Tailor-Made: Does This Song Look Good on Me? the Voices That Inspired Vocal Music History
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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: TAILOR-MADE: DOES THIS SONG LOOK GOOD ON ME? THE VOICES THAT INSPIRED VOCAL MUSIC HISTORY Theresa Rose Bickham, Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance, 2019 Dissertation directed by: Professor Carmen Balthrop, School of Music The history of tailor-made repertoire is celebrated, and, in many cases, the composer and the works live on in perpetuity while the performing artist is remembered only in historical documents. Timbres, agilities, ranges, and personalities of singers have long been a source of inspiration for composers. Even Mozart famously remarked that he wrote arias to fit singers like a well-tailored suit. This dissertation studies the vocal and dramatic profiles of ten sopranos and discovers how their respective talents compelled famed composers to create music that accommodated each singer’s unique abilities. The resulting repertoire advanced the standard of vocal music and encouraged new developments in the genres and styles of compositions for the voice. This is a performance dissertation and each singer is depicted through the presentation of repertoire originally created for and by them. The recital series consisted of one lecture recital and two full recitals performed at the University of Maryland, College Park. I was joined in the performance of these recitals by pianist Andrew Jonathan Welch, clarinetist Melissa Morales, and composer/pianist Dr. Elaine Ross. The series was presented chronologically, and the first recital included works of the Baroque and Classical music eras written for Marie Le Rochois, Faustina Bordoni, Catarina Cavalieri, and Adriana Ferrarese del Bene. The second recital advanced into the nineteenth-century with repertoire composed for Anna Milder-Hauptmann, Giulia Grisi, and Mary Garden. Finally, the concluding recital explored music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that was made famous by sopranos Conxita Badía, Leontyne Price, and Renée Fleming. This recital culminated in a commissioned work for the author composed by Dr. Elaine Ross. Additional featured music included works by Lully, Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Rossini, Bellini, Debussy, Massenet, Granados, Rodrigo, Gerhard, Barber, and Previn. TAILOR-MADE: DOES THIS SONG LOOK GOOD ON ME? THE VOICES THAT INSPIRED VOCAL MUSIC HISTORY by Theresa Rose Bickham Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance 2019 Advisory Committee: Professor Carmen Balthrop, Chair Professor Faedra Carpenter Professor Martha Randall Professor Gran Wilson Professor Delores Ziegler © Copyright by Theresa Bickham 2019 Acknowledgements This performance dissertation has been the culmination of many hours of collaboration with other musicians, Professors, colleagues, friends, and family. First, I wish to thank my fellow performers, Andrew Jonathan Welch and Melissa Morales, for their exceptional talents. A special thank you to Dr. Elaine Ross for her splendid compositions and collaboration. It was a pleasure creating beautiful music that was meaningful and stylistic. I am eternally grateful for the support and guidance of my teacher and advisor, Professor Carmen Balthrop. Her sponsorship has meant the world to me and allowed me to grow as a singer, technician, and scholar. In addition, my committee was instrumental in the completion of this project and their time, commitment, and feedback have guided me as an artist and scholar. Thank you to Professors Carpenter, Randall, Wilson, and Ziegler. A number of friends and colleagues have helped me along the way. I wish to thank the voice faculty and collaborative pianists at Towson University for their insight, friendship, and encouragement. I also thank Audra Ziegel for generously reading several drafts of my manuscript and helping me chart revisions. Finally, I thank Brandon, Meredith, William, and my mother, Marian for their understanding, love, and encouragement. They are my foundation and strength and I could have never completed this journey without them. I lovingly dedicate this dissertation to my father, Joseph Bowser, whose love is in my heart forever. i Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. i Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ ii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Marie Le Rochois, Faustina Bordoni, Catarina Cavalieri and Adriana Ferrarese del Bene............................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Anna Milder-Hauptmann, Giulia Grisi, and Mary Garden ............................. 17 Chapter 3: Conxita Badìa, Leontyne Price, and Renée Fleming ...................................... 31 Chapter 4: Conclusion....................................................................................................... 48 Appendix A ....................................................................................................................... 50 Appendix B ....................................................................................................................... 55 Appendix C ....................................................................................................................... 63 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 71 Supplementary Files CD: Lecture Recital January 5, 2019 CD: Recital February 3, 2019 CD: Recital March 29, 2019 ii Introduction Since the early seventeenth-century, the relationships between composers and singers have resulted in the composition of some of the most memorable repertoire of all time. In music history courses we learn about historical timelines, compositional traits of the composers, the relationships between composers and librettists or poets, the instrumentation of the eras, and various other musical details. Information about the performing artists, however, is often only uncovered when one delves further into history. For instance, would the character of Fiordiligi, in Così fan tutte, exhibit such extreme range of voice and emotion if Mozart had not been so well acquainted with the singer, Adriana Ferrarese del Bene? Questions such as this often remain unasked in the preliminary study of history and repertoire. In a letter to his father dated February 1778, Mozart famously remarked: “I like an aria to fit a singer as perfectly as a well-made suit of clothes.”1 Although this statement reflects the thoughts of many composers as they write for the complexities of the human voice, the names and vocal profiles of these inspiring voices are not often given the credit that they deserve. Throughout history, a great deal of music was inspired by, or produced for, individual persons. However, it is not always clear how their talents inspired changes in the composer’s approach to their writing of these compositions. This project seeks to uncover the singer’s influence through the discovery of the voices that inspired some of vocal music history, and the performance of their celebrated repertoire. The information uncovered provides implications regarding performance practice and the pedagogy of 1 Robert L. Marshall, Mozart Speaks (New York: Schirmer Books, 1991), 239. 1 repertoire selection. In addition, it submits that having prior knowledge of the original artist that the repertoire was tailored to offers essential insight into the selection and performance of the repertoire itself for contemporary singers. Although there were many influential singers throughout history, this project focused on sopranos who were/are instrumental in forwarding the development of vocal music through their performances and relationships with composers. Sopranos Marie Le Rochois, Faustina Bordoni, Catarina Cavalieri, Adriana Ferrarese del Bene, Anna Milder- Hauptmann, Giulia Grisi, Mary Garden, Conxita Badía, Leontyne Price, and Renée Fleming exhibited dramatic and musical abilities that motivated composers to push the limits of the voice while advancing the repertoire written for this instrument. In performance, selections of this repertoire were presented in chronological order and concluded with a work commissioned for my own voice by Dr. Elaine Ross. Re-creating this tailor-made repertoire, and the process of working with a composer to explore the intricacies of creating for a specific voice, added a new level of perspective to my research. This project uncovers the specific characteristics, dramatic abilities, and personalities of the women who inspired the performed repertoire. It explores how the composers of each era responded to these factors and what led them to compose as they did. In addition, the presentation of the repertoire in recital provided the audience context to the information presented here which investigates the specificity of tailor-made repertoire, asking the question, “Does this song look good on me?” 2 Chapter 1: Marie Le Rochois, Faustina Bordoni, Catarina Cavalieri and Adriana Ferrarese del Bene Vocal music was important in the home, the church, and on the stage since the earliest recorded music history. For many years, however, women were not welcome in live performance