On Sunday July 20, Viva la Musica’s concert at the Auditorio featured student baritone Cesar Becerra accompanied by Timothy G. Ruff Welch on piano.
Unfortunately Becerra was clearly suffering from a bad sore throat that affected not only his pitch, but also tonal quality and resonance. Regardless, he valiantly performed a reduced program of eleven songs, although by the last his voice had unfortunately dried up completely.
He opened with “Ave Maria” by Schubert – the beautiful melody originally written as the third of seven songs based on Walter Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake,” with the full prayer in Latin, later substituted for the original words.
Then came Alessandro Scarlatti’s “Gia sole dal Gange,” from his 1680 opera “L’honestà negli amori.” The founder of the Neapolitan school and a strongly influenced by Stradella, this is one of his 24 early arias.
Next, Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein” from “Matthäus-Passion,” led into “Deh vieni alla finestra” – the aria from “Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Both pieces involve intricate, knowledgeable and extremely dexterous accompaniment combined with total concentration, all of which were adeptly and expertly provided by Welch.
Comparing these two complex pieces, Welch said that the Bach offered the greater challenge. When asked whether he enjoyed it, he replied fervently, “Oh my God, yes!”
Becerra’s rendition of the dramatic “Ave Maria” by Giulio Romolo Caccini was beautiful in its own right as the deeper pitch made it very dramatic, being considerably lower than the boy-soprano Tom Cully’s benchmark version. It’s intriguing to note that accrediting Caccini (1551-1618) may be an error. Many hold that Russian composer Vladimir Vavilov, who recorded this hitherto unknown work in 1972 claiming it was anonymous, actually wrote it.
The final song before the interval was “Pietà, Signore!” by Alessandro Stradella. Here too there are those who assert that this lovely work was beyond Stradella’s ability, instead attributing it to Rossini or Niedermeyer.
After the intermission Becerra gave a powerful version of “Bésame Mucho” by Consuelo Velazquez followed by four pieces by the first Mexican woman composer, María Grever, beginning with “Así” (Thus).
The gifted Grever wrote over 800 songs, primarily boleros. A film composer for Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox, her hits include “What a difference a day makes” – originally scored for Becerra’s next song, “Cuando vuelva a tu lado” (When I return to your side).
With his voice clearly failing and presumably painful, Becerra sang “Te quiero dijiste” – otherwise known as ‘Magic is the Moonlight’ from the 1944 movie, “Bathing Beauty.” With his strained voice completely giving out, he closed with “Júrame” (Swear to [love] me).
Despite his difficulties, Becerra’s enunciation was certainly one of the clearest and best pronounced that I’ve heard from a classical singer. The German, Italian and Spanish words were so well articulated that they were easily intelligible over the piano accompaniment, greatly enhancing the performance.
This experience may validate Casti’s statement, “Prima le parole, dopo la musica” (first the words, then the music), the philosophy upon which Richard Strauss’ opera “Capriccio” was based; the result of the long-standing and unresolved debate between Strauss and his earlier librettist, Hofmannsthal, who both believed their individual contribution was more important to the work. In this instance, the words proved to be the saving grace.