WEXFORD - Just like the weather outside in this delightful Irish seaside
town, the experience inside St. Iberius Church this afternoon went from
sunny-bright to frosty-windy in no time at all.

Opening the 2003 Wexford Festival Opera recital series, Ivan Choupenitch
- a large, bearded and bespectacled man from Minsk, looking more like a
bass than a tenor - launched into a series of Russian songs with startling
impact.

It was as if tropical sunshine lit up the small, white church, the bright
light of discovery: a big, strong voice, "Slavic," but with a German
edge to it, an amazing vibrato, and small, appealing sobs from the heart
of Italy.  Here, at last, was a typical Russian headvoice, but with
powerful, "fat" high notes, a shimmering, lustrous sound in quiet passages,
simply thrilling.  The first impression of Choupenitch was that he could
be an equally outstanding Lensky, Turiddu and Cavaradossi!.

And then, very quickly, the cold sea breeze of disappointment.  The
man from Minsk - here for the opera festival with a large contingent
of singers and the entire national orchestra from Belarus - turned out
to be someone in great need of some basic training.  Great voice, poor
singing - if he were at the beginning of a career, some aggressive
coaching could turn him around, but he appears to be pushing 40, which
may be way too late for fundamental changes.

When he switched to folk to Russian art songs and two arias from "Tosca,"
the roof fairly fell in: incomprehensible diction, increasing problems
in intonation, miscalculations in dynamic changes, softening the tone
to the point of inaudibility, unfinished phrases, inconsistent rhythms
and not letting silences be, the previously pleasing vibrato becoming
excessive and jarring...  you name it, the problem was there.

The fair-to-middling accompaniment came from Czech repetiteur Robert
Pechanec.  The recital series is bound to improve after today, even if
a better voice is not likely to show up.  Of course, with the festival's
wild mix of young singers from around the globe, you don't know that for
sure.  Consider:

In the Weber-Mahler "Die Drei Pintos," Italian baritone Alessandro Svab
sings the role of Don Pinto, Icelandic tenor Gunnar Gudbjornsson is Don
Gaston, in a cast featuring Irish soprano Sinead Campbell, French soprano
Sophie Marilley, American tenor Peter Furlong.

In Granados' "Maria del Carmen," Diane Veronese from Tbilisi sings the
title role, Spanish baritone Jesus Suaste is Pencho, Mexican tenor Dante
Alcala is Javier, and - understandably enough, singers from Spain complete
the cast, including Sylvia Vazquez, Vicent Esteve, and Alberto Arrabal.

East Europe, of course, is more in evidence for Weinberger's "Svanda
Dudak" - Slovanian baritone Matjaz Robavs sings the title role; Moscow-born
soprano Tatiana Monogarova is his wife; Choupenitch plays the robber
Babinski; Ukrainian bass Alexander Teliga sings the double role of the
Magician and the Devil.

Janos Gereben/SF
(In Wexford, 10/20-22, in London, 10/23-27)
www.sfcv.org