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The High And Low Notes Of Politics And RomanceIt must be fun for the bass Samuel Ramey, whose specialties in the opera house are devils and villains, to imitate barnyard animals in a lighthearted work like “I Bought Me a Cat.” Hiroyuki Ito for The New York TimesSamuel Ramey and Ellie Dehn at a recital on Sunday. He certainly seemed to enjoy performing that piece, from Copland’s “Old American Songs,” and his charming rendition had the audience chuckling during the recital he gave with the young soprano Ellie Dehn at the Morgan Library & Museum’s Gilder Lehrman Hall on Sunday. The concert was part of a series, founded in 1995 by the George London Foundation for Singers, that pairs veteran artists with emerging ones. The able pianist Warren Jones accompanied both Mr. Ramey and Ms. Dehn with sensitivity and flair. Mr. Ramey also sang Copland’s “Dodger” (first reminding the audience that this satirical song about a political candidate is still relevant today as next year’s presidential election approaches) and “At the River,” in which there was a worrying wobble. He was in his habitual devil mode for much of the evening, with “Vous qui faites l’endormie” from Gounod’s “Faust,” “Ecco il mondo” from Boito’s “Mefistofele” and “Devant la maison” from Berlioz’s “Damnation of Faust,” all sung with the dramatic flair he has honed over the years. If his voice occasionally showed a little wear and tear, the soprano of Ms. Dehn, a 2007 George London award winner, sounded in radiant bloom. She ably wielded her appealingly warm, agile voice in a passionate rendition of “Amour, ranime mon courage” from Gounod’s “Roméo and Juliette.” Ms. Dehn sounded marginally more hesitant in Mozart’s “Exsultate, Jubilate” (the only work for which she used the score), although she sang with good dynamic control and expressive phrasing. She also sang three excerpts from Strauss’s “Brentano Lieder” with heartfelt conviction. An opera singer’s voice can hit the listener like a musical tornado in a room as small as the Morgan Library’s hall, and in its upper register Ms. Dehn’s soprano occasionally threatened to overwhelm the intimate space. Mr. Ramey was better able to tailor his stentorian voice down a size. The recital concluded with a flirtatious rendition of “People Will Say We’re in Love” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” and, as an encore, “La ci darem la mano” from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” “Imagine a very geriatric Don Giovanni,” Mr. Ramey said before turning on his charm as the devilish Don to woo Ms. Dehn, a lovely Zerlina. The recital series continues, with Michelle DeYoung and Bryan Hymel, on March 20 at the Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street; (212) 956-2809, georgelondon.org Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationPete Kleinow, 72, Guitarist for Flying Burrito Brothers, Dies...Music: At Home Again in the Unknown... Music Review | American Composers Orchestra : Hybrid Doesn?t Always Mean Synthes... Music Review | Juilliard String Quartet and Emerson String Quartet : Young Strin... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - The High And Low Notes Of Politics And Romance |
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