Shaham Shows Off a Range of Idioms

The art of the vocal recital, it is said, is one of the most difficult things to master for a singer, at any age. At 25, Israeli mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham, who appeared at the Skirball Cultural Center Wednesday, would seem to be well on her way.

Her natural stage demeanor helps. There is nothing arch or too cute or stagy about it. Shaham simply goes about her business, which includes getting into character, but never in an overly theatrical fashion. Her singing, too, was nicely gauged to the intimacies of the recital hall.

Shaham (no relation to Israeli American violinist Gil Shaham) chose a program that traced a gently rolling terrain of connections and contrasts, many of the songs with specifically female protagonists. By the time she finished with Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch Over Me,” they seemed integral to her recital, not fluffy farewells.

Accompanied by pianist Alan Morrison, Shaham’s middleweight mezzo, fresh and even throughout the range, was easily expressive in all idioms. She caught the girlish joy in Schumann’s “Frauenliebe und Leben” and the creepiness of Rorem’s “Anna la Bonne,” a self-contained mad scene.

Her French set--framed by Duparc’s “Extase” and Ravel’s Vocalise--turned into a wonderfully balmy interlude, painted in sotto voce colors, followed by the playful, playfully sung “Four Children’s Songs” by Ben-Haim.

Rossini’s “La Regata Veneziana” didn’t quite come off, both musicians lacking in lightness of touch. On the other hand, Shaham’s vocally sonorous, word-driven accounts of the Gershwin and, in encore, Bernstein’s “Somewhere” made as convincing a case as any that these songs belong in the same company with the great lieder of Schumann.