Boston Classical Review

Mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges performed a recital for the Celebrity Series Thursday night at Groton Hill Music Center. Photo: Robert Torres

What is an encore supposed to do? Delight, entrance, entertain? Send an audience out into the night with smiles on their faces?

Or should it be more substantial and offer a serious musical statement? Perhaps herald the arrival of a new star? Maybe all of the above?

On Thursday night at Groton Hill Music Center’s Meadow Hall, J’Nai Bridges gave the last a shot. True, the mezzo-soprano isn’t exactly an unknown quantity: her resume includes a pair of Grammys and regular appearances on the world’s leading stages. All the same, her Celebrity Series debut had the whiff of discovery about it—and not least because of her curtain call.

The number in question was the “Habañera” from Bizet’s Carmen, one of the canon’s most easily recognizable hits and one of the singer’s trademark roles. One could immediately appreciate the latter: this Carmen was no mere floozy. Instead, she’s a woman of layers who knows exactly who she is and what she’s about.

And the mezzo’s absorbing blend of supple singing and seductive charm revealed that Bridges isn’t just one of the great singers and musical actresses of our day. With her pinpoint intonation, commanding presence, consistent projection, beguiling tone, and absolute vocal control, she could hardly be anything less. But even more, Thursday revealed her to be one of her generation’s preeminent storytellers.

The latter activity was the theme of the night’s short recital, which focused on French chansons by Debussy, Ravel, and Erik Satie, plus a recitative and aria from Berlioz’s Les Troyens. While the night’s advertised 75-minute runtime seemed skimpy, the actual event compensated with performances and selections of real musical depth and detail.

The most familiar of those was Ravel’s lush Shéhérazade, a collection of three songs that seem tailor-made for Bridges and her excellent accompanist, pianist Mark Markham.

With Markham drawing out the orchestral richness of his keyboard, Bridges delivered an opulent, rhapsodic account of “Asie,” its idealized visions of the continent’s delights filled with wonder and charm. In “La flûte enchantée,” the stark contrasts of rapturous climaxes and mundane scene painting came across with pictorial precision while the concluding “L’indifférent” emerged like a mysterious, subversive lullaby.

A powerful intensity marked the night’s other Ravel selection, the gritty Chansons madécasses. Written in 1926, this setting of texts by Évariste de Parny showcases the composer in his toughest, most uncompromising mode—think a Parisian Bartók.

As such, it’s not easy stuff, either for the performers (which, in addition to voice and piano, include flute and cello) or listeners. “I really don’t like this,” a woman in my vicinity stage-whispered to her neighbor at the start of the central “Aoua.” Whether she was referring to the music’s clangorous dissonances, its textural sparseness, the vocal line’s explosive wails—Bridges channeled those with unsettling power—or the text’s warnings to Madagascar’s natives to beware white settlers coming to enslave and steal, was unclear.

But the point of the music seems to be to challenge more than to enchant. And to that end, Bridges and Co. more than delivered. At the same time, the excellence of the night’s ensemble was a thing to treasure.

Cellist Jan-Müller Szeraws wove an alluring tapestry in his duet with Bridges in the opening “Nahandove.” Though flautist Anthony Trionfo’s contributions were sometimes covered by the larger group, his raw, biting attacks over the second part of “Auoa” were gripping. And the mix of lean accompaniments and exposed vocal writing in “Il est doux” resulted in a reading of powerful intimacy.

The evening’s account of Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis was likewise hypnotic and haunting. Bridges showed off her bronzy low register in “La flûte de Pan” while she and Markham imbued “La chevelure” and “Le Tombeau de naïades” with urgency and shapeliness.

Satie’s witty Trois Mélodies, on the other hand, allowed the pair a few minutes of lighthearted relief, which they embraced in a performance marked by big dynamic contrasts (“La statue de bronze”) and knowing grandeur (“Le chapelier”).

Grandeur of a nobler stripe was to be had in the night’s opener, Berlioz’s recitative-and-aria pairing, “Nous avons vu finir – Cher Tyriens.” Singing with regal bearing, plush tone, and thrilling top notes, Bridges made for a commanding Dido and gave fresh impetus to the character’s command to “follow the sublime voice of the god who calls you to new efforts.” Markham, clearly heeding that instruction, illuminated the piano part’s rich voicings with uncommon finesse.

The Celebrity Series presents Rob Kapilow and the Balourdet Quartet exploring and performing Haydn’s “Jack-in-the-Box” String Quartet at 8 p.m. October 18 at Jordan Hall. celebrityseries.org

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