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BAM Festival review: ‘Viva La Diva’
Pro Arts Collective spread its reach far with this year’s Black Arts Movement Festival. And Sunday’s “Viva La Diva” concert at Huston Tillotson University proved that. The impressive recital by three up-and-coming opera singers broadened BAM Festival’s reach into the classical fine arts.
Mezzo-soprano Lori Brown-Mirabal, soprano Othalie Graham and contralto Judith Skinner drew progressively more rousing shouts of ‘bravo’ from the audience Sunday as they presented a very tight and polished program of well-known arias and songs.
The trio started the program together with a lovely interpretation of the traditional gospel hymn “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me” before rotating through their individual repertoire.
Skinner stood out, making a sure-fire first impression with the dramatic “Re dell Abisso” from Verdi’s “Ballo in maschera,” her voice rich and mellifluous. She later returned for a sensitive rendition of “The Feeling We Once Had” from the 1970s musical “The Wiz” only to later finish the first half of the program with stirring and almost fierce-sounding a capella version of the hymn “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?”
In the program’s second half, Skinner again demonstrated her ample artistic range with another Verdi aria (“Stride la Vampa” from “Il Travatore”) followed later by an utterly scintillating presentation of “Afraid, Am I Afraid” from Menotti’s histrionic 1946 opera “The Medium.”
Brown-Mirabal garnered the first of the afternoon’s calls of “bravo” with her graceful yet spirited handling of the “Habanera” from Bizet’s “Carmen.” Later, Brown-Mirabal impressed again with a nuanced “My Man’s Gone” from “Porgy and Bess,” deftly handling the song’s jazzy dramatics.
Graham impressed with her sheer volume, if not always the control of tone, especially on “Dich tuere halle” Wagner’s “Tannhauser” and again on ‘in Questa Reggia” from Puccini’s “Turandot.”
As they began, the trio finished together, this time with a heartfelt and humorous version of “Scandalize My Name” that even allowed accompanist Eldon Little to get on the spirited call-and-response.
The audience demanded an encore from the singers. But unfortunately it seems planning didn’t permit for that. Still, it was clear sign that Pro Arts inclusion of opera and classical music struck a high note with their audience.
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