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Music : Hans Choi Offers Italian Songs, Arias

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To make one’s Los Angeles debut in a church--at a pan-cultural evening where East meets West on a musical/liturgical axis--is not exactly an auspicious way for a singer to introduce a serious career.

But when Hans Choi appeared Saturday at Immanuel Presbyterian, the 30-year-old lyric baritone was merely the centerpiece of a Christmas program put on by the L.A. Seoul Chorale, not even the sole reason for it.

That, however, hardly allowed the Korean-born guest to go unappreciated. Never mind that children audibly chatted and cameras clicked during his performance of Italian songs and arias. Community pride was everywhere to be seen, not least on the chorale members’ faces.

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Still, standing on a podium at some distance from his capable pianist, Ja-Hyeong Koo, Choi was hard put to create either a mood appropriate to his agenda items or a conducive presence.

An avid contest candidate who has taken prizes at no fewer than 18 events--this year two gold medals from the International Tchaikovsky Competition--the singer seems to be in perpetual audition, or trial, mode.

Earnest to a fault, effortful and anxious, utterly lacking the positive force of exhibitionism, he could give himself little opportunity to display the presumed artistry attached to his tone-rich voice of middle size.

Whether singing a love song by Tosti or Rodrigo’s death scene from “Don Carlo,” he made the barest distinction. Nothing in his demeanor changed from one to the other.

Perhaps on the operatic stage, in character, Choi can translate his gifts to dramatic meaning. Here, he seemed not yet seasoned. But earlier, with the chorale led by Dong Hyun Kim, there were excerpts from the “Messiah” (in Korean), and he seemed more comfortable in solos.

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