Vocal Artists Management Presents Jinho Hwang in Review
Jinho Hwang, tenor; Steven Crawford, pianist
Marc A. Scorca Hall, The National Opera Center, New York, NY
March 22, 2019
Sogno di Primavera, or Dream of Spring, was the title of tenor Jinho Hwang’s recent recital at the National Opera Center, and it was an evening that reflected Romantic dreams as well as optimistic beginnings. Though Mr. Hwang is not at the beginning of his career, with various prizes and noteworthy operatic appearances behind him, he seems to be enjoying a comeback of sorts after some unspecified medical challenge he alluded to from the stage at the end of the concert – and he appears to have fully recovered. The audience, many of whom undoubtedly have been with him through it all, were fervently supporting him.
Mr. Hwang’s program was full of impassioned and sensuous music about love and nature, predominantly Italian art songs (Bellini and Tosti) with a few Italian opera arias (Donizetti, Verdi, and Cilea), a French aria (Massenet), and two Korean songs (by Panghil Park and Geung Soo Lim). The texts were wide-ranging, suggesting longing, nostalgia, euphoria, and despondency, and brimming with Romantic imagery of roses, rivers, kisses and tears. The works lived up to the title, Dream of Spring – with Tosti’s Aprile feeling especially fitting as we speed toward the end of March.
As for Mr. Hwang himself, he seems to possess all of the vocal ingredients that one should need for a fine career; the main question, though, is how he will use those ingredients, in what balance, to what degree when, and in what repertoire. He has an extremely powerful voice, for example, and yet it did not always work to his advantage in a hall with such extremely live acoustics as the Marc A. Scorca Hall at the National Opera Center. One is faced generally with several choices in such cases: switch halls, switch repertoire, or scale down one’s dynamics. One would hesitate to suggest switching halls, as this one is a fine, intimate space and boasts a nice seven-foot Yamaha piano. The repertoire switch is probably not the answer either, as, even in the more delicate pieces such as Tosti’s A vucchella, the sound still came across as overly bright. The remaining option is to make big vocal adjustments, something any artist needs to learn to do throughout a career – and yet all remained overpowering. One was left guessing whether the hall acoustics were misleading from the performer’s standpoint or the dominance of such a consistently big sound was actually an artistic preference. There also seemed to be a preponderance of high drama from which some quieter miniatures would have offered relief, the sort of gentle miniature that is perhaps not typical on an audition demo recording but exists as art. Programming is an art in itself, and ideally it balances dramatic tension and urgency with release.
Music of the bel canto master Vincenzo Bellini opened the concert. Rather than opt for Bellini’s operatic arias, Mr. Hwang chose five songs from the more intimate Ariette da Camera (omitting only the fourth, Almen se non poss’io). The first two selections, Ma rendi pur contento and Malinconia ninfa gentile had glimmers of the beautiful timbres of which this singer is capable, but it seemed that Mr. Hwang was already working for large-scale operatic projection, as if directing his sound to the back row at La Scala. This approach did not reel in the listener as one hopes from an opener, but rather tended to draw the listener’s ears toward whatever imperfections of intonation there may have been as the singer was still finding his stride. Mr. Hwang does not appear to make things easy on himself.
In Vanne, o rosa fortunata, the superb collaborative pianist Steven Crawford provided a gently playful introduction, and it set the tone for a more relaxed, less stentorian approach. Mr Hwang here reflected more of the character of the text and also sang with delight in the diction (one dazzlingly rolled “R” comes to mind).
The following Bellini selections, Bella Nice, che d’amore and Per pietà, bell’idol mio again showed tremendous power. The latter enjoyed some glorious high notes, and Mr. Hwang was especially compelling in the unaccompanied sections, as if his gifts had been waiting for the cue to soar with increased freedom. More of that freedom elsewhere, paired with a search for more dynamic low points, will help deepen these pieces even further.
Two twentieth-century Korean pieces followed the Bellini group, Twilight over the mountain by Pan Ghil Park and As if spring comes across the river by Geung Soo Lim. Both were evocative in the manner of film scores, and both showed the singer at his most expressive so far. He then turned to opera arias to close the program’s first half, maximizing the drama in Donizetti’s Una furtive lagrima (from L’elisir d’amore) and lending a swagger to Verdi’s La mia Letizia infondere (from I Lombardi). He was quite visibly expressive in both of these, and – it should be mentioned as well – had a regal bearing throughout, which should serve him well in his operatic roles.
A beautiful array of six art songs by Francesco Tosti opened the second half. La serenata brought a gently rolling feeling to the program, and Mr. Hwang sang it with a natural ease, as it demands. It was followed by L’ultima canzone, A vucchella, Ideale, Aprile, and finally L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra, all with moments that reminded one in purely vocal qualities of some of the great tenors of the past. What will ripen these pieces further will be more of a focus on the musical uniqueness of each one, irrespective of any issues of technique, passaggio or vocal fixations of any kind. It is always interesting to note how even many of the so-called technical challenges fall more easily into place as one gets away from audition-style demonstrations of skill and goes more deeply into the music. Of course, the opera world is filled with buzz about this or that singer’s “high C” and other strenuous achievements, but many listeners simply want music, with all its nuance, color, and variety.
The last two works were dramatic tours de force which elicited Mr. Hwang’s all, Massenet’s Pourquoi me réveiller (from Werther), with some magnificent vocal peaks, and Cilea’s E la solita storia del pastore (from L’Arlesiana). They closed the program with brilliance from both performers, drawing hearty ovations from the audience. There is no question that this singer has remarkable gifts, and – as one noticed a video camera filming it all from the back – one imagines some of the concert will result in some excellent demos and roles to come. There is much promise for Jinho Hwang – now may he enjoy the ride!
After some humble thanks to his friends, family, and God, Mr. Hwang announced that he would sing one more song, Grace of God. He sang it in Korean, with considerable emotion, and it was quite moving.
