Nicole Car and ACO: soprano’s range, versatility stand out

Soprano Nicole Car is one of our finest classical singers. Her performances with Opera Australia have been triumphs.

Soprano Nicole Car with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney’s City Recital Hall. Picture: Nic Walker.

Soprano Nicole Car is one of our finest classical singers. Her performances with Opera Australia have been a succession of triumphs. Concerts present a different challenge, though, as the singer is more exposed without the trappings of an opera production.

In this cleverly conceived program of vocal and orchestral works, the performers segued from one piece to the next with barely a pause, maintaining a sense of momentum and contrast.

In the first half, Satu Vanska’s sweet-toned, sinuously shaped account of Beethoven’s Romance No 2 for violin and orchestra was an oasis of calm between two stormy concert arias by Mozart and Beethoven. The four-part segment opening the second half was even more effective. Starting with an arrangement of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ave Maria, the ensemble seamlessly shifted into music by Verdi and Puccini, creating a compelling atmosphere of hushed intensity.

The vocal pieces highlighted Car’s versatility and range. In all of them she displayed focused clarity, impressive agility and strength across her tessitura. There was a common theme of women wronged and ill-treated, but each work had its own nature.

It was all about drama in the first half. In Mozart’s Basta, vincesti — Ah non lasciarmi and Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido, her strong tempo, dynamic contrasts and expressive intensity captured the music’s rage and despair.

In the second half, in Verdi’s prayer-like Ave Maria from Otello and Mozart’s Misera, dove son, Car’s pure timbre and long-breathed phrasing conveyed her characters’ sadness and suffering. The concert’s final aria, Mozart’s Chi sa, chi sa, qual sia, was a display of virtuosic coloratura.

Throughout, Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra provided sensitive, idiomatic accompaniments. In the purely orchestral works, the ensemble’s own versatility came to the fore.

Reviving a performance practice from Mozart’s day, Tognetti split the three movements of his Symphony No 27 across the concert’s two halves. In this and the overture and dances from Handel’s opera Alcina, the ACO’s swift speeds, cohesive ensemble and incisive rhythms realised invigorating, appealing performances.

By contrast, their lush, warm-toned sonorities created soulful readings of Puccini’s Crisantemi and the Prelude to Act III of La traviata.

Nicole Car and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Director: Richard Tognetti. City Recital Hall, Sydney, April 8. Perth Concert Hall, tomorrow; City Recital Hall, Sydney, April 14, 18, 20 and 24; QPAC, Brisbane, April 16; Hamer Hall, Melbourne, April 22.