Mezzo-soprano Deborah Martinez Rosengaus

UNIQUE TRIO FOR THE ROMANTIC ERA IN SONG

Healdsburg’s Opera Series at the 222 Gallery, produced by Caroline Altman, scored another home run Nov. 16 with an extravagantly rich performance given by a trio of top-tier Bay Area musicians: mezzo-soprano Deborah Martinez Rosengaus, cellist James Jaffe and Ian Scarfe, pianist. They brought a fresh look at an entertaining and well-practiced sampling of 19th and 20th century romantic songs and pieces, consisting of Arensky’s Lily of the Valley; Vision! by Paolo Tosti; La Serenata and L’esule by Gaetano Braga; Clara Schumann’s Romance, Op. 22 (transcribed for cello from the violin original); St. Saëns’ Danse macabre; Beach’s Chanson d’amour; Dvorák’s Op. 94 Rondo and Songs My Mother Taught Me; Pauline Viardot’s Madrid and Falla’s complete Siete Canciones Espagnolas.

The 222 was pleasingly full for this novel 70-minute program of mostly familiar art songs, the novelty being that all except one were sung with a written cello part which greatly enhanced the already wonderful vocals. I found out afterwards that interestingly these were almost all composed as such and were not later transcriptions.

The gallery acoustics were generally excellent. The piano was on short stick, which was perfect for the room, and aside from an occasional vanishing pizzicato passage, singer and cello were perfectly balanced with each other and the piano. The three shared emcee duties, each musician introducing a third of the program.

Ms. Rosengaus is the kind of mezzo-soprano I want to hear, with a welcoming, communicative presence that matches her wonderful singing and the music being presented. Her voice is full and rich but not overly darkened, with an impressive range of dynamics, flexiblity and a gorgeous chiaroscuro. She inhabited each song with instinctive musicality, humanity, textual understanding and technical prowess. She did use music for the entire program, but lightly and deftly, with her attention and eyes sufficiently out to the spellbound audience most of the time. In several songs where she needed to be more on the page, unfortunately the spell was broken. One exception was Seguidilla murciana from the Falla, as it’s inhumanly fast with an atmospheric river of words. She opted to embrace the situation, picking up her tablet and holding it up to the light. I had to chuckle, empathizing one hundred percent.

Mr. Jaffe also impressed immediately, spinning sensually soulful melodies with a deep and smoky tone, making his instrument speak as well as sing. His playing holds nothing back, and leaps out at the listener, braving a wide emotional expanse, from raucous to delicately intimate. There was an occasional uncentered pitch, but nothing that distracted from the overall effect of wild and crazy emotions constrained by classical form.

Mr. Scarfe’s superlative pianism commanded and anchored the program with a wellspring of stylistic knowledge, close attention to detail, and powerfully definitive playing. This recital, at 70 minutes, still demanded an extraordinary amount of keyboard pyrotechnics, and he sailed through it without breaking a sweat.

The audience demanded an encore from this remarkable trio, and they happily complied with a fabulous rendition of Carmen’s Habañera, the iconic cello part perfect for a chamber performance.