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Above: Christine Goerke
A concert performance of Act III of Strauss's DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN from Amsterdam 2013. Vladimir Jurowski conducts, with Anna Schwanewilms as the Empress, Christine Goerke as the Dyer's Wife, Jane Henschel as the Nurse, Torsten Kerl as the Emperor, and Johan Reuter as Barak.
Watch and listen here.
A performance of Elgar's THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS given at the BBC Proms in 2005.
Sir Mark Elder conducts the Halle Orchestra with the Halle Choir, the London Philharmonic Choir, and the Halle Youth Choir. The soloists are Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano), Paul Groves (tenor), and Matthew Best (bass).
Watch and listen here.
Above: composer Courtney Bryan; photo by Taylor Hunter
~ Author: Lili Tobias
Thursday September 12th, 2024 - I had not heard of composer Courtney Bryan until attending Friday night’s Composer Portrait concert at Columbia University’s Miller Theater, but now I want to listen to all of her music! From just the three pieces of hers showcased at the concert, I could tell that she has an incredibly wide range of compositional ideas and strong sources of inspiration.
Above: the composer at the piano and vocalist Damian Norfleet in Blessed; photo by Cherylynn Tsushima
The first piece, Blessed, gave me the impression of being in church (though I never have been before)! The lights in the concert hall were dimmed very low, and this created a calming and introspective experience. Bryan herself was a the piano, joined by vocalist Damian Norfleet, and also accompanied by a film created by Tiona Nekkia McClodden. In addition to being a composer, Bryan is also an incredibly talented pianist, and it really showed in her writing for the instrument. I thought that the sounds she produced were wonderfully sonorous while still being soft and gentle.
The music began with a simple piano melody in octaves, which Norfleet then joined in on the word “blessed,” weaving and circling around the piano in a loose counterpoint. Blessed doesn’t actually have a set score, but rather relies largely on the performers’ improvisation and interpretation of a series of prompts. I felt that this may have contributed to a sense of independence between the piano and vocalist. While the two parts of the music definitely complemented each other, I felt that they could have also stood separate from each other and been just as fulfilling as they were together.
Above: the Quince Ensemble in Requiem; photo by Cherylynn Tsushima
I loved how much vocal music was included in this concert, and the next piece on the program, Requiem, featured the vocal quartet Quince Ensemble along with members of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Requiem began with all four singers humming a cappella. They then started singing the words “All of to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return,” and the music really evoked the dust itself. Bryan had the singers hold the fricative “s” in the word “dust” for an extended period of time, and that really sounded “dusty” to me!
One thing that I thought was especially interesting about this piece was that it had sections featuring the singers singing alone, the instrumentalists playing alone, and the singers and instrumentalists performing together. This added so much variation to the music as it progressed, and it was always a refreshing change whenever the instrumentation quickly shifted. Speaking of good balance, I also found that Bryan’s vocal writing had such a satisfying balance of rhythmic unison and counterpoint between the singers.
Above: the ensemble for DREAMING (Freedom Sounds); photo by Cherylynn Tsushima
I was really blown away by the final piece on the program, DREAMING (Freedom Sounds), performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble and vocalists Damian Norfleet and Alice Teyssier. This piece was born from the question “What is the sound of freedom?” And Bryan drew the text from a wide variety of sources, including supreme court cases and writings by Frederick Douglass, George E. Lewis (her composition mentor at Columbia), and others. And I found all the ways Bryan set the text to be very exciting and powerful. In particular, the second movement, We Dissent, featured almost entirely speaking rather than singing, including speech from the instrumental musicians. The ways in which they stretched and compressed the words and altered the speed of the speech added another entire dimension to the music.
Sometimes the lack of words was just as moving though, and the fifth movement, The Garden, did not include any text. The instrumental writing was some of the most luscious I’ve ever heard! It began with delicate trills, tremolos, and flutter tonguing, while beautiful melodic swells from the string instruments began to arise out of the texture. The vocalists also began contributing to the musical atmosphere by singing on wordless syllables.
This Composer Portrait concert was a joy to attend, and I could tell from the energy of the audience that everyone else felt the same!
~ Lili Tobias
Above: Giacomo Aragall as Maurizio
Audio-only ADRIANA LECOUVREUR from Monte Carlo 1986 with Sylvia Sass as Adriana and Giacomo Aragall as Maurizio. Cleopatra Ciurca is the Princesse de Boullion and Carlos Chausson sings Michonnet. Bruno Bartoletti conducts.
Listen here.
Gilda Cruz Romo sings the "Vissi d'arte" from Puccini's TOSCA at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in 1966. That was the year I met her here in NYC.
Listen here.
Above: Gilda Cruz-Romo
A 1975 performance of Verdi's LA FORZA DEL DESTINO from London with my beloved Gilda Cruz-Romo, Carlo Bergonzi, Peter Glossop, and Gwynne Howell. Sir Edward Downes conducts.
Listen here.
Bergonzi was my all-time favorite tenor, and I was at Peter Glossop's Met debut as Scarpia in 1971.
Above: Dana Talley and his wife Sue
Tenor Dana Talley sings Schubert's Ave Maria. Listen here.
I was listening to a recording of a 1979 Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Wager's PARSIFAL yesterday and was struck by the lyrical voice of the tenor Dana Talley in the role of the First Knight. I went in search of his singing on YouTube and found his lovely Schubert.
Dana was a Met Auditions winner in 1978, and sang more that 200 performances with the Met at Lincoln Center and on tour, performing with the Company thru 1982.
Above: Jon Vickers as Canio
The Metropolitan Opera presented a concert performance of Leoncavallo's PAGLIACCI at Lewisohn Stadium on July 7th, 1965.
Listen here.
CAST: Nedda: Mary Ellen Pracht; Canio: Jon Vickers; Tonio: Cesare Bardelli; Silvio: William Walker; Beppe: Dan Marek
Conductor: Kurt Adler
Mildred Miller sings Robert Schumann's Frauenliebe und -liebe, recorded in 1977 with John Wustman at the piano. Listen here.
Ms. Miller was my first Magdalene in MEISTERSINGER and my first Annina in ROSENKAVALIER. And I have a special affection for her recording of the Brahms Alto Rhapsody.