CONCERT PREVIEW: Berkshire Opera Festival presents “mid-winter” Mozart recital March 27

GREAT BARRINGTON — According to Opera Sense, only Verdi’s operas are more popular than Mozart’s. And among Mozart’s operas, “Don Giovanni” has always ranked high. That’s the opera we are getting ready for now. I say “we,” because quite a few vocalists in the Berkshires are now preparing to sing in the chorus of Berkshire Opera Festival‘s August 2022 production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.”

But non-singers, too, have a way of preparing for “Don Giovanni”: They can appear at Saint James place Sunday, March 27, at 4 p.m., to hear an all-Mozart recital sung by two Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) cast members, soprano Maria Valdes and tenor Alex McKissick, with Albany Pro Musica Assistant Director Noah Palmer providing piano accompaniment.

Sunday’s program will include vocal music from Mozart’s best-known operas, along with lesser-known arias and art songs, the idea being to explore Mozart’s life and career so that we’re all primed and ready for the summer “Don Giovanni” performances.

Sunday’s event, delayed a little by Omicron, was originally conceived as a mid-winter recital, but, one week into spring, it seems likely that temperatures on the 27th will be wintry enough. 

Soprano Maria Valdes played the role of Gilda in BOF’s 2018 production of “Rigoletto” and Younger Alyce in 2021’s “Glory Denied.” The New York Times considers her a “first-rate singing actress.” In the 2020-21 season Valdes had been booked to sing Amy in Houston Grand Opera’s world premiere of Joel Thompson’s “The Snowy Day” and would have made her Hawaii Opera Theater debut as Euridice in Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld.”  

Tenor Alex McKissick is new to BOF, but his operatic bona fides go way back: He has played the role of Rodolfo in “La Bohème” with Des Moines Metro Opera, the title role in “Roméo et Juliette” with Wolf Trap Opera, and has worked with stage directors David Alden, Francesca Zambello, Tomer Zvulun, Octavio Cardenas, Christopher Mattaliano, and Garnett Bruce. Other past roles include Nikolaus Sprink in Kevin Puts’ “Silent Night,” Roderigo in Verdi’s “Otello,” the Governor of Montevideo in Bernstein’s “Candide,” the 1st Armored Guard in “The Magic Flute,” and the title role in “Faust.”  

Before the pandemic intervened, McKissick had been scheduled to make his debut as Tamino in “The Magic Flute” with Opera San José under the baton of Donato Cabrera.

Conductor and pianist Noah Palmer is assistant director and accompanist for Albany Pro Musica and assistant conductor of the Broad Street Chorale and Orchestra in Kinderhook, New York. In 2016, he was an apprentice coach and chorus master with San Francisco Opera’s young artist program.

Closer to home, Palmer has led such groups as the Northern Berkshire Chorale and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus. In 2021, he led choral ensembles at Skidmore College in virtual performances. 

In August 2021, Berkshire Opera Festival’s production of Verdi’s “Falstaff” turned a lot of heads and removed all doubt about the future of opera in the Berkshires. It is here to stay, and it’s a real treat that we are able to get a little preview of their 2022 season so early in the year.