Heidi Melton

I think I had not heard Heidi Melton sing before last night’s recital at Old First Church, but I sure have heard her now, and count myself among her undoubtedly growing number of fans. What a voice! Strength and clarity without apparent effort and without sacrificing beauty, and beauty without sacrificing meaning; you could just float along, borne by the billowing waves of her voice, but you’re pulled into the storm and shadow and sun succeeding each other in rapid measure.

She looked very nice, with a white lily streaked with pink in her blonde hair, and a black dress in a Grecian style. She and her accompanist, John Parr, had a wonderful mixture of the familiar and the less familiar: first Samuel Barber’s Three Songs, Op. 45 (the texts are all translations into English from other languages) followed by Wagner's Wesendonck lieder; then, after an intermission, Berg’s intimate and voluptuous Seven Early Songs – they’ve been done several times around here in the past few years, but I always seemed to miss those performances, and besides, you can never have too much Berg, especially in a performance like this one – and then four Strauss lieder. My one quibble about the whole evening is that I felt that the third Strauss number, Morgen, was taken at too slow a pace; it must be difficult not to roll around in its beautiful fields, but it lost too much dramatic tension for me. There were two encores, Weill’s piquant ballad, My Ship, and my favorite Strauss lied, Zueignung.

The audience was surprisingly sparse, given Melton’s growing reputation, but that did give a nicely intimate air to the recital. Old First Church isn’t that far off the beaten track (Sacramento and Van Ness) and tickets were only $17, which is an amazing bargain, so I don’t know quite what the problem was, though I have to admit that if I hadn’t already been in San Francisco but had to come in from the East Bay, I might not have bothered, which would have been my loss. Knowing what I know now, I’d consider it well worth the time getting there.

Melton spoke briefly and charmingly before each set; she seems to have the ability that Christine Brewer and Deborah Voigt have of speaking in a bright and funny manner and then instantly tapping into whatever somber or profound (or, in this evening’s case, let’s just say Germanic) mood the song requires, and bringing the audience with her through the switch, which doesn't always happen. She mentioned that she had performed the Wesendonck lieder several times before, but that the intervening year of experiences had changed and deepened her interpretation of words and music. She also spoke about much she loved the Berg set, and indeed her eyes were wet as she sang them.

Afterwards she stayed to greet and talk with what seemed like every member of the audience, which was very gracious of her since she had mentioned it was her birthday and she probably had other places to be. She told me that her mother has her name on Google Alert and sends her everything, even though sometimes they’re things she’d rather not read. So: Hi, Mrs Melton! Go ahead and send this, because your daughter is an amazing singer!