The annual Adler Fellows concert, showcasing the young musical artists training program at the San Francisco Opera, is always a bittersweet affair. For some, it's the beginning of a great operatic career while for others it may be the end of the road after spending two or three years in the program. Backed by the onstage San Francisco Opera Orchestra led by conductor Ramón Tebar, nine singers tackled a variety of arias and scenes in the small Herbst Theater. Though I have admired all of them in the small roles they have performed during the last couple of seasons onstage at the SF Opera, some of them seemed overmatched by the challenging repertoire selected for this
The Future Is Now concert. But let's focus on the positive, starting with newcomer baritone Olivier Zerouali singing a rapid-fire
Largo al factotum from
The Barber of Seville by Rossini.
(All photos are by Kristen Loken.)
Bass-baritone Jongwon Han has been a stalwart in quite a few roles on the main stage over the last three years, and his smooth, resounding voice worked well in Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro and Bellini's
La Sonnambula.
Another major highlight was most of Act III of Puccini's
La Bohème with soprano Olivia Smith as Mimi, tenor Samuel White as Rodolfo, Samuel Kidd as Marcello, and Georgiana Adams as Musetta. They all sounded ready to take on their respective roles on any stage in the world.
My favorite moment of the evening was baritone Samuel Kidd singing the title role in Benjamin Britten's
Billy Budd, which managed to make me all teary-eyed. If any opera house in the world is looking to cast a handsome young baritone with a gorgeous voice and innate musical brilliance in a production of this opera, they should look no further.
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