Met star Angel Blue makes unforgettable Tucson debut

But they will remember that special voice and how Blue hit that soaring high note at the end of Schumann’s “Stille Tränen” (Silent Tears) and let it hang there while the audience held its collective breath.

They will rave about her impressive soprano range and lush coloratura on a couple of Strauss songs, channeling the composer’s nuance and emotions, and her joyful interpretation of Lee Hoiby’s “The Lady of the Harbor.” 

When she sang the text, borrowed from the Statue of Liberty (“Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”), she reminded us of a time in American society when those words held promise for those seeking a better life.

Saturday’s audience got to see what the rest of the world has come to realize since Blue landed on the world stage a decade ago: She is the kind of generational talent whose legacy will be enduring.

But her enormous vocal talents tell only part of Blue’s story: The bigger part of the story is how she connected with the audience, many of whom had only a passing acquaintance with her talent through her handful of PBS specials.

Blue broke the so-called fourth wall at Saturday’s recital, inviting the audience into her world. She told us stories of learning hymns like Bob Gibson’s’ “You Can Tell the World” and the spiritual “Deep River” from her preacher father and devoutly faithful grandmother. When she sang those songs punctuated with spirited hallelujas, she made you feel like you were in the middle of a raucous tent revival.

At one point in the recital, Blue asked if there were any voice students in the audience. Two women in the second row and a third woman near the back of the hall raised their hands. Blue told them that she remembered being where they were not too long ago and how she followed her dreams to where she is today, something that they could also achieve.

Then she sang Strauss’s “Cäcilie,” which the composer wrote as a wedding gift to his wife, the soprano Pauline de Ahna. When she finished, the hall erupted in applause and a few whoot whoots that reminded you of a rock concert, not a classical music recital.

Blue’s recital was presented by Arizona Opera as part of the Tucson Desert Song Festival, which added a spring leg to the winter festival to accommodate Blue’s schedule.

“I’m so happy to be here and so, so thankful to be here,” Blue told the audience, then recounted how most recitals follow a format.

But the two-time Grammy-winning singer said she was ditching those protocols for her Arizona debut. In addition to her and her friend and accompanist, Bryan Wagorn, Blue invited her friends bass Matthew Anchel and tenor Terence Chin-Loy to join her. Both men happened to be 90 minutes away in Phoenix doing Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” with Arizona Opera, which brings the production to Linda Ronstadt Music Hall on April 15-16.

Anchel, who has known Blue for a decade but had never sang with her, showed off his powerfully deep, dark voice and wonderful sense of humor when he sang an aria from “Magic Flute.” Then he and Blue sang “Happy Days are Here Again” as a duet.

“I’m going to be Barbara Streisand and he’ll be Judy Garland,” Blue joked.

Chin-Loy, a former member of Arizona Opera’s Marion Roose Pullin studio artists program who costarred with Blue in the Met’s Grammy-winning productions of “Porgy and Bess” and Terrence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” reintroduced us to his richly colorful tenor that shined in the emotional heartbreak of Strauss’s “Allerseelen.”

As an encore, Blue invited the three UA voice students — sisters Rebeckah Resare and Bethany Pehrson, and Nadari Hockenhull — on stage to join Blue in Puccini’s famous “O mio babbino caro.” At times, Blue would stop singing and just stare at the students with a warm smile.