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Alek Shrader and Austin Kness performed at joie de vivre salon: new measurements of success
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Alek Shrader (left), winner of coveted opera honors and of hearts, joined the handsome young baritone Austin Kness (right) for a crowd pleasing tribute to women and wine during the salon at Hotel Rex Wednesday evening. San Francisco Performances presented this lovely soiree. Alek is probably still downstairs lingering with fans and colleagues as I write. That's me above in a cell phone camera shot and there are nice pictures via the links below.
What a treat to see this spectacular national star in an almost private salon, just rows away and close enough to make eye contact. Moreover Alek and Austin good naturedly posed for photos with some of us after, from Michael Colbruno of Philharmonia Baroque to supernumerary Pam Deweerd. Pam had told me of a production with Alek last year, L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti, and tipped me off to what a wonderful talent Alek is.
Emails Michael: I'm describing Shrader's voice as a "bright sunny day" and Kness as a "robust harvest moon." Weren't they great?
Les soirees musicales
Alek began the program with Rossini, songs meant for intimate parlor settings called Les soirees musicales. The audience responded with animated applause to his song The Mariners, about a sailor coming home to his angel of the sea; and to the orgy and how Bacchus and Amor complete life between them. Alek's more poignant The Remembrance received a respectful beat of silence then applause built into a crescendo.
Alek then moved into the serenade of the mariner, a song of bitterness about a loveless sailor whose faithful pleas of love are met with cruelty. He sang dramatically and characteristicly chin up. Alek takes a dynamic, confident stance. He adds more movement, almost swaying, as the evening progresses. He lets his song sail over the heads of the audience to fill the air and fill their ears from above.
Prince of the high Cs
So. The intimate audience of about a hundred would get what they came to hear and then some. It's not only Alek's glorious high C but the jubilant and easy chemistry of two fine young performers. Plus the big money number from Donizetti's L'eliser d'amore, the Elixer of Love. The two moved easily from the finale to the encore. The two appeared completely relaxed, loose, jovial, animated, full of comaraderie and good nature, as if they had been born on stage and were completely at home performing and with each other, in their element.
The program suited their talents perfectly. The program suited the venue perfectly as well, Hotel Rex meant to re-create the San Francisco literary salons of the twenties and thirties. Atmospheric slide show below.
Ah! Mes Amis
It's destiny, Alek will never live down Ah! Mes Amis. He didn't even sing it this evening but indeed, one of the audience members asked Alek how he came to choose Ah Mes Amis, his winning song at the Met.
It's all about his high C. Alek said there was a lot of merit on the repetoire. Other tenors had won with it. It's a show. It's a barn burner. It's one of my favorite pieces. I hadn't sung it yet. His teachers or coaches had told him, 'it's just a C. If you have a C why not sing one of those.' But he followed his heart, he said.
If there's any great time to jump off a cliff, it's the Met stage.
It's something you only do once. The fear was his energy, his motivation, he said. Plus he had a supportive conductor. Up until that point he had no permission to sing Ah! Mes Amis, that's why he didn't sing it until the final round.
It was a gut decision and it worked out.
Michael Colbruno, center, asked Austin, right, if your agent called and asked what you wanted to do, anything, anywhere, what would you say?
Austin answered "I want this". What they had just done. Barber of Seville.
It was a joy to see Austin in a lighter performance as he showed such dramatic range, ending one song with the word crudele, cruel one. The lyrics go, "I will lament silently of my miserable fate, of my bitter luck, but that I do not love you, dear, do not hope that from me.
Austin's lament
So in contrast to Alek's joy, wistfullness and lovesickness or his poignant and tender exchanges of love, Austin performed a more brooding piece where he rejects love. It's a lament by Metastasio, the second son of a grocer who studied Latin, law and poetry and became known in literary circles. Metastasio in his lifetime got to see his work set to music by the most famous composers, his texts translated into several languages, performed at prestigious venues by top singers and actors.
Austin also performed Neapolitan songs by Tosti and de Curtis, typically from the male perspective according to the program. He sang poetically of dying happily or in fear, depending on the season.
Thanking the piano player: This evening the pianist was John Parr of San Francisco Opera. A member of the audience congratulated the modest Brit gentleman on his Liszt. Somebody even acknowledged Mr. Parr's page turner as the lingering were ushered out of the salon. Somebody had to do it, he said.
Speaking of working with top singers. Alek recently covered for Mr. Ah! Mes Amis himself besides Pavarotti, Juan Diego Florez. Alek covered the tenor in the award winning production of "La Fille du Regiment" at San Francisco Opera. It's Alek's joie de vivre that probably won him that plus the national competition at the Met.
What kind of plants are these?
Alek has a good head on his shoulders and can relax and be goofy as one would expect of somebody from down home,
Show me the joie de vivre
Joie de Vivre is also an economic philosophy by the Stanford grad Chip Conley who founded the hotel empire Joie de Vivre along with our venue, Hotel Rex. Chip offers some inspiration in his musings at http://www.chipconley.com/musings/, such as
Economist Joseph Stiglitz suggests, “What we measure affects what we do. If we have the wrong measures, we will strive for the wrong things.” There was a time when having a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage was our real measurement of success in this country, but maybe it’s become our measure of excess in the past few decades.
Chip continues:
If you were president, what key metrics would you try to evaluate to determine whether you were leading a successful country? Here are some of my suggestions, but I look forward to reading yours:
% of High School Grads who go to College
% of the Population that volunteer their time or donate financially to non-profits
Commute time (obviously, with higher rankings for shorter commutes)
Legal immigration demand (this has historically been an important measure of America’s greatness)
Capacity for innovation (either through measuring patents or the like)
# of Hours Worked/GDP (our productivity is at the expense of our leisure)
Note the question about immigration. Even Tony Blair said to David Letterman, do people want to get into your country or out? Show me the joie de vivre.
Alek Shrader sighting at Opera in the Park
Alek Shrader wins big in The Audition, cinema verite by Susan Froemke
Alek Shrader stars in Met broadcast
Adler Fellows Gala November 22 at Herbst Theater with meet-the-artists reception
TENOR ALEK SHRADER made his San Francisco Opera debut this season as Victorin in Die Tote Stadt and also appeared as Arbace (Idomeneo) and Nemorino (The Elixir of Love and The Elixir of Love for Families). The Oklahoma native made his professional debut as Count Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and returned to that company last summer as Giovanni in Martín y Soler’s Una Cosa Rara. Earlier this year, he appeared in the title role of Le Comte Ory and as George (Our Town) with the Juilliard Opera Center. Other roles in his repertoire include Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amore), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Fenton (The Merry Wives of Windsor), Le Chevalier (Dialogues des Carmélites), and Tony (West Side Story). An alumnus of the Merola Opera Program and Music Academy of the West, he sang Don Ramiro in Merola’s 2007 production of La Cenerentola. Shrader is a 2008 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received a Sarah Tucker Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation.
BARITONE AUSTIN KNESS, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a first-year Adler Fellow who sang Sciarrone (Tosca) and Marquis d’Obigny (La Traviata) with the Company this past summer. An alumnus of the Merola Opera Program, he performed the title role in Merola's 2008 production of Don Giovanni. Kness received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and is pursuing a master’s degree at Indiana University. He has performed with Indiana University Opera Theater as Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Don Giovanni, Escamillo (Carmen), and Eddie Carbone (A View from the Bridge). His concert credits include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the University of Indiana and the Brahms Requiem with the Bloomington Chamber Singers. Kness is a former member of the Des Moines Metropolitan Opera Apprentice Program (2006–07), where he performed the roles of Moralès (Carmen) and Count Ceprano (Rigoletto). The baritone has also sung the roles of Fiorello (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Moralès with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. Kness was a finalist in the West Palm Beach Voice Competition in 2007 who participated in the Kennedy Center Conservatory Project, where he represented the Jacobs School of Music.
JOHN PARR is San Francisco Opera’s Head of Music Staff. A native of Birmingham, UK, Parr studied piano at the Royal Northern College of Music with Sulamita Aronovsky and musicology at Manchester University. He worked for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1985-88, touring with the company to Japan and Korea in 1986. He was engaged at Scottish Opera from 1988-90. In 1991 he joined the Lower Saxony State Opera in Hannover, Germany, where he was Head of Music Staff and Musical Assistant to Music Directors George Alexander Albrecht, Christof Perick, and Andreas Delfs, specializing in the Wagner and Strauss operas. During this time he developed an extensive series of lieder recitals and chamber music programs for the company, and also broadcast on SFB Radio Berlin and on NDR Television. With San Francisco Opera, Parr has developed and performed in numerous recital programs. Since 2002 he has worked as a coach at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, and has also given recitals in the Wagner Museum there. In June 2005 he initiated a series of vocal and chamber music recitals entitled "Basically British" at Old First Church in San Francisco.
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