REVIEWS:RTÉCO/Brophy NCH, Dublin
This first appearance with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra by Jamaican-born opera star sir Willard White was a distinctive entry in RTÉ’s Signature Series: the gala-concert formula might be familiar enough, but it’s seldom entrusted to the bass voice.
White, 63, made his operatic debut in 1974, not many years after his father had bought him a single ticket to New York. The unmistakable tones of Paul Robeson had been an early influence; like Robeson, White has scored a noted thespian success in the title role of Shakespeare's Othello.
Though selections from his exceedingly diversified operatic repertoire might easily have filled the evening, the choices fell mostly on lighter styles.
Four of Copland's Old American Songsformed a link from Berlioz (two arias from La damnation de Faust) and Tchaikovsky (Gremin's aria from Eugene Onegin) to the Caribbean-flavoured Jamaica Farewell, Ma Curly-Headed Babyand Mighty Lak a Rose.
Along with Gershwin's I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'were the Broadway hits Some Enchanted Evening, If I Were a Rich Manand Ol' Man River, plus a couple of black spirituals in bespoke arrangements by Carl Davis.
Under principal conductor David Brophy, the RTÉCO barely kept pace with the fitful patter of Copland's I Bought Me a Cat, and were inclined to a martial regularity in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin Waltzand Copland's Danzón cubano.
Brophy's broad brush strokes had much happier effects, however, in the South Pacific Overtureand Porgy and Bess Suite.
It was in the more popular idioms, too, that White’s extra-mellow textures and effortlessly leonine resonance were at their most telling.
Two ecstatic ovations said it all: this artist can follow not only Robeson as the interpreter of Ol' Man River, but also Frank Sinatra as a compelling re-interpreter of My Way.
