The fourth year of the Music for Mt. Lebanon series of concerts in Mellon Auditorium opened last night with a joint recital by Lucille Browning, contralto, and Frederick Jagel, tenor.

It was a rather depressing evening musically for Mr. Jagel's voice has unfortunately lost its luster and the other qualities which it possessed and, while Miss Browning sang well on occasion, her vocalism, too, was for the most part undistinguished.

Each artist was heard singly in aria and songs and they joined forces for two duets, the "Ai Nostri Monti" from Verdi's "Il Trovatore" and the duet from the final act from his "Aida."

Miss Browning sang the aria "Adieu Forets" from Tchaikowsky's "Jeanne D'Arc" and a group of French art songs in her first set. The voice is powerful and of wide range but the French songs lacked color and subtlety, especially "Chausson's Papillons," which was never fully realized. The singer's personality was better revealed in the same composer's "Le Temps de Lilas" and Georges' "Hymne au Soleil" was proclamatory in style.

Later, a group of modern songs in English included Hageman's "Music I Heard With You," the inocuous "Kerry Dance" of Molloy, an extremely interesting set of Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes by Bainbridge-Crist, sung archly, and Worth's "Midsummer" which was the singer's best effort. Encores included a Cuckoo Song and Leonard Bernstein's "I Hate Music," which would have been more acceptable without the singer's unnecessary gestures.

Mr. Jagel, long a stalwart of the Met, was in difficulty throughout the evening. The middle and lower ranges of the voice have unfortunately disappeared and only in the top notes, and then only when sung forte, was there any resemblance to the voice of many years ago. Here, too, Mr. Jagel slid into his top notes. His list comprised three lieder, Brahms' "Botschaft" and Richard Strauss' "Morgen and "Caecilie," none of which were successfully sung and the lyrical aria from Pinchellie's "Gioconda", "Cieloemar."

In Mr. Jagel's group of songs in English, he was on firmer ground although here, too, Bone and Fenton's "Captain Kid" was almost spoken rather than sung. Griffes's "Lament of Ian the Proud" was occasionally touching, Peter Warlock's fine "Yarmouth Fair" was cheery and Paul Creston's "Bird of the Wilderness" closed with the voice fully open.

Peter Paul Fuchs provided discreet accompaniments.

-- Donald Steinfirst

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