A Career in the Cards
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Soprano Ellie Dehn can hardly be considered a newcomer any longer. Last season, she won the George London competition. With Eve Queler at Carnegie Hall, she nearly stole the show as Jemmy in Opera Orchestra of New York’s presentation of Rossini’s “William Tell.” And, in an appearance that I did not catch, starred as Marguerite in Gounod’s “Faust” with the Metropolitan Opera in the park this past summer. Returning to the London Foundation on Sunday, she impressed with a varied program of aria and song at the Morgan Library. Since a career on the operatic stage seems in the cards, let’s look at what this particular recital revealed about her chances for success.
Projection. Ms. Dehn has a huge voice, almost too big for the medium-sized room that she sold out for her debut. No warm bath approach for her, she began with the monumental Exultate, jubilate of Mozart. This may have been a bit of a tactical error, as her voice sometimes becomes strident at extremely high volume. Not out of tune at all, but a bit jarring, lacking in tonal color nuance. The crowd seemed to love her opening movement, giving it its own round of enthusiastic applause, but actually she did much better in the quiet slow movement and the famous alleluia.
Pitch Control. Just about perfect. I only detected two wayward notes all afternoon and both were when Ms. Dehn cranked it up to stratospheric decibel levels. There is a definite purity to her music making and a rare sense of tasteful balance.
Characterization. This is Ms. Dehn’s strongest suit and should serve her in good stead in the cavernous houses of the world. Her arias, especially this day the “Poison Aria” from Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet,” are very well constructed from a thespian point of view. She spends a great deal of energy creating just the right sense of her character and this ability carries over into lieder singing. In the Richard Strauss song “Ich wollt ein Straeusslein binden,” she became the heartbroken lover who would have made a bouquet and played the part artfully.
Technique. Ms. Dehn demonstrated an enviable ability to sing a crescendo on an individual note that is flawless in its steady rate of augmentation. Her fiorature was a bit rocky in the Mozart, but smoothness will come with time. Her lyrical line is very smooth, the aforementioned song by Strauss a glorious example.
Confidence and professionalism. Ellie Dehn has got it. No hesitation, no self-effacement, no false modesty. She sings out with great verve and gusto. There is a star waiting to burst out here.
Ms. Dehn chose her partners well. The excellent Warren Jones was her pianist and proved not only a helpful accompanist but a poetic player in his own right. His liquid lines in the three Brentano Lieder of Strauss were ravishing.
Samuel Ramey, a great friend of the foundation, spelled Ms. Dehn by alternating numbers with her. It may not be true that the Devil gets all of the good tunes, but Mr. Ramey portrayed three of his most delicious incarnations. He was eloquently stylized in “Vous qui fautes l’endormie” from “Faust,” dark and deep in “Ecco il mondo” from Arrigo Boito’s “Mefistofele” and très, très sophisticated in Berlioz’s “Devant la maison” from “The Damnation of Faust.” Mr. Ramey has developed a distinctive wobble these days, but, instead of treating it as a liability, he makes it work for him, portraying this past season at the Met a very frightening Grand Inquisitor in Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”
Lightening the mood, he sang three of the Old American Songs arranged by Aaron Copland. “The Dodger” does not refer to Joe Torre, but rather James G. Blaine, as the ditty was originally used in the presidential campaign of Grover Cleveland. “At the River” ended with the worst of the wobbles, but we love him all the more for his new idiosyncrasy. This was a wonderful recital, showing what was, what is, and what shall be.