Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@uc_ccm concluded its official season of opera performances in its 2023-24 academic year with an emotionally stirring and enthralling performance of Daniel Catán’s Rappaccini’s Daughter (La hija de Rappaccini). Based on a play by the Spanish writer Octavio Paz, itself based on a short story written in 1844 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the story focuses on the romance between Beatriz, a woman living in isolation among the plants of her scientist father due to a strange medical condition, and Giovanni, a young medical student from Naples.
While plotwise the opera could be a cross between a romance and a psychological drama/horror tale, Catán’s writing for solo voices and orchestra makes each element of the story engaging in its own way. An air of mystery was present throughout, as the audience was never certain whether certain characters were the hero or the villain.
The cast featured in today’s matinee performance was nothing short of spectacular. Mezzo soprano Kaylan Hernandez as Beatriz possessed a sweet-natured yet tragic air to her voice as she aspires to be with Giovanni. Tenor Tristan Tournaud as Giovanni has a voice full of dramatic heft and heart-piercing beauty, particularly in the end of act 1. Soprano Ashlyn Rock and baritone Soren Pedersen, in the smaller roles of Isabela and Rapaccini, gave beautifully shaped and strong performances. Tenor Carlos Ahrens as Baglioni possessed a debonair stage presence and sly sense of humor throughout, with a vocal timbre that called to mind the great Russian tenor Nikolai Gassiev.
Sopranos Candace Williams, Kaylyn Baldwin and Junyue Gong gave haunting turns as the three flowers, traditionally sung offstage but treated here as an integral part of the stage action as de facto lab assistants to Rappaccini in white lab coats and safety goggles.
Trevor Kroeger conducted a reduced orchestra of harp, two pianos and percussion (as arranged by the American composer Mark Robson from Catán’s original, much larger, instrumentation) which played with searing passion and impressionistic beauty, in particular the harp part played by EJ Busby and the dual piano parts played by Jie Fang Goh and Billy Miller.