Ravinia 2019, Issue 5, Week 10

JENNIFER JOHNSON CANO, mezzo-soprano A winner of the George London Award, Sara Tucker Study and Richard Tucker Career Grants, and the Young Concert Artist Interna- tional Auditions, Jennifer Johnson Cano made her professional operatic debut with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, her Missouri hometown. She also won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and made her debut with the company in 2009 after participating in its Lin- demann Young Artist Development Program. Cano has since given over 100 performances on the Met stage, including as Bersi in Giorda- no’s Andrea Chénier , Emilia in Verdi’s Otello , Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel , Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff , Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen , Nicklausse in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann , and both Wellgunde in Wagner’s Ring cycle. She has also bowed as Donna Elvi- ra in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Boston Lyric and Arizona Operas, The Sharp Eared Fox in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen with the Cleve- land Orchestra, Bizet’s titular Carmen with Boston Lyric Opera, Orpheus in Gluck’s Or- pheus and Eurydice with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Des Moines Metro Opera, Diana in Cavalli’s La Calisto with Cincinnati Opera, and Marguerite in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Over the past season, Cano made her role debut as Of- fred in Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale with Boston Lyric Opera and returned to the Met as Emilia and Meg Page. On the concert stage, she sang Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and Beethoven’s Ninth Sympho- ny with the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Sympho- ny Orchestras. Cano also recently joined tenor Matthew Polenzani and pianist Julius Drake for a presentation of tonight’s program at Carnegie Hall, returned to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Falla’s Psyché , and premiered Paul Moravec’s A New Country and Gregg Kallor’s Sketches from Frankenstein Suite . Jennifer Johnson Cano was a fellow at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute in 2008 and returned to the festival in 2010. MATTHEW POLENZANI, tenor An Illinois native, tenor Matthew Polenzani studied at Eastern Illinois University and the Yale School of Music before becoming a mem- ber of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s apprentice program for two seasons. In 1997, he was per- sonally invited to audition for the Metropolitan Opera—before the year’s end, he had a con- tract with the company and made his debut in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov . Polenzani has appeared on the Met stage every season since, as well as with the company on two internation- al tours, and in 2008 he was honored with its Beverly Sills Artist Award. Also the recipient of the 2004 Richard Tucker Award, he appeared in the title role of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux and as Roberto in the composer’s Maria Stuarda for the Met’s first productions of each, with recent highlights including Nemorino in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love , Nadir in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers , the title role of Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann , Alfredo and the Duke respectively in Verdi’s La traviata and Rigoletto , and Ferrando and Don Ottavio respectively in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni , as well as the title role of the composer’s Idomeneo and La clem- enza di Tito . He made his first Vaudémont in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta with the company this winter, and he will add Macduff in Verdi’s Mac- beth and Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème to his Met repertoire this fall. At the Lyric Opera, he gave his first essay of Massenet’s titular Werther in 2012 and last fall returned in the title role of Idomeneo . This June he made his role debut as Don José in Bizet’s Carmen with San Francisco Opera. He is also a veteran of Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Paris National Opera, Munich Opera Festival, Vienna and Bavarian State Op- eras, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and London’s Royal Opera, as well as Milan’s La Scala and all three stages at Carnegie Hall, among many others. Matthew Polenzani made his Ravinia debut in 1995, and in 2016 he led a master class for Ravin- ia’s Steans Music Institute Program for Singers, which he will do again tomorrow afternoon. To- night marks his fifth appearance at the festival. mysterious circumstances. At first, the cause was deemed accident or murder. It was not until sev- eral days later that a diary was found in his room, which revealed the mystery of the one who disap- peared. It contained short poems, in which none at first suspected the key to the enigma. In the end, a court investigator uncovered their true meaning and shed light on the course of events. For their poi- gnancy and honesty, as for their poetic value, they deserve to be wrested from the dust-ridden fetters of the court records. –Preface to the published score The tenor serves in the dual roles of narrator and main protagonist—the mysterious “J.D.,” other- wise addressed as Janik or Janíček. His solos oc- cupy 18 of the 22 movements. An alto singer, the enchanting gypsy Zefka, emerges in a series of three movements (nos. 9–11) toward the center of the song cycle, accompanied by a celestial trio of female voices. The piano inhabits a third dra- matic role, providing atmospheric accompani- ments and a solo movement capturing Janíček’s emotional conflict. Janíček recalls his first encounter with the Gypsy girl and the longing she aroused in him (no. 1). If only she would abandon his every thought so that he can go to church and pray (no. 2). Temp- tation rises as the sun sets. In the darkness, the boy sees her two shimmering eyes. He prays for deliverance from his desire (no. 3). He has spent a sleepless night “as on a bed of thorns” (no. 4). Ploughing the fields is difficult in his weary state. The blade wants to veer off toward the stand of elder trees, and the wooden shaft breaks. Zefka waits among the elders with flowing black hair and piercing black eyes set on Janíček (nos. 5–8). The Gypsy beckons the young farm boy to aban- don his work and sit with her as she sings a Gyp- sy song (no. 9). Removing her bodice to reveal the pure white skin beneath, Zefka begins her seduction of the fearful yet lustful lad (no. 10). Surrounded by the aroma of the cornfield, she invites the fearful Janíček to her Gypsy bed—a clearing on the ground—where he sacrifices his virtue (no. 11). Memories of that night will never fade (no. 12), though a piano solo expresses the guilt and torment he suffers inside (no. 13). At dawn, Janíček laments the innocence he has lost and will never regain (no. 14). He admon- ishes the plough oxen not to reveal his secret. How can he return home and face his mother again (no. 15)? Should he join the Gypsies and accept them as family (no. 16)? Janíček returns to the stand of elders nightly, searching for his path forward (no. 17), longing to spend an end- less night wrapped in Zefka’s embrace (no. 18). His thoughts are muddled. Even prayer cannot resolve the changes in his soul (no. 19). Zefka bears his child, and Janíček must accept his fate (nos. 20–21). Leaving his family behind forever, the young man departs the land of his birth to join his Gypsy bride and their son (no. 22). –Program notes © 2019 Todd E. Sullivan AUGUST 5 – AUGUST 11, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 93