A High-Five for This Live Performance

[Satzaroo]

There can be many drawbacks in attending a live classical music performance, even if you are in the front row, my favorite spot.  I get annoyed when I hear whispering, throat clearing, and coughing in the audience. And the artists themselves can distract from the music, particularly when they sweat, drool, smirk, inanely grin, dress provocatively, or perform robotically.

I encountered none of these hindrances at the May 7 concert of the American Music Festival in Morehead City, North Carolina. I thus was able to devote all of my attention to the main attraction, soprano Maria Jette. Although she has performed with celebrated groups like the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and has frequently sung less operatically on "The Prairie Home Companion", her name was unfamiliar to me; but not from now on.

Jette has an exquisitely rich and vibrant voice that she first displayed in the poignant Brahms Geistliches Wiegenlied, Dvorak's Songs My Mother Taught Me, Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, and Previn's Vocalise. After the intermission, she crisply and jauntily sang Americana Mother's Day ditties like Henry Pease's "Oh Mother: I'm Wild!" and ended the concert by eerily imitating animal noises in Steve Heitzeg's Crow Cadenza and Prayer Council.

But what impressed me the most about Maria Jette was not her voice per se—a CD recording could have reproduced the same vocal quality and range. Watching her was the best part of the concert. She had tremendous poise throughout the performance. Her facial expressions—from the sentimental to the sardonic--perfectly fit the tenor of the works.  While she didn't flaunt her talent (or her abundant sylphlike charm), you could feel that she was in complete control of every nuance. No matter what she was singing, there was no doubt that she embodied the essence of the piece.

For a mere $40, I and my eight-year-old granddaughter were thoroughly entertained. With five concerts per year—featuring noted guest artists and the Carolina Piano Trio—the American Music Festival is a cultural oasis in coastal North Carolina.