of power, lacks the beauty and lyrical quality required for the role. His characterization came off more as thug than smooth Don Juan.

Baritone Jacob Kato was often inaudible as Leporello and had the unfortunate luck to be constantly dropping his props. If the butterfingers act was an intentional part of the blocking, it didn't come off that way.

The biggest misstep with this production was made by director Jeffrey Buchman. The choice was made to set the opera in modern times, which could certainly work, but in this case did not. The shower scene with Don Giovanni was something that should never have been envisioned and the moment in Act Two where the cast began to "Vogue" and "Macarena" to Mozart screamed "High School Musical."

Conductor Michael Rossi, valiantly maneuvered the cast and orchestra through the intricacies of Mozart's music. Unfortunately his beautiful and insightful conducting could not mitigate the almost laughable stage direction.

The sets and projections for both productions, as well as the previous two, were designed by Yee Eun Nam and Yuki Izumihara. While the minimal scenery with projections worked well for the initial two operas in the festival, by offerings three and four, the concept no longer seemed novel or effective.

The weakest design point was Camilla Haith's costumes for "Cendrillon." In this opera, they were a mish-mash of styles and eras -- everything from Rococo to Jersey shore -- and the overall design just didn't work. Her costumes for "Don Giovanni" were more successful and cohesive.

Over all, the Miami Summer Music Festival was a resounding success and brought more than 200 of the world's up-and-coming young musicians to the Miami area for the second year in a row. Next year's festival is already in the works and as Festival Director and Conductor Mike Rossi has proven, it is a worthy recipient of any combination of your volunteer time, your charitable contributions or just your time and the price of admission.

The Miami Summer Music Festival ran through July 29 at Shepard & Ruth K. Broad Performing Arts Center, 11300 NE 2nd Ave, Miami Shores, FL 33161. For information about the 2016 Miami Summer Music Festival, call 305-899-3100 or visit miamisummermusicfestival.com.