In between La Traviata at Covent Garden and The Rakes Progress in Milton Keynes I went to a surprisingly enjoyable lunchtime recital at St Olave’s church near Fenchurch St station. This was given by young Colombian coloratura soprano Meliza Metzger. accompanied by Michelle Chow. There were arias by Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti, and two of Adele’s arias from Die Fledermaus. Michelle played extracts from two Scarlatti sonatas.
Though its difficult to know how her voice would sound in a big opera house Ms Metzger projected splendidly in this church context. She dealt with the coloratura runs accurately and confidently and hit the high notes with panache rather than timidity. She projected the text well. Maybe there could have been a bit more variation to phrasing at times and – with Adele – a bit more characterisation (I would be happy to be proved wrong , but it sounded to me as though she was less comfortable singing in German as opposed to Italian). But it was thoroughly enjoyable to hear her in these pieces. And I enjoyed the Scarlatti too – there’s so much music to hear that I know next to nothing about. I have one CD of Scarlatti sonatas – there must be 100’s of them!
Anyway, this was a thoroughly worthwhile hour of listening to unfamiliar music.
John's musical journey 