Merola Grand Finale

Precocious show by stage director: It wasn’t just the singers who bathed themselves in glory, either. This summer’s crop included one budding stage director, Eugenia Arsenis, who staged the Finale with more subtlety and flair than I can recall ever witnessing for this event. In one excerpt after another, she created little theatrical microcosms that rescued the moment from stand-and-sing monotony without ever overshadowing the performer or distracting unduly from the music. It isn’t only on the vocal front that the future looks bright