The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Barry Plaxen

SOUTH FALLSBURG, NY (May 15, 2012) – “Chamber Music at St. Andrew’s” is an ongoing concert series that presents two concerts each year at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in South Fallsburg. The series is made possible in part with funds from  the 2012 Decentralization Program, a re-grant program of the NYS Council on the Arts, administered by the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, thought the Town of Fallsburg. For 2012, series producer Peggy Friedman is deviating from her usual offerings of chamber music. First, the Bronx Opera was presented on April 21. It is to be followed on October 20 with the Charles Mingus Jazz Quartet.

The Bronx Opera was once a frequent visitor to Sullivan County with numerous dinner-concerts held in Parksville at the former Dead End Café. Today, the company still visits Sullivan and performs a few times each year at Frost Valley in Claryville.

For those in the full-house audience that used to attend the Dead End concerts, this 2012 offering was much like a you-can-go-home-again concert. There were many things that created nostalgic responses from some in the audience: the guest-star presence of former Dead End café co-owner bass, Tom Caltabellotta (photo left); the informative, interesting and always humorous narration by Bronx Opera Artistic Director Michael Spierman; and the familiar faces and vocal chords of mezzo Leslie Swanson and baritone Benjamin Spierman. In a beautiful and moving way, it was also the Bronx Opera company’s “public goodbye and thank-you” to Michele Caltabellotta who co-hosted the company’s popular Dead-End concerts which ended a few years before her passing in August 2011.

Those in attendance who had not been to the Dead End concerts were treated to all the above and the “camaradic” feeling in the audience, in addition to witnessing sopranos Elizabeth Honer, Elizabeth Perryman, Hannah Rosenbaum and, a familiar face to Sullivan and Orange opera audiences, and now Bronx audiences, baritone Jeremy J. Moore (photo right). The six Bronx Opera singers and Caltabellotta offered, according to the program, a “potpourri of opera favorites and surprises.”

I guess surprises meant “unknown,” as there was a lovely duet from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ esoteric opera “The Poisoned Kiss,” in addition to favorites from “The Magic Flute” and “La Traviata,” among others. Operetta was well represented by “Waltz from The Merry Widow,” and the Great White Way was there, too, with songs from “South Pacific,” “My Fair Lady,” “Call Me Madam,” “West Side Story,” “Man of La Mancha” and “Annie.” The excellent company of singers performed with the proper infusions of joy, sadness, humor and satire, and, along with Michael Spierman’s narrations, kept the audience well entertained throughout. It was a lovely reminiscent evening with two additional perks. Maybe they were the surprises?

Garnering much accolades from the singers and from director Spierman (photo above left), keyboardist Cory Battey was more than just your usual accompanist. With his skillful playing (and a dash of charisma), he was truly part and parcel of the concert, not just a necessary addition. I think, perhaps, thanks to the singers and Battey, much of the well-known music seemed fresh and spontaneous. There was great rapport between the company and Battey, and it was a joy to witness and receive their energy exchanges.

Or perhaps the surprise was Leslie Swanson’s (photo right) moving offering of “Addio del Passato” from “La Traviata.” Instead of it being performed as an opera solo, with the addition of oboist Gerard Reuter (of the Dorian Wind Quintet) (photo left) it became an art-song trio with Battey participating on keyboard – in a way, like Schubert’s song for soprano, clarinet and piano, “Shepherd on the Rock.” And, as I have always said in past chamber music reviews, Reuter is a world class oboist with impeccable phrasing, and his superb playing was perfection – just what the Doctor (Giuseppe Verdi) prescribed to embellish the pathos of the aria.

Not a surprise was Caltabellotta’s singing his favorite Tosti songs, but a pleasant surprise was Benjamin Spierman’s (photo right) including (not arguably???) the finest American Art Song of the 20^th Century, bar none – mathematician Tom Lehrer’s “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.”

Not a surprise, as it was listed in the program – producer Friedman was clever enough to include two movements from Alessandro Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in d, which was exquisitely played by Reuter and – here is a surprise – wonderfully accompanied by Battey on electronic keyboard with, I assume, his harpsichord “stop.” If not a duet, almost one. And much appreciated by a very, very enthusiastic audience.

It was a delightfully varied concert and Chamber Music at St. Andrews continues to be one of the County’s sparkling, musical gems.

The Bronx Opera performs in the (surprise!) Bronx, and in Manhattan. Info for the season can be found on http://www.BronxOpera.org.