A Flawed Yet Promising Recital by Baritone Sergio Vitale

The much-awaited opera duo recital planned by the NCPA, featuring the soprano Rosa Feola and baritone Sergio Vitale, left many people disappointed because the soprano had taken ill.
Which was a pity because she seemed to be the better of the two, as one could surmise from clips on Youtube!
Anyway the guy managed to hold the evening together...though one wished the accompanist were better.


An edited version of the following review is printed on Seen and Heard International here:
http://seenandheard-international.com/2017/08/a-flawed-yet-promising-recital-by-baritone-sergio-vitale/
(Also apparently available via a link on http://theoperacritic.com/ which can be accessed only by a paid subscription).


Opera Recital – Sergio Vitale (baritone), Fabio Centanni (piano), Tata Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, 8.8.2017. (JSM).
Mozart – Le Nozze di Figaro: Hai già vinta la causa
Bellini – I Puritani: Ah! per sempre io ti perdei
Rossini – Il barbiere di Siviglia: Largo al factotum
Liszt – Mephisto Waltz no:1
Donizetti – Don Pasquale: Bella siccome un angelo
Verdi – Falstaff: Ehi! Paggio!...L’onore! Ladri; Ehi! Taverniere! Mondo ladro
Tosti – ’A vuchhella

On account of a sudden deterioration in the health of soprano Rosa Feola, this concert, which was supposed to be an opera duo, became a solo recital by baritone Sergio Vitale accompanied by pianist Fabio Centanni.

Mr. Vitale’s programme ran the gamut of the baritone repertoire, from Figaro to Falstaff. “Work-in-progress” he announced modestly before one of the pieces; and this term could well be used to describe his singing as a whole.

The opening Mozart aria immediately conveyed his strengths and limitations: a full, rounded tone in the middle voice but strained at both extremes; genuine musicality compromised by imperfect execution of bel canto ornamentation and passage-work; an ability to communicate character and emotion when unencumbered by too much musical effort.

The aria from I Puritani fared better, as the baritone attempted sustaining a clean Bellinian line. However, his technical shortcomings were more exposed here, as later in the Donizetti, including a tendency to lunge at high notes from below (especially in upward-moving passages) and intonation that was somewhat suspect, often being just under true pitch.

Mr. Vitale lightened his tone (as he should) for Rossini’s Figaro, whose Largo al factotum was given with impish, infectious joie de vivre and a fine command of patter-singing. But the baritone cracked on the top G; and this highlighted his overall difficulty with high tessitura.

Fortunately, he came into his own as Verdi’s Falstaff, whose arias were a last-minute addition to the programme. From his first cry of Ehi! Paggio! it became evident that the singer was in his element and this role was a perfect fit, vocally and temperamentally. Falstaff’s Act 1 monologue was delivered with immense chutzpah and vivid word-painting; his Act 3 musing on the vagaries of the world was appropriately introspective.

The baritone ended the recital with the popular Neapolitan song ’A vuchhella. Here his innate musicality and good intentions, undermined by flawed vocalism, were all too apparent.

Fabio Centanni’s accompaniment was too loud, often drowning out the singer. It made one wonder why the piano was kept wide open and not on short-stick. His single solo, Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz no: 1, was clangy and fatiguing.

The concert was an interesting introduction to a young singer. If his Falstaff is anything to go by, and with some work on vocal technique, he has the potential of a richly promising career.