He came from a long line of singers.  His great uncle created the role of
Gabriele Adorno for Verdi in "Simon Boccanegra." In 1980, when he was 19,
Gualtiero Negrini was hot stuff, winning the Lyric Opera auditions (and,
later both the San Francisco Opera auditions, and Met district finals).  At
21, he replaced Winbergh in Chicago as Ferrando, said to be the youngest
tenor to sing a leading role in a major American opera house.

Fast-forward two decades.  Last night, Negrini turned up in Davies Hall,
stepping in for an indisposed Greg Fedderly at the San Francisco Symphony's
New Year Year's Eve gala, a vague memory from the past, sounding thorough
wretched.

It's not just that the voice has no body, no base or security; Negrini
also sang a throw-away, unmusical "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz," an aria
which almost always sounds great in showers around the world - a song,
to be sure, difficult to do superbly, but one which both invites and
inspires gusto, bravado, "commitment".  none of which was in evidence
tonight, not by a long shot.  A dreadful "Maria" from "West Side Story"
(another made-for-shower opportunity wasted), and a tolerable but vocally
hesitant part in the "Fledermaus" Watch Duet - that's all there was.

It may be convenient to blame this flaming re-entry on Andrew Damn Webber,
seeing that Negrini spent almost five years in the "Phantom of the Opera,"
but the other singer of the evening, Lisa Vroman, did her five years --
maybe more -- of Christine, and she sounds as good as ever - meaning an
outstanding musical performer, but certainly not the opera singer she (a
former roommate of Renee Fleming, no less...:) once dreamed of becoming.
Even with Vroman's ability, you cannot spend a decade singing everything
amplified to the hilt and still hope to do the stuff a "real" opera singer
is expected to give.  But that's nothing compared with the Negrini
downfall.  It's very sad.

Yves Abel conducted, lucky that the San Francisco band is on autopilot.
I was glad to hear the "Zampa" overture on the program; why isn't there
just one opera house in the world producing just one Herold opera?!  He
was certainly better than some of his contemporaries still on the
occasional-revival list.

Concertmaster Nadya Tichman's brilliant solo in the "Of Thee I Sing"
overture lifted the pop concert to classical heights.  Oh, sorry:  *acting*
concertmaster.  There are very few mistakes MTT made in the six years since
arriving in San Francisco, but the inability/unwillingness to bestow the
title (and salary?) on the richly deserving Tichman is certainly in that
category.

Janos Gereben/SF, CA
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