Choral Society of Durham

Last night the Choral Society of Durham gave its first concert. I mention this because I sing in the CSD. The concert was "Soldiers, Sailors & Celebration, A Concert of Opera Masterpieces." As it was sponsored by the Center for Slavic, Eurasion and East European Studies at Duke University, three of the artists were Russian - Marina Tregubovich (soprano), Dmitry Karpov (tenor) and Aleksandr Smoridkin (piano). The second soprano was Elizabeth Byrum Linnartz, faculty at Duke. The concert consisted of works by Gounad, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Dvorak, Mozart, Donizetti and Verdi. Not really too varied, but well done (if I say so myself). The soloists sang with verve, the Russians with that amount of vibrato one expects from the Eastern style of vocal training (I notice it too with the brass instruments; very bright and cutting). This is not my favorite kind of concert, as you can tell from reading my blog, but it was quite fun. Listening to it makes me understand more where the 20th century musical got its start. The Dvorak especially made me think of Dorothy yearning to see the end of the rainbow, Mother Superior advising Maria to climb every mountain. Dvorak did it better of course, with the Song of the Moon, sung by Elizabeth Byrum Linnartz.