Germantown pianist/conductor/vocal coach Richard Raub was stunning in a May 28 concert of 18 selections from Italian operas in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater.[/caption]

by Michael Caruso

Germantown pianist/conductor/vocal coach Richard Raub was the pianistic glue that held together “Tutto Verismo” Saturday, May 28. The concert of 18 selections from Italian operas featured Raub at the Steinway in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater, accompanying a varied roster of singers in repertoire reaching back to Rossini and forward through Bellini, Verdi, Cilea, Puccini, Giordano, Leoncavallo, and even Rachmaninoff. In every style of music and with all seven of the singers he accompanied, Raub displayed a virtually note-perfect technique, a stunning ability to evoke the colors of the original orchestral score, and a sympathetic balance between support and encouragement that more than explains the success he has experienced as a member of the faculty at the Academy of Vocal Arts in center city Philadelphia. He caught the exhilaration of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” the eloquence of Bellini’s “I Puritani,” the throbbing tragedy of Cilea’s “Arianna Lecouvreur,” the melodrama of Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier,” Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” and Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana,” the sumptuous harmonic language of Puccini’s “La Boheme,” “Edgar,” “Suor Angelica” and “La fanciulla del West,” made Verdi’s accompaniment sound better at the piano than it does in the orchestra pit, and proffered the dark Russian romance of Rachmaninoff’s “Georgian Song.” You may be wondering what any piece of music by Rachmaninoff has to do with “verismo,” which means “realism” in Italian and refers to the late romantic, post-Verdi style of Italian opera. For that matter, you may be wondering the same thing about selections by Rossini, Bellini, Verdi and even Puccini, whose only truly “verismo” opera is “Il Tabarro.” But the term “verismo” can legitimately be used to describe a style of operatic singing that emphasizes the projection of the emotional substance of the music in favor of sheer vocal technique. Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi represented the two sides of the “verismo” coin – the former’s searing drama, the latter’s full-throated tone – while Dame Joan Sutherland epitomized the dazzling technique approach to operatic singing. The evening’s major star was the American soprano Aprile Millo. Born in 1958, Millo made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1984 and was immediately hailed as an idiomatic singer of the Italian repertoire of Verdi and Puccini. Her luxurious tones were efficaciously paired with innate musicality and an unwavering sense of dramatic “verismo.” Her singing of “Laggiu nel Soledad” from Puccini’s “La fanciulla del West” (The Girl of the Golden West) glowed with tonal warmth and sizzled with theatricality. It was one of Millo’s protégés, however, who stole the show. Italian-Canadian soprano Mary-Lou Vetere’s singing not only combined the tonal beauty of Tebaldi with just a touch of Callas’ cutting edge – she’s a dead ringer for Elizabeth Taylor in “Butterfield-8,” including the blue-black “Italian Boy” hairstyle La Liz popularized during the late-Fifties and early-Sixties. Even more important, Vetere caught Violetta’s desperation in Verdi’s “La Traviata,” Leonora’s over-arching passion in his “Il Trovatore,” Desdemona’s naïve adoration in his “Otello,” and the doomed fragility of Mimi in Puccini’s “La Boheme.” And she enhanced the potency of her singing with gestures and inflections perfectly gauged to the Perelman’s intimate space. FUTURE EVENTS The Delaware Valley Opera Company will open its 2016 summer season of fully staged operatic productions with Otto Nicolai’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” Based on the Shakespeare comedy of the same title, “The Merry Wives of Windsor” will be performed June 10, 15 & 18 at 8 p.m. in the Venice Island Performing Arts Center in Manayunk. The opera, set to a German libretto, received its world premiere in 1849 by what is now known as the Berlin State Opera under the composer’s baton. It was an immediate success and was soon performed in all the world’s opera houses. It is a “singspiel,” which means that there are stretches of spoken dialogue in between the musical numbers in the manner of either an operetta or a Broadway musical. It differs dramatically from Giuseppe Verdi’s “Falstaff,” even though both share principal characters and narrative. Whereas the libretto for “Falstaff” combines “The Merry Wives of Windsor” with portions of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part I,” Nicolai’s opus mostly adheres to the single Shakespeare comedy. DVOC’s production will be sung in English under the stage direction of Sandra Hartman. Pianist Joseph Krupa will essay the orchestral reduction in accompaniment. For more information visit www.dvopera.org. The Crossing, the chamber choir dedicated to contemporary choral music, will present a tantalizing preview of its “Seven Responses” concert Sunday, June 12, at 4 p.m. in the Chapel of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, its principal home base. Mezzo Elisa Sutherland and pianist John Grecia will perform portions of the seven commissioned world premieres by Caroline Shaw, Santa Ratniece and Anna Thorvaldsdottir. The full concert is set for two evenings, June 24 & 25, at 8 p.m. in the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral in West Philadelphia. Visit www.thecrossingchoir.com.