Opera is an art form that takes its time in delivering the goods to music lovers who wait.
But that wasn’t the case on Wednesday night, when superstar soprano Latonia Moore and soon-to-be superstar J’Nai Bridges worked their way through a treasure box of famous arias and duets as well as jazz, gospel and art songs in San Diego Opera’s whirlwind season-opening concert at the Balboa Theatre.
Their performance with conductor Bruce Stasyna and the San Diego Symphony was presented with no intermission or encore, though there was a brief pause midway through to allow time for a piano to be rolled onstage and the singers to pull off a surprise costume change.
I can’t remember a San Diego Opera recital that didn’t end with an encore (or two), but perhaps that’s because these amazing singers needed a rest? They sang virtually nonstop with power, precision, fierce emotion and impeccable high notes for 90 thrilling minutes.
With a few musical interludes by the Symphony — the robust Polonaise from “Eugene Onegin” and the delightful overture from “The Marriage of Figaro” — Moore and Bridges took turns singing arias and songs and then teamed up for some of opera’s most-beloved female duets. It was in these harmonic duos — from “Madama Butterfly,” “Aida,” “The Tales of Hoffman” and “Norma” — that they seemed the most delighted to be onstage. They first performed together in San Diego Opera’s 2016 “Butterfly” and this was their first onstage reunion.
Moore has one of opera’s most exciting voices, capable of great control and power but also incredible nuance in expressing pain and emotion through song. She showed those skills with artfully performed arias by several doomed heroines including Aida, Cio-Cio San, Norma and Carmen. Her vocal standout of the night was a heart-wrenching performance of Margherita’s “L’atra notte in fonda al mare” from Boito’s “Mefistofele.”
Bridges has a large and smoky voice that soars with grace. She hasn’t yet played the Egyptian princess Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida,” but her stunning performance in the opera’s “Silenzio” duet with Moore showed she will make a formidable Amneris in the future. She was also sheer perfection in “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” from Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila.”
There were also moments of levity. When Moore set up a music stand to perform the “Habanera” from “Carmen” she slightly tripped over her dress’s train, then squared her shoulders amusingly to regain her character’s infamous pride and sang the aria effortlessly with teasing sex appeal. Bridges was also quite playful in singing one of two pieces from Catalan composer Xavier Montsalvatge’s 1945 song cycle “Cinco Canciones Negras.”
Multitalented conductor Stasyna, who is San Diego Opera’s staff conductor and chorus master, led the symphony with vigor and style, then moved to the piano to serve as solo accompanist for several songs.
San Diego Opera billed the concert “Grammy Greats,” because both Moore and Bridges have won Grammy Awards in the past few years for their opera recordings. Moore showed the audience why she’s Grammy material with a moving aria from Terence Blanchard’s jazz- and gospel-infused 2021 opera “Fire Shut Up In My Bones.”
The audience for the concert was younger and more diverse than usual for a San Diego Opera show. For several somewhat perplexed audience members seated around me, it appeared to be their first opera recital.
For opera veterans, the stories, characters and words of the songs sung Wednesday were instantly recognizable. But for first-timers, it was a mystery — despite English translations in the printed program (there were not projected supertitles). A bit of spoken introduction to each aria or duet may have made the program a bit less intimidating for newbies.
