Day 298 Four Voices

Tuesday 2 Jun 2009

Tonight we walk over the swaying bridge at 7:30 for a concert at Teatro Municipal de Piura titled Cuatro Voces en Concierto. Jacqueline Terry, soprano, Andres Veramendi, tenor, Josefina Brivio, mezzo-soprano, and Xavier Fernandez, baritono, are the four voices, and playing behind the voices is the Orquesta Sinfonica Municipal de Piura conducted by Manuel Cuadros Barry. Since we haven’t heard any of these names before we have no idea of the quality of these singers, i.e., we don’t know if they’re local singers or imports. The air we breathe as we walk is crisp with little of the malodorous stench we endured during the summer and we’re showered, shaved, and primed to enjoy whatever the evening brings—however amateurish.

Seating is first-come first-serve for the 8:00 o’clock start time and we’re in seventh-row-center seats at 7:45 with a colorful program in our laps; I have a paperback book and Teri has schoolwork—we’re prepared for the usual late start. Disparate notes from various instruments come from behind the closed curtain; the orchestra is warming up. I glance at the program and see it’s ambitious with 12 pieces during the Primera Parte and eight pieces during the Segunda Parte; they are all excerpts from operas—solos, duets, and quartets—and a few without voices. I wonder how late we’ll be getting home as I open my paperback to read.

What’s this? I hear the orchestra taking their places in front of the curtain before I’m finished with the chapter—and it’s only a five-page chapter. The conductor walks on stage at 7:58 after the concertmaster has the orchestra tuned and the first note of the Overtura de Bodas (Marriage) de Figaro by Mozart rings out at 8:02—amazing!

After the overture there’s a pleasant duet from the Magic Flute from the mezzo-soprano and the baritono, and then Ms Terry, soprano, walks on stage in a stunning green velvet dress and sings Der Holle Rache from the Magic Flute. I’m no expert on singing, or on opera, but the sheer number of guttural stops in this piece makes me ease forward in my seat to get closer to the amazing voice control of this woman and as the piece progresses the successive notes seem to be farther apart on the scale (way to go Mozart!) and I’m left breathless wondering how in the hell she can do that. The rest of the singers do their thing with all getting a chance to solo and I’m impressed by all of them, the least, I suppose, by the baritone, Xavier Fernandez, who has too much vibrato for my taste, but he makes up for it by being a fine figure of a man—handsome with a natural grace that translates into a powerful stage presence. I figure these people have to be professional singers.

During the break we are urged by Senor Barry to buy tickets soon for the performance of La Traviata in Lima because Jacqueline and Andres will be starring in the opera in August of this year. It turns out that Andres won an open audition over more than 100 other tenors for the role of Alfredo. He lives in Spain, the others in Peru. All of the singers are in their 30s and are Peruanos by birth.

We are thrilled to have been in their presence for an evening; no amateurs are these—what amazing voices—all four of them.