Ana Maria Martinez is a young Puerto Rican soprano with a natural warmth to her tone. She has an easy upper extension that is suitably bright but does not lose the color and texture of the rest of her voice. Hers is a true lyric that likely will grow darker soon; at the moment, vocally, there’s little she has trouble with. Her high pianissimos are lovely, her agility is tested and true in Juliette’s Waltz, and her sense of rhythm is impeccable as exhibited in both “Les filles de Cadix” and an aria from the Zarzuela “El Nino Judio”. Her version of Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 is mellow and melancholy, and she has no probelms with the difficult hummed part at the end of the Aria.
She lacks both the heft and interpretive subtlety–or interest–for “Un bel di” and Doretta’s Dream, and requires more charm for “O mio babbino caro”, but her “Vilja-Lied” is ravishingly sung. She has an odd habit of picking the highest notes out of the air rather than using a true legato; it’s hard to tell whether this is a choice or a flaw in her technique. As soon as she begins to delve a bit into the characters she’s portraying, she’ll be quite something; now, however, she’s already a fine singer with a beautiful voice, and she should be heard. Stephen Mercurio is the sympathetic conductor.
