On a balmy Wednesday evening, a large crowd turned up at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park to see the soprano Angel Blue’s first appearance with the Metropolitan Opera.
Ms.
Blue, a 32-year-old lyric soprano, is a California native with a
flourishing career in Europe, where she has been praised for her
interpretations of roles including Mimì and Musetta in “La Bohème.” A
protégée of Plácido Domingo, she is also a regular presenter for the
BBC.
For the Met, as part of the opening concert for the annual Summer Recital Series,
she did her best to make her performance memorable, flirtatiously
tossing flowers into the audience as she sang her encore, a zarzuela
selection. (She will make her main-stage debut during an unspecified
future season.)
Ms. Blue financed her musical training
at the University of California, Los Angeles, with prize money from
beauty pageants. She was named Miss Hollywood in 2005, and Miss Southern
California in 2006. Statuesque in a blue dress, she opened the lineup
on Wednesday with “Je veux vivre” from “Roméo et Juliette.” Here, and in
ensuing selections, she demonstrated an alluring voice, her dusky lower
range seductive in “Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante,” from Bizet’s
“Carmen,” and her expressive nuance vivid in “Vissi d’arte,” from
Puccini’s “Tosca.” Her honeyed timbre was heard to fine effect in an
intimate rendition of “Donde lieta usci,” from “La Bohème.”
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