Mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock (right) and classical guitarist Andres Vadin (left) joined their boundless talents on July 31 to perform ‘Amor Y Fuego,” a musical exploration of love and its fires for the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre.
LOGAN – When a true operatic diva is feeling less than challenged, she puts her heart and soul into other ways to display her talents.
The result was Amor Y Fuego, Audrey Babcock’s sensational vocal exploration of love and its fires at the Utah Theatre on July 31, sponsored by the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre.
If you’d prefer to see the glorious mezzo-soprano in more restrained roles, check her out as Mrs. Gibbs in Out Town on Aug. 3 or as the Egyptian princess Amneris in the final matinee performance on Verdi’s Aida on Aug. 5.
But her performance of Amor Y Fuego was as the gods of opera really intended Ms. Babcock to be heard, thrillingly singing in Spanish, French from Bizet’s Carmen and in the Judeo-Spanish dialect of Ladino.
Joining with classical guitarist Andrés Vadin, Ms. Babcock’s voice moved effortlessly from sultry to beguiling to seductive in her assessment of the high and lows of romance.
This was the second time around for the talented performers and local audiences.
In 2022, they performed Beyond Carmen, with Ms. Babcock delivering stunning vocal renditions of Ladino folk songs and lullaby’s, all leading up to the Bizet’s familiar “Habanera,” followed by a taste of flamenco as an encore.
The crowd in the Ellen Eccles Theatre for Beyond Carmen was fairly sparse in 2022. In the more intimate Utah Theatre, the size of audience for Amor Y Fuego was more appropriate and wildly appreciative.
In Amor Y Fuego, the musical pair returned to familiar territory. Ms. Babcock performed the “Seguidilla” and the “Gypsy Song” from Carmen. She joked that Vadin made his vocal debut while singing along on a few bars of the Ladino folk song “Adio Kerida.”
They also performed the “Morenica,” a Ladino folk medley arranged by Ms. Babcock and Vadin, as well as José Carreras’ signature tune “Granada” by Agustín Lara, among other songs.
Ms. Babcock has built her reputation in operatic circles on both her rich, velvety voice and her characterizations of strong, independent women. They include the title role in Carmen and the part of Aldonza in the musical Man of La Mancha, both of which she performed for the UFOMT last year.
MFOMT impresario Michael Ballam has observed – jokingly perhaps — that Ms. Babcock may have played the role of Carmen more often than anyone else alive.
Ms. Babcock’s partner in Amor Y Fuego, was the incomparable guitarist Vadin. He is a native of Cuba and a graduate from the Guillermo Tomas and Amadeo Roldan Conservatory of Music. He developed a passion for jazz, rock, flamenco and classical music at a young age, moving with total ease from each of those genres to another.
Following her performance, Ms. Babcock graciously thanked the theater’s production crew (lighting designers Sage Wuetzer and Gabe Whitnack; audio engineer Ben Petersen; and stage manager Megan Ross) and UFOMT founding director Michael Ballam.