| Karen Slack soprano |
| In SFO 2005-2006 Season Agnes Sorel - Maid of Orleans |
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| SFO History Henrietta Moore* - The Mother of Us All Fauna Bo-Pibulum - Earthrise Irina Arkadina - The Seagull. |
| Karen Slack is a soprano with regal polish which she used effectively to enchance Elvira's love lament "Ernani! Involami," one of Verdi's loveliest utterances.(Review ) |
| Ms Slack was awarded a prestigious Adler Fellowship by the San Francisco Opera Center as a member of its 2002 Merola Opera Program; the Center recently presented her Schwabacher Debut Recital. |
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| A soprano stands tall while others sicken and fall
By David Patrick Stearns Inquirer Music Critic Young singers don't generally choose their triumphs; they instead are chosen. For Philadelphia soprano Karen Slack, the choosing came on Saturday's Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of Verdi's Luisa Miller in a nationwide introduction that was a triumph amid the ruins. The ruins included a long-planned Met cast that was blighted by illness, and the injury of her leading man, who stumbled onstage before singing a note and hobbled in visible (and sometimes audible) agony during the three-hour-plus opera. This is what's called an operatic pi�ata (a term coined by Anne Midgette in the New York Times): Many people are taking whacks at it, hoping prizes will fall out. Slack was the third soprano scheduled for the title role, appearing after Barbara Frittoli and Veronica Villarroel became indisposed. Understudying for the first time at the Met, Slack stepped in on March 17 and last Tuesday as even more singers, such as leading tenor Neil Shicoff, fell ill. By Saturday's broadcast, another principal, Phillip Ens, was also out. You'd never know from looking at the 30-year-old Slack on Saturday that anything was wrong onstage. All of the training from the Settlement Music School, the San Francisco Opera's young artist program, the Curtis Institute of Music, and currently Astral Artistic Services kicked in. She sailed around the Met stage as if it were her own living room, gazing lovingly at tenor Eduardo Villa, even though his leg was so injured that he walked with a cane and sought every opportunity to sit down. Slack's ovation was among the loudest and longest. Afterward, in her dressing room, her mood was that of an ebullient puppy, until discussing her tenor's accident. "My first night, I tripped on the exact same step," she said, "but I didn't fall." Had that one step gone differently, she might not be receiving a congratulatory phone call from the famous soprano Evelyn Lear and talking about studying with her on Der Rosenkavalier. Or being greeted by two friends she met in Italy while in master classes with Anita Cerquetti - another legendary opera figure eager to pour a life's worth of wisdom into Slack's vocal cords. None of this, however, signifies an arrival. "Now," Slack says, "is the real hustle." This Met debut came with a certain amount of luck. Singers better known than Slack have had to make their Met debuts without a stage rehearsal. Because Frittoli injured her arm during the early stages of rehearsal, Slack rehearsed in her place before Villarroel arrived, and even sang Acts 2 and 3 on the stage. Come performance time, then, she didn't feel that she was going to her death. Quite the opposite. Her energy and state of mind, she admits, were "crazy. But there was a point in the performance when I said, 'Am I ready for this?' " she recalled. "Then I said, 'This is what you've worked for. This is what you wanted.' "/ Review |