January 13, 15, 2020 - Park Avenue Armory Recital Series
Board of Officers Room, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY, USA
January 17, 2020 - Vocal Arts DC
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington DC, USA) DC debut
Rosa Feola, Soprano
Iain Burnside, Piano
Martucci: Tre Pezzi, Op. 84
1. Maggiolata
2. Pianto antico
3. Nevicata
Respighi: Quattrorispetti toscani, P. 103
1. Quando nesceste voi
2. Venitelo a vedere 'l mi' piccino
3. Viene di là, lontan lontano
4. Razzolan, sopra l'aja, le galline
Rossini: La regata veneziana
1. Anzoleta avanti la regata
2. Anzoleta co passa la regata
3. Anzoleta dopo la regata
(intermission)
Ponchielli: Sonetto di Dante: "Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare"
Liszt: Tre Sonetti di Petrarca, S. 270
1. Pace non trovo
2. Benedetto sia 'l giorno
3. I' vidi in terra angelici costumi
Puccini: "Signore, ascolta!" (Turandot) [encore]
Reviews:
“Ms. Feola […] presented herself as the exponent of a rich national heritage. Joined by the elegant pianist Iain Burnside, she gave splendid renditions of seldom-heard Italian songs by Giuseppe Martucci, Respighi and Rossini. Even Liszt’s “Tre Sonetti del Petrarca” — to the texts of three sonnets by Petrarch — seemed essentially Italian in this company, less like songs than like dramatic scenes, with urgent recitative and aria-like episodes.
Ms. Feola’s artistry is grounded in the bel canto style that has been a hallmark of her country’s vocalism for centuries. Her sound was warm and full without any sense of effort and, even throughout its range, with ornaments emerging as natural extensions of the line. These qualities […] came through with wonderful immediacy in the intimate Board of Officers Room at the Armory.
She naturally combined tonal richness with clear delivery of the texts. The Italian language, in which words flow together, is made to order for vocal music. Ms. Feola sang with glowing lyricism, while bringing nuances of the texts to life.
Martucci […] Ms. Feola sang his “Tre Pezzi,” […] “Nevicata” […] a searching vocal line unfolds, sung here by Ms. Feola with subdued intensity.
There are surface charms galore in Respighi’s four “rispetti” (traditional Tuscan songs). But Ms. Feola and Mr. Burnside also brought out melancholic depths and intricacies in the music.
Rossini’s wonderful “La Regata Veneziana” […] The middle song, in which muscular rowing is conveyed through rippling piano passages and breathless vocal lines, was especially captivating here.
[…] As an encore, Ms. Feola sang a poignant account of “Signore, ascolta,” Liù’s aria from Puccini’s “Turandot.” As in her performances of the songs, she made every word matter — true to the Italian heritage she exemplifies so beautifully.”
Anthony Tommasini, "The New York Times"
“[…] 2020 began with a superb recital by one of today’s shining young stars whom we hear too little of in the US. Soprano Rosa Feola and her fine accompanist Iain Burnside brought an unusual and absorbing program to the Park Avenue Armory Monday evening featuring works by Martucci, Respighi, Rossini, Ponchielli and Liszt.
Many vocal recitals can be pretty predictable […] Songs in Italian rarely figure in—unless they’re by Tosti—so Feola’s provocative choices proved seductively compelling especially when performed with such persuasive specificity and gratifying vocal splendor.
[…] Feola immediately established with her first group, Martucci’s Tre Pezzi, that she’s a serious artist who brought to the concert format both a warmly appealing coppery soprano as well as detailed and savvy dramatic instincts. She fully inhabited the personae of the Martucci trio—as in the opening “Maggiolata” in which a young girl’s exaltation of spring is hauntingly tempered by troubling fears.
In the Martucci and the Quattro rispetti Toscana by Respighi that followed, Feola moved freely about the raised platform with affecting subtlety; there was no over-emphasis for an audience likely unfamiliar with the texts of the songs. […] her full, rich soprano bloomed securely from a healthy vital top to warmly enveloping middle and bottom registers. In the more familiar La regatta veneziana by Rossini, she cunningly delineated Angelina’s many moods as she observed her lover Momolo negotiate the boat race.
After the intermission Feola returned having changed from a sleek silvery dress to a more formal flowing black gown. Her demeanor too was different—during the first half, one could easily imagine this charming artist in the “-ina” type roles that dot her operatic repertoire: Adina, Norina, Lauretta, Nanetta, etc. But for the grander scale of the Liszt Tre Sonetti del Petrarca one saw her soon maturing into more “diva” roles, perhaps Massenet’s Manon or Verdi’s Violetta in a few years. Her beautifully expansive, utterly spellbinding Liszt as well as the ravishing Ponchielli “Sonetto di Dante” that preceded it demonstrated definitively that she is no lightweight soubrette but a deeply expressive artist clearly coming into her considerable own.
I was particularly impressed by her unusually intimate partnership with Burnside. I sat quite close and was able to observe a real collaboration; to reinforce the salon-like atmosphere of the delicious wood-paneled Board of Officers Room at the Armory […]
Her operatic encore, Liù’s pleading “Signore, ascolta” from Puccini’s Turandot, was unusually slow and resolute ending with a sweetly floating high note that gradually swelled to a stirringly vibrant fortissimo that only increased the sincere and hearty cheers that greeted her through the evening.”
Christopher Corwin, "parterre box"
“She is the embodiment of italianità, i.e., Italian-ness.
[…] an Italian recital done right can, of course, be a very special thing. Rosa Feola presented an Italian recital done right.
Feola sang the Martucci songs beautifully, intelligently, accurately, and enchantingly. She was “on the breath,” fully supported. […] she treated this music with great care and respect, the way one would, say, Wolf songs […] Moreover, Feola is an arresting and winning stage presence.
Feola has the gift of storytelling while singing. I had better make that clearer: She tells a story, yes, but she does not forget that she is singing. She does not forget the musical line or the essential musicality of the song. The story is within the music, if that makes sense. She does not impose the story on the music.
In my notes, I wrote something corny: “The song is within her.” Corny, but true. Songs such as these Respighi numbers emerge from her naturally.
The first half of this recital ended with a well-known set by Rossini, La regata veneziana. Feola gave each song a delicious character. She is exceptionally slinky, in her singing and even in her physicality. […] Feola […] is dancerly. She not only sang the Rossini songs, she embodied them—without overdoing it. There was never a hint of mugging.
An air of good feeling was present through the hall, or room. Every face was happy, and so was the chatter. In a singer, technique, vocal beauty, musical curiosity, and discipline are all very important. Then there is an extra ingredient, something intangible. I have frequently spoken of “adorability” as a special ingredient […] Rosa Feola has the very same, Italian division.”
Jay Nordlinger, "The New Criterion"
“[…] With the mellifluous beauty of her lyric soprano voice, so polished and balanced from top to bottom, and consummate clarity of diction, Feola brought this music vividly into the best light.
The opening three songs set the tone of reclamation: Tre pezzi by Giuseppe Martucci […] Feola treated each song as a sort of dramatic scena, elucidated with gestures, stances, and facial expressions outlining each narrator’s character.
Ottorino Respighi […] Quattro Rispetti toscani are reminiscent of folk songs and medieval poetry. The melodic simplicity could become tiresome in a lesser voice, but Feola held attention with an exquisite legato line and perfectly placed and sustained high notes, as at the end of the lullaby “Venitelo a vedere il mio piccino“ and of the lament “Viene di là, lontan lontano.” […] “Razzolan, sopra l’aja, le galline.” […] offered much-needed comic lightness, with Feola skilfully negotiating the more challenging melismatic runs representing the spirited peasant girl trying to get a shy man to talk to her.
Rossini […] La regata veneziana […] Feola again brought the narrator of the songs, Anzolata, to life with charming declamation and dramatic sensibility as she encouraged her beloved rower to win a prize in a Venetian boat race.
[…] Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Sonetto di Dante: Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare” […] A slow tempo and undulating phrasing brought out the sentimental side of the song, capped by a sighed high A, clear and without tension, at the climax.
Liszt’s Three Sonnets by Petrarch […] provided the evening’s greatest drama. Feola easily negotiated the choppy starts and stops in “Pace non trovo,” assisted by Burnside in assiduously applied freedom with the tempo. These pieces featured the top end of Feola’s vocal range, as at the ecstatic C-flat that crowns the poem at the words “ed amo altrui” (but I love another). […] that C-flat and the high B in “Benedetto sia ‘l giorno” were high points in an evening without any weak links. Underscoring the operatic nature of these art songs was the single encore, the aria “Signore, ascolta!” sung by Liù in Puccini’s Turandot. Capped by a stupendous, breath-taking crescendo on the piece’s final note, this music felt very much of a piece with the rest of the program.”
Charles T. Downey, "Washington Classical Review"
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