BERKELEY - Perhaps not quite on the order of 10-year-old
pianist-composer-philosopher Kit Armstrong, St. Petersburg's Daniil
Shtoda *is* a prodigy. He is 25, looks 18, and when he turns on the puppy
charm (which is just about always), he is just a kid in the candy store...
where the confections come from his own throat.
Behind all that charm and "childish joy," however, there is something
much more than an exceptional voice. There is that, of course, rare and
wonderful, a youthful and yet fully developed tenor. The extra is an
extraordinary artistic sensibility, which - unlike the voice - is still
as much promise as an accomplished fact. There is more to come here,
much more.
Shtoda's Cal Performances recital - as his entire North American tour -
has a bold, rewarding program: an all-Russian affair, mostly by composers
little or not at all known in the West. Even with a Soviet-block
background, I know next to nothing about Aliabev, Gurilyov, Varlamov,
Kozlovsky, Bulakhov. In addition to Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff,
there were "unknown" songs from somewhat recognizable composers, such
as Cui and Balakirev.
And yet, there wasn't a single work on the program not worth hearing...
repeatedly. The problem was with us, the audience, not with the selections.
There were very few among listeners in Hertz Hall today, with a surprisingly
non-Russian majority, who knew the music. Among them, my friend, who
mouthed the lyrics to all of them, having sung them at family gatherings,
the music school, etc.
It was her, acting from knowledge, who pointed at what makes Shtoda
special. However standard these songs may be in Russia (and all around
the former Soviet Union), she found in several - Dargomyzhsky's "I am
sad" most prominently - "interpretation I never heard before."
Brilliant as the entire recital was, Shtoda's understanding and
interpretation of songs points the way to a very bright future, well
beyond being just a pretty voice.
The voice, of course, is much better than pleasant. Although I suffer
from a childhood trauma of "typical Russian tenor," complete with extreme
head voice and strangely-pitched, thin high notes, Shtoda's fairly typical
Russian tenor was still undeniably thrilling. It brings to mind great
ones, on the order of Lemeshev, Kozlovsky and Vinogradov; he is already
better than Atlantov.
There were a few puzzles, such as reverting to falsetto in both
Rachmaninoff's "How peaceful" and "Do not sing," a touch of bleating in
the latter, some carelessness here and there, but the certainty, the
phrasing, and - increasingly as the concert went on - vocal fireworks
dominated.
Kozlovsky's "I met you" and Bulakhov's "I know that you are not timid,"
"Rendezvous" "No, I don't love you" and "Do not awaken the recollection"
were sensational, with ringing high notes and wonderfully straightforward
communication.
Opera, which is apparently Shtoda's great ambition, came into play
only during the encore, with arias from Verdi's "I Lombardi," Arensky's
"Raphael" and Cilea's "L'Arlesiana," Shtoda maintaining his offbeat
programming, the voice steadily gaining in assurance and power. When
he hit a resounding high C in the Arensky, there was nothing "Russian"
about it - just wonderful singing, without any self-conscious, self-promoting
"tenor attitude." Coming soon to an opera house near you: Shtoda as Beppe
in "Pagliacci" (Covent Garden), Don Ottavio in "Don Giovanni" (Washington
and Salzburg), Tamino in "The Magic Flute" (Glyndebourne), Nadir in "The
Pearl Fishers" (Opera Orchestra of New York) and Laertes in "Hamlet"
(Barcelona). None of it to be missed.
The accompanist was the tenor's mentor and teacher, Larissa Gergieva.
Her loud, overbearing, erratic and narcissistic playing might not have
been survived by a lesser singer. It was just another sign of his genuinely
good-natured personality that Shtoda put up with the obstacle course
laid down by Gergieva with equanimity and the kind of warmth an exceptionally
good person would show to a troublesome aunt.
Janos Gereben/SF
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