Aikin’s stage presence matches her voice
Published: July 26, 2009, 12:30 am
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Soprano Laura Aikin has starred at the Metropolitan Opera and on other great opera stages, but Saturday marked her debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert featured her singing a variety of arias with the orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, all led by BPO Music Director JoAnn Falletta.
It was clear right away what makes Aikin world class.
She has been in town before, but for song recitals. Hear her singing even a piece of an opera, and you can see what the Met sees in her. Aikin gets into character before she even begins to sing. She creates her own dramatic world. And her voice!
Her first aria, the florid and popular “Una Voce Poco Fa” from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” saw her happy, youthful and scheming, in a green and gold gown that seemed right out of Gustav Klimt. She tossed off the aria’s demanding lines easily and charmingly. It is hard to carry off these vocal hijinks and harder still to do it with humor.
The orchestra followed that with the rapturous Intermezzo from Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut,” with a silken solo by principal cellist Roman Mekinulov. And then Aikin was back, with the big hit “O Mio Babbino Caro.”
Here is where her artistry really clicked with me. We have all heard this thing a thousand times, but Aikin won you over. She took it slow and she poured herself into it. And it’s funny, though she is known for her high coloratura — this is a woman who has sung the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” — her voice has an uncommon depth, and her singing in the lower registers is rich and lovely. She negotiated the aria’s treacherous leaps with poetry, pulling the high notes softly out of the air, varying her interpretation.
In other words, she sold it. She made you believe in it.
She did that, too, in the Mad Scene from Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.” This bel canto creation would not normally be to everyone’s taste, but Aikin — now in a gossamer white gown — sang it with gripping conviction.
At intermission, even opera newbies were gasping about her interaction with the flute, played in this case by Natalie Debikey. The aria is set up so a flute answers the voice, and at the end, the two are together, negotiating a series of intricate lines. They almost became one instrument. The effect was mesmerizing.
Aikin did a hilarious, adept job with “Les Oiseaux dans la Charmille,” the song sung by the mechanical doll in Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffman.” She does not take herself too seriously, and so skipped out in a red baby-doll dress, with a purse that she handed to Falletta.
Mid-aria, the singer slowed down and slumped forward. Falletta opened the purse. The conductor took out a big key and handed it to concertmaster Michael Ludwig, who wound Aikin up again. Revived, she sang faster, pulling ahead of the orchestra. This was fine comedy, finessed extremely well.
Concert Review
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra With Laura Aikin on Saturday night at Artpark.
mkunz@buffnews.com
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