Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen performed a scene from HGO's fall production of Handel's "Julius Caesar" during the HGO Studio Showcase.
The annual Houston Grand Opera Studio Showcase - a program of staged scenes from a variety of different operas - usually takes place in the fall, affording us a preview of the HGO season to come. But last year, Hurricane Harvey came roaring into Houston the day before rehearsals were scheduled to begin.
So when the showcase made its belated appearance at the UH Moores Opera House over the weekend, with the season more than half over, some of the showcase scenes inevitably looked back at productions that have already come and gone. Yet, other scenes offered glimpses of future vocal development and career paths for the nine young singers of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, keeping the showcase focused resolutely forward.
One of the evening's glances back at the current season presaged a potential career path through a casting misstep. An Act 1 duet from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" featured baritone Thomas Glass and tenor Richard Trey Smagur, both singers firmly in character and having fun with the screwball comedy. Each displayed a healthy, well-produced voice, but in one case, a bit too healthy. Smagur's tenor was a couple sizes too large for the fleet bel canto nuance of Rossini's score. Both singers sounded as though they were performing "The Barber of Seville" by Giuseppe Verdi, but it seemed as though Smagur's baritone-colored, voluminous tenor, in particular, was champing at the bit to tackle something vocally weightier.
Conventional wisdom dictates that young singers hold off taking on Verdi's muscular vocal lines until somewhat later in their careers, but a program like the Studio Showcase can give them a taste without risking vocal harm. Such was the case with bass Anthony Robin Schneider's performance of "Elle ne m'aime pas" (She Doen't Love Me), Philip II's monumental lament from Act 4 of Verdi's "Don Carlo." Schneider effortlessly filled the hall with rich bass sound, here and with Thomas Glass in the thrilling duet "Suoni la tromba" from Bellini's "I Puritani." It's too soon to tell if Schneider can follow in the footsteps of such great American Verdi basses as Paul Plishka and Samuel Ramey, but Sunday's evidence surely suggests that's the repertoire he's heading toward.
Similarly, the Act 2 seduction scene from "Samson et Dalila" provided a glimpse of what's to come for mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams and tenor Yongzhao Yu. No casting director in their right mind would expect young singers to have the vocal heft to take on the title roles of Saint-Saëns' biblical opera. But this one scene safely gave audiences a tantalizing taste of Yu's stentorian, yet lyrical, Samson, his plangent voice imbued with that hard-to-define quality the Italians call "slancio." As his Dalila, the versatile Reams - also impressive in scenes from Mozart's "Idomeneo" and Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - evinced the glamorous hauteur, regal bearing and sensuous lower register of a Denyce Graves. Kudos also to HGO Studio pianist/coach Jonathan Gmeinder for skillfully evoking in his accompaniment all the vibrant colors of Saint-Saëns' orchestration.
After hearing Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen's Nirenus in HGO's fall production of Handel's "Julius Caesar," more than one operagoer could be heard wishing the young countertenor had been cast in the title role. Sunday, they got their wish, as Cohen and soprano Mané Galoyan teamed up for Caesar's final duet with Cleopatra. Cohen's commanding stage presence, gorgeous tone and musical sensitivity - at one point decrescendoing down to a limpid pianissimo that Montserrat Caballé would envy - were all on display here, as earlier in his supernaturally exotic Oberon in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." In performances with HGO, the Studio, Ars Lyrica and elsewhere about town, Cohen is having an extraordinary year.
Aside from experiencing a fully staged operatic mixed-repertoire program, the fun of attending the HGO Studio Showcase lies in speculating. The Studio has an enviable track record for minting stars. Did we just witness another operatic star in the making on Sunday? Ten years from now, will we talk about one or more of these artists, having heard them before the rest of the world knew who they were? Hang on to those programs for future reference.