Music and Dance Reviews : Verrett at Trade-Tech

Shirley Verrett proved Saturday night that for a worthy cause she will prevail over even the most adverse circumstances. Performing at Trade-Tech College with the hard-pressed Inglewood Philharmonic to benefit the Women of Tamarind Scholarship Fund, the dauntless singer may have seen her life flashing before her eyes, but she barely let on.

The orchestra, adrift in a virtuoso program (Schubert, Wagner, Tchaikovsky), struggled valiantly. Leroy E. Hurte’s benign, ineffectual conducting at least staved off disaster, though things were never far from the brink thereof. This inept municipal music-making, however, offered an innocent earnestness not available in the jaded Big Leagues.

Verrett looked positively stunning, and while her voice shows the wear and tear of vacillation between soprano and mezzo repertories, there is plenty of life left in it. Though at 57 her range has not dwindled, the brilliant top is more labored, the supercharged chest voice huskier and the hole in the lower middle, her vocal Bermuda Triangle, gapes increasingly. Elsewhere, she owns volume to spare, yet constantly extends herself to modify dynamics appropriately.

Singing in these circumstances required kamikaze bravado, but Verrett maintained complete artistic integrity and charismatic command.

She shot the rapids of Mozart’s “Exsultate, jubilate” motet with aplomb and dispensed her unique blend of thrills and letdowns in Eboli’s Veil Song from “Don Carlo” and “Pace, pace” from “Forza del Destino.” Eliminating “Aida” and “Otello” arias, she graciously if euphemistically explained that the music hadn’t arrived in time for adequate orchestral rehearsal.

Presentations honoring Verrett’s humanitarianism enhanced the pervasive warmth of an event highly successful on spiritual counts.