Samuel Barber Vanessa

Nicole Heaston soprano, J’Nai Bridges Mezzo-soprano; Susan Graham Mezzo-soprano, Matthew Polenzani tenor, Thomas Hampson tenor,
Jonathan Bryan tenor, Samuel Weiser bass baritone
Gianandrea Noseda
National Symphony Orchestra
University of Maryland Concert Choir (Jason Max Ferdinand, director)


NSO00023
https://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/home/nso-label/vanessa/

Samuel Barber's Vanessa is not an opera one stumbles upon every season, and that is precisely why this gripping new recording from Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra demands attention. Captured live in concert in 2025, it makes the most persuasive case I have heard for a work that ought to occupy a far more secure place in the affections of opera-goers. If the piece is unfamiliar to you — and for many listeners it will be — then this recording is the disc to put that right.

Pulitzer Prize-winning on its 1958 premiere, Vanessa sits within the twentieth-century lineage of Puccini and Strauss while speaking in a voice that is unmistakably its own. Barber's score draws together the European operatic inheritance and a distinctly American sensibility, with echoes of Verdi, Puccini and the lush orchestral palette of Hitchcock-era Hollywood interlacing throughout. Menotti's libretto — a haunting tale of love, longing and illusion across the generations — turns on the eternal themes of waiting, loneliness and the refusal to face reality, and Barber's response is a score of remarkable refinement and emotional force.

Noseda shapes the dramatic arc with a broad view that pays handsome dividends, and the orchestral playing is superbly balanced from first bar to last. The wonderful orchestral introduction sets the tone, and every section is in excellent form, with the brass and woodwind especially fine. Throughout, the NSO colours the text beautifully; the crescendos and diminuendos are finely judged.

The cast is stellar, with diction that does full justice to Menotti's text. Soprano Nicole Heaston in the title role—a woman of great beauty in her late thirties—captures the spirit of the part superbly, her tone glowing and her phrasing alive to every shift of feeling. As her young niece Erika, mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges is a revelation: her top register is excellent, and she paints the character with terrific energy. Her "Must the winter come so soon?" is sung with plush sincerity; the aria's melancholy is beautifully drawn. Matthew Polenzani's Anatol, the handsome young man at the centre of the drama, is delivered with terrific dynamics and tenderness, while Susan Graham's The Old Baroness—Vanessa's mother and Erika's grandmother—is quite simply fabulous, her glorious voice undimmed. Baritone Thomas Hampson brings veteran authority to the Old Doctor, and Jonathan Bryan's Nicholas, the Major-Domo, is a model of vocal dexterity in a smaller role.

The set piece of the recording is the great quintet from Act III, "To leave, to break, to find, to keep", in which all five principals sing delectably before leading us into the opera's final moments. The emotional peak of the score is delivered here with a poise and concentration that leaves one breathless. The University of Maryland Concert Choir, directed by Jason Max Ferdinand, brings considerable presence to the two brief choral sections; "In Morning Light, Let Us Rejoice", with its delicious orchestration, shows the chorus off particularly well.

The excellently produced booklet contains an insightful synopsis by Hilary Poriss and the libretto.

Barber's writing for orchestra is consistently lovely, never more so than in the celebrated Intermezzo, where oboe, woodwind and harp combine to ravishing effect. Noseda has created a gem of a recording, and if Vanessa is unfamiliar territory, this is a disc that will not disappoint. It may well prove a discovery.