I Was Getting Goosebumps!

Listening to the extraordinary soprano Geraldine McMillian at New Rochelle Public Library on Saturday was a treat of epic proportions, an experience only truly accomplished opera singers can share with their audiences. Accompanied on the piano by David Mayfield, Ms. McMillian thrilled us with interpretations of songs and arias from Beethoven's Ah! Perifdo, to Massenet's Pleurez, Pleurez Mex Yeux from El Cid. Her voice was bold at times, lilting at others, but always thrilling as it resounded throughout the newly refurbished Ossie Davis Theater. Every song evoked intense emotion and the complexities of our human condition; love, betrayal, beauty and grief. Ms McMillian sang in the romance languages, from French to Italian, and for the songs by Strauss, of course German. 

I am terrifically grateful that such accomplished professionals offered this unusual performance in such an intimate, regional venue. Ms. McMillian has sung Aida, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly to name a very few, from New York City to Cape Town, and Mr. Mayfield has toured with the New York City Opera and performed in Paris, Berlin, and both have done so much more. I can only hope that they will be performing close to us again sometime soon.