The House Rules

The Academy of Vocal Arts will congratulate itself with — what else? — a whole lot of singing.

by Peter Burwasser

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The seats are uncomfortable and the sight lines are a crapshoot. Ditto for climate control. For large productions, the musicians can outnumber the audience with shrill, ear-splitting acoustics. Yes, the Academy of Vocal Arts' hall on Spruce Street, Helen Corning Warden Theater, is a most unlikely opera venue, but it is also a wonderful one. Opera lovers of Philadelphia and beyond know this, which is why only the most diligent fans can ever get seats (nearly everything sells out far in advance of the performances). The space, named for AVA's founder, happens to drip with Victorian charm, but it is the astonishing singing that makes this quirky Philadelphia institution a musical mecca. Season after season, AVA ships off grads to the major stages of the world, including the Metropolitan in New York, for which the school seems to be a veritable farm team.

AVA celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. That makes it something of a little sister to the Curtis Institute of Music, which is also tuition-free and about a decade older. Those family ties figure into the recent history of AVA. There is no question that AVA is a far more artistically impressive entity today than it was in the early years, when it was a solid, if somewhat stodgy institution. As opposed to Curtis, which hit the ground running with a celebrity faculty and cream-of-the-crop students, a formula that has never been tampered with.

Ironically, it was Curtis that stimulated the turning point in the history of AVA, when, in the late 1970s, under the opera-averse leadership of John de Lancie, the Curtis singing department was greatly pared down (it has since been reconstituted). The pedagogical orphans of that program, Dino Yannopoulos and Christofer Macatsoris, basically grabbed their best students and took over at AVA. It was a move that included, rather nastily, the dismissal of a number of students who were required to re-audition, but the immediate result was a significant upward jump in artistic standards.

Yannopoulos (who died in 2003) was succeeded as executive director by K. James McDowell, an AVA alum himself and distinguished baritone, in 1987. Macatsoris is still there as music director, and is surely the artistic heart of the place. He is a superb conductor, a musician's musician who is highly admired by the professional community and deserving of a far wider reputation. When he leads the pit orchestra on Spruce Street, he makes no concessions to the size of the space, drawing an overwhelming vividness and power from his performers that has no equivalence in traditional opera houses.

More important is his mentorship of the students, from whom he inspires focused and passionate singing. His influence is felt even when he is not on the podium; for a piano-accompanied performance of the last opera of Richard Strauss in February (with Luke Housner at the keyboard), Capriccio, student Jan Cornelius delivered the hugely demanding final scene with a poise and splendor that put her in a class with historically celebrated versions of the music. It was the sort of music-making that lingered in the mind's ear for many days. And yet it was not extraordinary by current AVA standards. It's what they do, day in and day out.

AVA will congratulate itself next Wednesday night with, what else, a whole lot of singing, with Maestro Macatsoris on a roomier stage than usual. This time the venue will be Verizon Hall, with about 17 times the capacity of the home venue. The format will be a hit parade of favorites sung by recent grads, all now hifliers in the opera world. Superstar mezzo Joyce DiDonato had to bow out, but sopranos Eglise Gutiérrez, Angela Meade and Latonia Moore are not far behind, nor are the male guests, including tenors James Valenti and Michael Fabiano and baritone Luis Ledesma. The resident artists, as AVA calls its current students, will also join in the revelry. This is something like having a dinner that consists only of rich desserts, but such an indulgence won't kill you if you don't do it too often. It is a perfectly appropriate treat for a major anniversary.

(p_burwasser@citypaper.net)

Brava Philadelphia! Wed., March 31, 7:30 p.m., $48-$52 (concert only), $125 (concert and reception) or $450-$750 (concert, dinner and reception), Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., 215-735-1685, avaopera.org, kimmelcenter.org.