That would be David Daniels, singing Britten tonight in Herz Hall, in a
Cal Performances concert: "Oliver Cromwell lay buried and dead, Hee-haw,
buried and dead."

At the end, the thrilling male alto came as close to true countertenor
as at any time during the recital: "If you want any more you can sing it
yourself, Hee-haw, sing it yourself..." and even before his accompanist,
Martin Katz, finished the phrase, Daniels was sneaking off the stage, doing
a solo version of Haydn's "Farewell Symphony."

If that weren't enough for an unstuffy, entertaining concert ("my San
Francisco recital debut - in Berkeley"), there came the encores: Purcell's
"Sweeter than Roses," a gorgeous song nobody sings better than Daniels;
Alec Wilder's pretty and nostalgic "Blackberry Winter," and then, taking
the cake: Victor Healy-Hutchinson's Handelian treatment of "Old Mother
Hubbard," with grand, overflowing pathos climaxing in "the cupboard was
BARE," and the packed hall just erupted, again.

One of the most charming, entertaining recitals in years, the inter-bay
debut showed off Daniels (due in the Handel's "Julius Caesar" in San
Francisco proper next month) in fine voice and high good spirits.  There
were musical highlights as well, but not too much depth, which is OK.
Other than Thomas Quasthoff and a candidate of your choice, there are no
vocal soloists covering the whole range.  The music was mostly nice and
pretty; no tears were evoked or shed.

Against somewhat of a monotony in Daniels' delivery, due more to the
nature of the voice than to his superb musicality, and a hit-and-miss,
occasionally covered diction, he scored an evening without a single
problem in intonation or projection, taking full advantage of Herz Hall's
world-class acoustics.

During the opening group of Caldara, Lotti, Cesti and Gluck, something
strange happened to Katz, one of the handful of top accompanists in the
world: he was not quite himself.  Playing too loud, banging a bit and
even slurring notes, this was a classic demonstration of the age-old
question: "Why does bad playing happen to good pianists?" In the next
group, Ravel's "Cinq melodies populaires grecques" (elegantly delivered
by Daniels), Katz was still too loud, but then he settled down and for
the rest of the evening, he was his estimable self again, much to
everybody's delight - especially Daniels'.

Two flawlessly performed arias from Handel's "Semele" and the introduction
of Theodore Morrison's "Chamber Music" cycle (to text by James Joyce) led
to a group of little-known French songs, in some way the musical highlight
of the evening.

Poulenc's "Priez pour paix," "C'est ainsi que tu es" and the
muscular-jocular "La belle jeunesse" ended up overshadowed (for me, at
least) by Andre Messager's "La vieille maison grise," from "Fortunio,"
and, especially, Henri Sauguet's "Bercause creole," from "Le plummet du
colonel."

Daniels sang the simple, understated "Creole lullaby" with stunning
simplicity, singing to himself, virtually under his breath, in a
performance of rare, unaffected sincerity and direct communication.

Janos Gereben/SF
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