Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 20, 1993 TAG: 9302200300
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SOPRANO BRINGS WARM VOICE TO `AIDA' DEBUT
Back in Sturgis, Mich., Deborah Mayer saw herself as the next Julie Andrews.Instead, the 24-year-old soprano inaugurates her professional career Monday night with the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida." The 8 p.m. concert staging of the work at the Roanoke Civic Center is a joint production of Opera Roanoke, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and the Roanoke Valley Choral Society.
Mayer says she grew up in a house where the family stereo usually played Frank Sinatra and big band music, and when she began voice lessons at age 13 she dreamed of a career on Broadway.
But there was one problem.
"I came to my full height at 13, too, and I was five-eleven, which was too tall for Broadway," said Mayer earlier this week in a telephone interview from her home in New York City.
But it wasn't long afterward that her teachers began to point her toward the world of opera, where her height mattered little compared to her warm soprano voice.
Describing her voice as a "lyrico-spinto," Mayer says that vocally she is somewhere between the most powerful dramatic voices and the lighter lyric sopranos.
`I'm too heavy for Mimi in "La Boheme," but I wouldn't sing Brunnhilde [in Wagner's `Ring' cycle], either. I kinda fall between the tracks right now," said the singer.
Victoria Bond, music director of both Opera Roanoke and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, liked what she heard when she auditioned Mayer more than a year ago.
"She has a true dramatic soprano voice in the Leontyne Price mold, and it has a gorgeous quality," said Bond. "It's very unusual to find a young voice with such fullness and richness, particularly a beautiful but warm sound."
Bond said she was looking for a special voice to sing the role of Aida. "She's a very sympathetic character, like the innocent lamb who's led to slaughter, so one needs somebody who has the size and strength to bring off the role but a sense of vulnerability and warmth as well so the audience can identify with it."
It would be hard to find a more spectacular debut role for a singer with Mayer's vocal characteristics. "Aida" is possibly the greatest of all of Verdi's grand operas, with a richness of conception and a melodic sumptuousness that has made it a favorite since its premiere 122 years ago in the Cairo Opera House in Egypt.
Mayer's character is an Ethiopian princess who becomes a slave of the Egyptian royal family after being captured in battle. She falls guiltily in love with the Egyptian officer Radames, who will be sung by tenor Neil Breeden. Radames returns her affections and sings of his love for her in "Celeste Aida, forma divina," one of the greatest of all tenor arias.
Unfortunately for both Aida and Radames, her Egyptian mistress Amneris, who is the daughter of the king of Egypt, also loves Radames. Amneris, who will be sung by contralto Heather Meyers, suspects the pair of hiding their love, and her jealousy proves fatal by the final curtain. The Egyptian king will be sung by bass Wayne Kompelien.
Radames leads the Egyptians in another successful campaign against the Ethiopians and returns with Aida's father, Amonasro, in chains, though he is disguised as an officer. Baritone Craig Fields, a veteran of the European opera stage and Opera Roanoke's resident production director, will sing the role of Amonasro.
Radames, who has become betrothed to Amneris, convinces the king of Egypt to free the Ethiopian captives. But Amonasro then persuades the reluctant Aida to trick Radames into revealing important military information, and the hapless officer is arrested as a traitor. The high priest Ramfis, who will be sung by bass George Reid, is determined that Radames shall die.
The fourth and final act contains one of the most famous scenes in all of opera. This is the "double scene" which, in fully staged versions of the work, simultaneously shows both the Temple of Vulcan and a gloomy subterranean tomb. In Monday night's concert version, audience members will have to use their imaginations to recreate the dual scenery.
Radames is entombed alive by the priests, but discovers before the end that Aida has chosen to share his fate. Their farewell duet, "O terra, addio," is one of the most moving moments in all of Verdi's output.
Mayer says she is lucky in that her longtime teacher Virginia Zeani was herself one of the opera stage's great Aidas.
"She taught me all the tricks. For example, there's a big concertate that I have to sing and it's very, very high, and it's easy to push and force it. But the tomb scene in the final act is very piano, very lyric, very light singing. I think it's the most beautiful, but you have to save for that,` said Mayer.
"This role is very difficult and I took an entire year to work on it. It's one of the most difficult parts for a soprano and it takes a year to put it in your voice. Of course I learned the music a long time ago, but there are so many other things: muscles, stamina."
Is she nervous on the brink of her professional debut?
`Yeah, I am. I'm nervous but I think in a good way. I kinda think it's in God's hands now, because I've prepared the best I can," said Mayer.
The chorus parts of "Aida" will be sung by the Roanoke Valley Choral Society, which has been prepared by its director Jeffrey Sandborg. This concert version of the opera is the second collaboration among the Roanoke area's three major music organizations. Last February's production of "Porgy & Bess" was a sellout.
Seth Williamson produces news features and a weekday afternoon classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.
"AIDA": Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Opera Roanoke and the Roanoke Valley Choral Society present concert version of Verdi's opera on Monday, 8 p.m., Roanoke Civic Center Auditorium. 343-9127.