Albany Symphony Orchestra's ‘Night of Italian Opera’ a pleasant performance

ALBANY — It bodes well for the arts when a symphony orchestra concert is also a major community social event.

Thus it was at the Palace Theatre on a very rainy Saturday night when the Albany Symphony Orchestra performed “A Night of Italian Opera.”

The early curtain time of 6:30 p.m. was set to allow for “Happy Birthday Puccini” gala festivities, which followed the concert at the New York State Museum.

With David Alan Miller conducting, the program included music by Rossini, Puccini, Verdi, Giordano, Cilea, Leoncavallo, Mascagni and Menotti. The maestro explained to the audience that the program tended to lean towards “verismo” opera, meaning operas that deal with the lives of real people rather than gods and legends.

The soloists were soprano Emily Pulley, mezzo-soprano Victoria Livengood, tenor Allan Glassman and baritone Kelly Anderson.

The orchestra started things off nicely with a tidy, nicely paced performance of Rossini’s Overture to “The Barber of Seville.”

Then each of the singers gave good opening accounts of themselves in solo spots.

Pulley started things off vocally with a lovely rendition of “O mio babbino caro” from Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.”

Anderson followed with a lesser-known aria, “Nemico della Patria” from Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier.” The baritone has a sturdy voice of pleasant quality, but there is a stiffness about his delivery that detracted from his performance here as well as duets later in the show.

Livengood was outstanding in her rendition of “Acerba volutta” from Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur,” a worrisome aria filled with expectations and disappointments that were successfully conveyed.

Glassman doesn’t have a really big tenor voice, but he uses it well and it was his good fortune to have three of the best-known arias on the program — “Vesti la giubba” from Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” in the first half and, after intermission, “E lucevan le stelle” from Puccini’s “Tosca” and “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot.” He gave all three the passion they deserve.

SCARY ARIA

The high point of the first half of the concert, and the entire show, for that matter, was Livengood’s spellbinding performance of “Afraid,” a scary aria if there ever was one, from Menotti’s ghostly opera, “The Medium.” Besides having a rich and powerful mezzo voice, Livengood is also an actress with great dramatic presence, and like an enchantress, she sent chills out over the audience with her voice and menacing demeanor.

la boheme

Other highlights were the last scene of Act I from Puccini’s “La Boheme” featuring Glassman and Pulley as the ill-fated lovers and the “Flower Duet” from “Madame Butterfly” with Pulley and Livengood as Butterfly and Suzuki.

Glassman and Anderson also joined forces successfully to sing the tenor/baritone duet “Si per ciel marmoreo giuro,” from Verdi’s “Otello.”