"Performance of a Lifetime"
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
by Heuwell Tircuit
A Program of Riches from a Superb Soprano
Generous in quantity as well as quality, soprano Veronica Tyler opened the season for Today's Artists with a smashing success on Saturday in Masonic Auditorium.
Tyler covered a wide spectrum of music from Purcell and Handel to Poulenc and Rodrigo. Along the way she offered two operatic arias by Handel (from "Alcina" and "Ariodante") and one each by Mozart ("Figaro") and Puccini ("Gianni Schicchi").
Still, it was her art song repertory that made the strongest impressions of high artistry. These included two each by Schubert and Schumann, three of Rodrigo's "Four Madrigals," a group of five by black composers and four of Poulenc's finest-"Fleurs" and the languid "Hotel" among them.
For sheer beauty and consistency of tone alone, Tyler's recital would have been memorable. But the level of musicianship-things such as flawless intonation, command of languages (especially her German) and finesse in matters of style-rank her at the top of the field. She floated soft tones throughout the vast hall with amazing projection. One could hear her clearly, even under the balcony. (Ragogini's controlled, often underplayed accompaniments were a major asset in this.)
One key to Tyler's stature lay in her ability to vitalize and refresh familiar works. Schubert's"An die Musik," Schumann's "Widmung" and Puccini's "0 Mio Babbino" were stunningly beautiful with every bit of expectation met and then surpassed. Her "Gretchen am Spinnrade" of Schubert was, for me, the peak of the evening the performance of a lifetime.
It was not just a matter of standing on the stage and emoting. Far from it! What came across repeatedly were Tyler's intellect and classical respect for her materials-words and music.
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The Peninsula TIMES TRIBUNE
Palo Alto, California
Tyler shows her ‘whole’ voice
San Francisco – Some performers today are public relations creations, but not Veronica Tyler. She is earning her reputation the old-fashioned way.
Her voice has distinct personality and consistency. It is a whole voice from top to bottom, not segmented into registral timbres and colors. She has an enchanting kind of twilight aura, with sunsets and sunrises. To begin she floated her loveliest covered tones in ‘Bist du bei mir,” that gentle resignation to death long attributed to Bach. Shades of half light filtered through Strauss’ tranquilly dreamy “Freundliche Vision.”
Tyler saved her softest, most exquisitely controlled sotto voce for the final verse of the spiritual “My Lord what a morning.” The difficult climax of the “Air de Lia” from Debussy’s “L’Enfant Prodigue” she not only sustained but intensified through its four-phrase expanse. In Leonora’s “Pace, pace, mio Dio,” from Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino,” she put herself through such an emotional ringer she had to pause before moving on to “Depuis le jour” from Charpentier’s “Louise.”
The sun came out languidly in Gershwin’s “Summertime,” as a stylized major-key “suffer and burn” for love’s sake in “Di cor mio quanto t’amai” from Handel’s “Alcina,” and with warm appreciation in Strauss’ “Zueignung” (“Habe Dank”). The brightest and most delightful moments came in his “Schlagende herzen.” Here Tyler and her remarkable pianist Margaret Singer conveyed all the cheerful anticipation of a lad running over hill and dale to meet his love with his feet never seeming to touch the ground.
-- Michael Andrews
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Veronica Tyler’s Stunning Recital
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
by Heuwell Tircuit
Veronica Tyler, in her first local recital in five years, again proved her exceptional worth and individuality as possibly the world’s best second soprano. Wonderful musicianship and a pure sense of musical classicism are joined in Tyler within a light, pearly sound. As such, she has been much admired during her career with New York City Opera for her "The pretty girl who loses the tenor" roles"-- Liu in Puccini's "Turandot," Micaela in "Carmen" and such. But even more than that, she has been much in demand for her Mozart Singing, especially in European opera houses and the orchestral concert world.
Isolde she will not likely ever sing. And who cares when what she does she does so well. Even with apologizing for "a San Francisco virus" on Saturday, Tyler set the sizable Masonic crowd on its collective ears. Clearly, delicacy has its own rewards.
Tyler opened with an aria from Handel's "Alcina" - her theme song, which she included in both her 1980 and '82 programs here. Later, she added two from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" ("Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata" and "Ah! chi mi dice mai"), plus the ocean aria from Weber's "Oberon."
All well and good, but if anything, it was in her song selections that Tyler most stole the heart. Between the Handel and Mozart arias, she sang four Schubert lieder, later adding three of Joaquin Rodrigo's four "Madrigals" and a group of Margaret Bond's spirituals -- ending with the best known of them all, "He's Got the Whole World in his Hands."
What mattered, however, were the sensibility and pathos projected by Tyler's performance. Schubert’s special fragility of mood, blending passionate love with confused concern, was perfection itself. You could have heard a pin drop. (And this with an audience normally addicted to unwrapping candy, shuffling and chitchatting during German songs.)
"To Music” touched the core of Schubert's great hymn to art, and the utter stillness of his "Night and Dreams" achieved exceptional feelings of total calm. But Tyler's sonic portrait of Goethe's Gretchen reached a level that remains in the mind. The others were excellent "Gretchen am Spinnrade" was sensational.
More sensual sounds were added for the Spanish and American items, but the maturity and control during those Schubert selections really took the cake for me. Never was Tyler less than consummately tasteful.
Her finesse also was notable in the operatic items. This was especially true in Tyler's cogent dramatic play during the opening recitatives - things too often sung as throwaways before "the real music."
Without bending or beating the recitatives, Tyler's Mozart opening struck just the right moods to illustrate what was happening in the drama. The music rose above language barriers to the level of pure communication. This is the difference between a singer and a singing artist.
Tyler sang a more rewarding concert with her virus than most singers manage when healthy.* * *
Costumes Fit the Songs in Tyler Program
San Francisco Chronicle
The American Soprano Veronica Tyler has put together a program she calls "Great Women of Opera." Under the auspices of Today's Artists Concerts, Tyler presented this program at Herbst Theatre Saturday night.
With a fetching and dramatic change of costume for each aria, Tyler offered a large gallery of operatic Heroines, from an introspective Countess Almaviva in Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" to the madly chattering Lucy in Menotti's "The Telephone" ("Hello? Hello? What are you saying?").
Tyler endowed each of her diva heroines with dramatic focus and charm.... Vocally, the most enjoyment came from the sardonic wisdom expressed by the actress Adriana in "Io son l'umile ancella" ("Adriana Lecouvreur") and the witty patter of Lucy in "Telephone." The vividness of the drama was underscored throughout by Tyler's seven changes of costume, including a stunning bride's outfit for the "Louise" aria.
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Tribune-Review
SOAP IN OPERA
Soprano Veronica Tyler has fun with the operatic music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in her play “The Soap in Opera,” presented Saturday night at Carnegie Mellon University.
She created a dramatic framework—placed on the set of an imaginary soap opera—that serves as a good excuse to perform some of Mozart’s greatest hits, mostly from “The Marriage of Figaro.”
Tyler was the star. She has a beautiful voice and was enjoyable alone in famous numbers, such as “Porgi amor." Although idiomatic Mozart sound, particularly light vibrato, was not much in evidence, some of the supporting cast gave appealing performances.
Mozart’s sophisticated orchestra was smartly arranged for solo woodwinds and piano by Kenneth Keeling, who conducted.
--Mark Kanny
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THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS
August 30-September 5, 2007
Veronica Tyler gives rare NYC performance
By Raul Abdul
A large audience filled the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the Library of the Performing Arts on Sunday afternoon to welcome the soprano Veronica Tyler back to our city after a long absence. Assisted by a small ensemble of singers and instrumentalists, she offered a unique program which both entertained and informed. It was built around works by William Harper, George Gershwin and W. A. Mozart.
The program opened with four excerpts from Harper's opera "EI Greco," arranged by the composer himself for voice, string quartet and piano. They were performed beautifully by Tyler (as St. Teresa of Avila).
Much of the success of the performance was due to the excellent instrumental ensemble conducted by Kenneth A. Keeling.
The entire second half of the program was devoted to a concert-play: "The Soap in Opera" "Episode IV: Susanna vs. the Count," created and directed by Tyler, with music from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" as arranged for string quartet by Keeling. It was an imaginary court trial between Susanna's descendant and the Count Almaviva. Believe me, it elevated those soap opera court shows into the realm of High Art.
This was entertainment designed for musical cognoscenti and they could be seen throughout the auditorium. Throughout all of the fun, Tyler remembered the old folk caution "Don't give up your day job!" Since singing is hers, she did not forget to treat us to an exquisite performance of one of the most beautiful arias of the Countess. I doubt if few in Sunday's audience will forget this moment.
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THE POST, Wednesday, November 3, 2004
Entertainment
Bay Area Music Lovers go to Carnegie Hall
by Benjamin Matthews
The Four Seasons Concerts annual Carnegie Hall concert took place on October 13 this year and featured Soprano Veronica Tyler, whom many have heard on Bay Area stages throughout the last 25 years.
A local group of music lovers traveled to Cape Cod to the home of violinist Pierre d'Archambeau and then bused through the Fall foliage to New York. They visited the Apollo Theater for a special concert, in which three members of the group participated: Arza Maude Ralph, Cheryl Somers, and Sylvester Brooks.
After touring New York for three days, the group joined hundreds of New Yorkers for one of the most talked-about concerts of the season. Veronica Tyler wove magic over Weill Recital Hall when she sang a concert that was expertly designed to accomodate her exceptional musicality and beautiful voice.
The first half of her program was dedicated to the music of Bach and Handel. She was in exceptional vocal form and captured her listeners as she spun vocal tone and breath together into one musical unit, as displayed in her renditions of the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria and the Quia Respexit from Bach's Magnificat. The highlights were vocal lessons in every sense of the word.
Other vocal delights came in the second half of the program with thrilling renditions of The Marriage of Figaro and a talented young string ensemble led by the knowledgeable and able hand of Dr. Kenneth Keeling, who skillfully arranged much of the evening's program. A choral trio assisted for "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."
This musical presentation, presented by the Four Seasons Concerts, was entitled, "Woman, Thy Color is Love" and left the audience enraptured...so this is love!