Lucas Meachem, alongside his wife at the piano Irina Meachem, performed a recital as part of the inaugural live stream series with the Merola Opera Program. From the Mill City Museum ruins, the Meachems performed a recital of arias that Lucas sang on the War Memorial Opera stage in San Francisco. The live stream experience was livened when reviews of the performance were written and this San Francisco Classical Voice review captured the evening beautifully:

In seven arias and one encore, this masterly baritone confirmed what San Francisco Opera audiences have known for 15 years. Meachem is a vocalist of consummate artistry, technical command, expressive range, and that alchemical ability to embody character, emotion, and dramatic flow while singing alone in street clothes.

As if channeling that thrilling debut, Meachem was superb here in Onegin’s aria in which he explains that his feelings for a love-smitten woman are not reciprocated. From long, probing lines to tender phrase endings, this was singing full of empathic feeling. Meachem’s voice, by turns brawny, showy, and seductive in earlier selections, took on a mature, self-knowing translucency here. In the space of a single aria, he made Onegin a complex, fully formed character.