Program Two of the Cabrillo College Distinguished Artists and Concert Lecture Series features two of the school’s long-time and well-loved vocal teachers, fine performers in their own right. The event was held in the Theater on Saturday, October 9, and provided our appreciative audience with an extremely varied and interesting program that displayed the talents of Kathryn Adkins, soprano, and Michelle Rivard, mezzo. Before the program began, Program Director John Orlando paid special tribute to Rivard, who is Performing Arts Director and currently Acting Chair of the whole Arts Department, to acknowledge her hard work in helping to put through the forthcoming Performing Arts Center, to be completed in a few years.
This recital was particularly interesting to myself, as Adkins was my beginning vocal instructor exactly ten years ago when I was in my late 50’s, and Rivard the teacher in a follow-up intermediate/advanced class a few semesters later. Our program began with a duet, accompanied by Melissa Lin on piano, Henry Purcell’s late 17 th century “Sound the Trumpet”, a piece made famous by the English counter-tenor Alfred Deller in the mid-20 th century. The women’s voices blended well, Adkins with a higher, lighter tone and Rivard with a lower, fuller sound.
Following this, Adkins, accompanied by her husband Don, life partner and longtime Cabrillo instructor, performed the varied “Hermit Songs, Op. 29” of the famous American composer Samuel Barber (1920-81), most of these with religious themes. Then Rivard followed with “Three Spanish Lullabyes and a Love Song”, “Nana” by de Falla (1876-1946), “Arroyo” by Ginastera (1916-83), “Cancion de Cuna para Dormir a un Negrito” by Montsalvatje (1882-1948). After the final “Estrellita” by Manuel Poncé, one obviously Hispanic audience member let out shouts of “Bravo!” for this moving rendition.
Then both women performed the intensely religious “I Waited for the Lord” by Mendelssohn (1809-47), a heartfelt work from this great master who was born into a Jewish family but composed Christian music. A big contrast were “Three Cabaret Songs” by the contemporary American William Bolcom (b. 1928), as done by Rivard accompanied by Lin.
At intermission, anyone in the audience who had not been a student of these singers or had not heard them perform would have gotten the impression already that Adkins expresses herself in more traditional songs, and in a low-key fashion, while Rivard (who has made a point of learning each and every vocal style under the sun) goes more for the bigger, showier numbers. In this way the two women complement each other, as they do (separately) in the classroom. Adkins is great teaching the basics, such as how to breathe and project the voice, which Rivard continues to develop while adding for emphasis the trouper’s saying “The show must go on!” meaning no matter what mistakes you think you’ve made, ignore them as the audience doesn’t know.
To begin the second half we were back around 1700 again with Vivaldi’s “Laudamus te” from his “Gloria” a Latin mass, sung as a duet accompanied by Lin. Adkins followed with “Three Lieder” by Hugo Wolf (1860-1903), who continued the art songs of such as Schubert, Schumann and Brahms. These were exquisitely rendered in German, very sincere and touching in a clear diction.
Rivard followed with an extremely emotional “Adieu, forets” from “Joan of Arc” by Tchaikowsky (1840-1893) done in French by this romantic Russian composer, and delivers with great pathos by the singer. Adkins followed with “Three Contemporary Songs” with a folksy-country-religious style, “Two Songs for Julie Ju” by Noel De Costa (b. 1929) and “Brother Will, Brother John” by John P. Sacco (b. 1905).
The next set, done by Rivard and entitled “Three Jazz Tunes” by famous Americans, was unusual both in that she was accompanied by William Golub on guitar and that this partner, a last-minute replacement, fitted in so well that we could have sworn he was a fellow faculty member. In fact, he had been a student at the college years ago. “'S Wonderful” by George and Ira Gershwin in 1927 is an old favorite, as is the Rodgers/Hart “My Romance” of 1935. “Stop Sittin’ ‘Round Singing the Blues” by Mona Dena from 1989 is a brassy, exhortation to enjoy life, the polar opposite of this style’s other theme of self-pity and despair, and Rivard pulled this off with great gusto.
The grand finale duet was a hilarious and energetic “I Love a Piano”, with Don Adkins at the keyboard and the two woman raving over Steinways, Irving Berlin’s (1888-1989) great tribute to this instrument, at which so many composers have labored to create their works since early in the 19 th century, and which became a key feature of many 20 th century American cabaret and musical drama scenes on stage and in the movies. The audience was tremendously enthusiastic after this rollicking theatrical display.
For their encore, the duo did the famous “Evening Prayer” by the real Engelbert Humperdinck in his opera, with Rivard as “Hansel” and Adkins as “Gretel”, capturing the mood of the two children lost in the woods as night is falling. This quiet tribute was a perfect end to a great evening of fine music in many styles and languages by these talented singers and performers. Kathryn Adkins and Michelle Rivard – Vocal Virtuosos indeed!
11-2004