Brown's thrilling Met debut as Aida makes the front page of The New York Times; for 2005, a shifting of gears at Wexford Festival Opera.(On the Beat)(Interview)

On October 29, ANGELA BROWN'S Aida provided Met audiences with the best house debut since ANNA NETREBKO's, in War and Peace in 2001. After a nervous beginning, Brown gave a fresh, thoughtful, highly musical account of "Ritorna vincitor." She then kicked into high gear with "O patria mia" and particularly with the Act III duet with Radames. Among Brown's strengths: gorgeous pianissimos, beautiful, unforced singing in forte passages and, rarest of all, intelligently used chest voice. All in all, it was the best Met Aida I've heard since LEONTYNE PRICE's farewell performances. ANNE MIDGETTE of The New York Times evidently agreed with this assessment, because--wonder of wonders, in this era of puny arts coverage--there was a story on the front page of the November 8 edition.

Three times, Brown participated in the Met's National Council Auditions, and three times she failed to reach the finals in New York. She finally won the Auditions in 1997 and eventually was given cover contracts, beginning in 2000-01. An outstanding performance in a rehearsal of Aida resulted in an offer of two staged performances for this season.

Brown feels that she was more than ready for the assignment. "I started studying this role in 1993," she told me in a recent telephone interview. "I started preparing for it at Oakwood College. Then I studied with VIRGINIA ZEANI, at Indiana University, and that's where I really polished the role. I did scenes all throughout my matriculation at IU. I did the role onstage for the first time at Indianapolis Opera. I covered it a lot.

"I've been working on this for a long time, and I think slow and steady wins the race. I have not been a fast burn. I thank and praise the Lord for that, because it helps build your confidence." On the Met stage the night of her debut, Brown says, "I felt like I was giving birth to Aida. Do you know that expression--when you're going to take your baby out for a stroll, you say, 'I'm going to the mall to walk my baby down?' Well, I was ready to walk Aida down, honey. She was gettin' on my nerves, and that girl was ready to sing!"

As autumn pilgrimages go, it's hard to beat Wexford Festival Opera, where I traveled last October for a long weekend of seldom-heard (in my case, never-heard) operas. Wexford is a welcoming little town on the southeastern coast of Ireland, the kind of place one is always eager to return to and always sorry to leave behind. This season, the final one under the artistic direction of LUIGI FERRARI, the festival offered a wealth of operatic arcana: Walter Braunfels's Prinzessin Brambilla, Saverio Mercadante's La Vestale and Josef Bohuslav Foerster's Eva. One of the festival's consistent pleasures is the chance to experience new talent. The impressive find of this season was Mexican tenor DANTE ALCALA, who sang the role of Decio in La Vestale. (GEORGE HALL's review of the festival appears in this month's online edition of OPERA NEWS.)

At the moment, Wexford is a festival in transition. It is the final year for the wonderful Theater ...