SOTTO VOCE VOCAL COLLECTIVE’S "THE SECOND SIGHT"

A Local Opera with Spectacular Performances

Jessie Downs is a precocious talent, and her opera The Second Sight, performed at the Unitarian Universalist Church on West Ferry and Elmwood, included flashes of beauty and stunning vocal artistry.  Those moments were compromised, however, by a libretto that suffered from tone, pacing, and style issues which made the opera, at times, inaccessible.

Ms. Downs is a member of the Sotto Voce Vocal Collective a local organization performing in the “bel canto” style, a demanding school of singing that demands years of training and skill, and can only be performed by high-level professionals.  This is Second Sight’s most striking characteristic: its spectacular vocal performances.

The opera’s two protagonists, Ola Rafalo and Claudia Brown, brought an extraordinary sophistication to their performances, conducting a veritable clinic in opera technique. Indeed, all of the roles were sung by highly trained and experienced performers whose acrobatic vocal runs ricocheted all over the church’s old l…