Interesting program at the Symphony yesterday, starring Julia Lezhneva, a Russian soprano, and Dmitry Sinkovsky, a Russian conductor, who also played a Mozart violin concerto while simultaneously conducting the orchestra. If that's not enough to wrap your mind around, he sang along with Julia in a counter tenor, the highest male voice. Which unfortunately, always reminds me fondly of the Bee-Gees.
Here's a picture of Dimitry, playing on a roof somewhere. The program was baroque (Mozart, Vivaldi, Handel) and featured soprano songs and arias. It was also quite flamboyant with sparkling dress changes (her) and flying hair (him.) Baroque programs and vocals are extremely popular in Seattle, so this was sure to be a hit. Still, in decades of going to the Symphony, we've never seen a audience reaction quite like it.
We were in our regular seats next to Betsy and Paul, and after each song, everyone around us leaped up in a long standing ovation. Yes, it was good, but the rock concert reaction seemed a bit over the top for the typical Sunday matinee crowd. They played two encores. She even brought along a Russian pianist to accompany her for a one minute aria!
I didn't hear Russian spoken in the audience, but they must have a local following who turned out for the show. It was one of those concerts where the experience of attending was more interesting than the actual program. As John said, "good sopranos are a dime a dozen." Who knows?
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