Love and Death in Art Song and Opera

from 1810 to 1947

Vivienne Margaret Powell

Dip Teaching Grad Dip Ed Studies (Primary Music)

Master of Creative Arts (Music) January 2009

The thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.

Vivienne Margaret Powell

Acknowledgements

To Assoc Prof Michael Ewans, for his expert guidance, direction and unfailing support, thank you.

To Maryleigh Hand, for her knowledge, expertise and encouragement in the preparation of the repertoire, her skills with the languages and her sensitive and beautiful accompanying, thank you.

To my family and friends for their encouragement and belief in me, thank you.

CONTENTS

Introduction to Love and Death 1

Romanticism 3

Recital 1

Introduction 13

Frauenliebe und Leben 26

Conclusion 41

Recital 2

Introduction 43

Les nuits d’été 58

Conclusion 74

Recital 3

Introduction 77

Wesendoncklieder 94

Conclusion 109

Recital 4

Introduction 111

Cuatro madrigales amatorios 112

Siete canciones populares Españolas 119

Conclusion 136

Conclusion to Love and Death 139

Bibliography 141

Discography 144

Appendix: Recital Programs 146

SYNOPSIS

The study of Love and Death in Art Song and Opera is all- encompassing, threading the study of music with the other arts – literature, especially poetry and drama, and the visual arts, especially painting – and linking the study of philosophy and history, to provide a reference point for the societal attitudes of the time in which my repertoire was written. As the themes of love and death began to be expressed in literature and the arts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, my exploration of this theme has grown into a journey through some of the most beautiful, expressive and well- known vocal music of the Romantic era, and into the twentieth century. The Romantics were intimately concerned with the expression of individual emotions, providing me with many opportunities to study repertoire relating to the many aspects of both love and death. It was interesting to discover how musical expression changed within the different national schools I studied – German, French, Spanish, and some Italian arias. I began my study in 1810 with the songs of Franz Schubert. As the master who revolutionized the German Lied, I felt it appropriate to open my first recital, indeed the first two recitals, with a set of Schubert Lieder. I also studied the works of Robert Schumann in the first two recitals, the only composer whose Lieder I studied as single songs and as a song cycle, the well-loved Frauenliebe und Leben. In Recital 2 I turned my attention to French repertoire, with the study of the magnificent song cycle of Hector Berlioz, Les nuits d’été. In the first two recitals I also studied bel canto and French arias. In the third recital I decided to continue my exploration of French Romantic music in relationship to love and death with a set of songs by Gabriel Fauré. My attention turned back to German repertoire - very different, however, from the works of Schubert and Schumann, in the famous song cycle by Richard Wagner, Wesendoncklieder. Two French songs completed this recital. My final recital featured an all- Spanish program, in which I explored my theme in two song cycles, Spanish opera and zarzuela.

Introduction to Love and Death

Love: amour, Lieb, amore, amor, cariño - love of: one's lover, one's children, one's parents, oneself, one's country - love of life, love of beauty, love of music, love of the divine, love of friends, love of community, love of art and creativity, love of freedom, love of nature; caring, compassion, kindness, devotion, purity, trust, companionship, selflessness, joy, forgiveness, redemption, intimacy, passion, eroticism - and the lack of love: betrayal, hate, jealousy, bitterness, suspicion, vindictiveness, revenge, animosity, obsession, fear, loneliness, rejection, abandonment, failure, grief, desolation, pain, despair, loss; and the hope of starting again. Death: of the loved one, the relationship, the earthly body, the life as it once was, the child, the parent, of all that we hold dear, of the person we once were, as a metaphor for loss and starting again, the death of love.

Over the course of my candidature I studied many varying facets of love and death, as expressed in my chosen repertoire. My focus, of course, was on the music and the way in which it, and the text, manifested these themes. Also of interest, I believe, are the personal circumstances of the composers at the time of writing the works, the contemporary political climate, societal attitudes and values, and comparable themes and beliefs being expressed in other art forms, such as visual arts and literature.

I find the theme of Love and Death so fascinating because it encompasses the journey of every human being, from every culture, race and religion. It is universal - there is no human experience without it. It weaves through the life experience of us all - the momentous and the miniscule. This theme can be treated purely on a surface level, that of romantic love and physical death of the body. Or it can be considered on a deeper level as well, exploring it metaphysically, spiritually and symbolically, as did the great poets and composers of the works I studied.

1 The modern writer, Sarah Ban Breathnach eloquently describes our many experiences of death.

Every day we experience death. The death of dreams, misconceptions, illusions. The death of vibrancy and enthusiasm. The death of hope. The death of courage. The death of confidence. The death of faith. The death of trust. More often than any of us ever expect, life stuns us with the sudden wrenching away of a loved one, a devastating diagnosis, a conversation that begins with the chilling words, „There‟s something I‟ve got to tell you.‟ We feel as if life is over, and we are right. Life as we knew it is over.1

My repertoire was chosen predominantly for the way in which the texts express different aspects of love and death, and the way in which the music works in partnership with it. I looked for texts that I considered to be fine poetry. I considered the melody and the setting of the song musically, how the voice and the piano interrelate, and how the piano expresses the theme and the emotion of the character in the song. I looked for songs which I would enjoy singing, with contrasting moods and emotions. I also considered my love of performing repertoire in my chosen languages; German, French, Italian and Spanish.

I decided that I would like to incorporate a major song cycle into each recital. I consider that a song cycle has the capacity to explore my theme more fully and in greater depth than solely using a collection of individual songs (no matter how well chosen they are). As well as choosing works that fit into my theme of love and death, I also elected to choose song cycles that I have for some time wanted to study and perform.

As the time line for my repertoire over the four recitals encompasses the Romantic Period in the arts, I consider it pertinent to undertake a brief exploration of this era.

1 S. Ban Breathnach, Something More, Warner Books, New York, 1998, p.69.

2 ROMANTICISM

I quote the words of Jan Swafford, which, I believe, provide a fitting introduction to a discussion of nineteenth century Romanticism.

The eighteenth century exalted ancient Greece and created placid neoclassic architecture and geometric gardens. The nineteenth century exalted medieval Gothic and preferred its castles in ruins, overtaken by nature. The designation Romantic comes from the medieval romance, the kind of fanciful knights-and- ladies tale satirized in Don Quixote. Where the enlightenment stressed reason and disinterested discourse, the Romantics loved legends, folk songs, the fantastic, irrational, and idiosyncratic. 2

The Romantic period emphasized the self, creativity, imagination and the value of art. It was, to a large extent, a reaction against the Classical philosophy of the Enlightenment, and its belief in the supremacy of reason. In the nineteenth century, especially in German speaking lands, the term was first applied to literature, then to music and art.

The roots of Romanticism can be found in the eighteenth century writings of Jean- Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Philosophers and writers associated with the Romantic period include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749- 1832), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775-1854), and George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) in Germany; Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), William Blake (1757-1827) and William Wordsworth (1770-1850) in Britain.

In France, the movement found expression in the nineteenth century paintings of Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) and Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), the plays, poems

2 J. Swafford, The New Guide to Classical Music, Vintage Books, New York, 1992, p. 196.

3 and novels of Victor Hugo (1802-1885, such as Les Miserables and Ninety-Three), and the novels of Stendhal (1783-1842).

In Spain, Francisco Goya (1746-1828) depicted the horrors of war, along with aristocratic portraits. Prominent Spanish writers included José de Espronceda (1808-1842), Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870) and José Zorrilla (1817-1893).

The early Romantic period coincided with the effects of upheavals in political, economic and social traditions, arising in particular from the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution of 1789-1794 (with its ideals if Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité). Power shifted from the aristocratic landowners to middle-class city dwellers, who supported and were benefactors of the arts (replacing court and royal patronage), which resulted in greater artistic freedom and expression. (In the Baroque and Classical periods, royal patronage and the church had curtailed artistic expression in the mandatory use of some texts and vetoing of others.)

In 1848, uprisings in Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy and France reflected the spirit of challenge to the old regime. New means of expression were being sought. The was a revolutionary energy at the core of Romanticism, which transformed poetry and the other art forms, changing the way in which people viewed the world. The influence of Rousseau‟s writings, emphasising the importance of the individual‟s emotions and imagination, had spread throughout Europe.

Nationalism and the spread of democracy were two of the most definitive forces of the nineteenth century. Throughout Europe national identities were promoted, and a push to resist outside authority created new countries, like the formation of the German state after 1871.

The ideals of Romanticism in the early nineteenth century included the expression of the belief in liberty and justice, inspiration from nature, an emphasis on the uniqueness and

4 creativity of the individual, opposition to the spread of industrialization (arising from the effects of the Industrial Revolution), nationalism, an interest in the exotic and supernatural and what was considered at the time to be primitive, and a desire for new channels of artistic expression. Powerful influences were the revolutions of 1789 and 1830 in France, which proclaimed freedom and equal rights. Romanticism transformed poetry, drama, the novel, painting, sculpture, music and ballet.

German writers, composers and painters were at the forefront of Romanticism, aligned with their contemporaries in England. German Romanticism, in fact, was a dominant movement of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It had arisen from the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement of the 1770s and 1780s, which expressed the desire to release emotion and achieve freedom (as well as having an obsessive interest in medievalism). The early German Romantics strove to create an intimate relationship between art, philosophy and science.

The writings of Schiller and Goethe (two of Germany‟s greatest writers) expressed the Romantic fascination with emotion, life and death, sin and redemption, guilt and selflessness. Goethe‟s poetic works provided a model for an entire movement in German poetry, termed Innerlichkeit (inwardness, introversion), and strongly influenced other writers, predominantly Heine. It is true to say that, indeed, Goethe had a profound influence on the Romantic movement of the nineteenth century, as the originator of many ideas that became widespread. The poetry of Goethe was set to music by almost every major German and Austrian composer (especially Schubert) from Mozart to Mahler. His influence also spread to French drama and opera.

One of the most influential literary works of the time, epitomizing the Sturm und Drang period, was Goethe‟s landmark novel and his first major success, Die Leiden des jungen Werther (The Sorrows of Young Werther) written within three months in 1774 and published the same year, when Goethe was twenty-four years old. It was immensely

5 popular, and ensured Goethe‟s international fame. Napoleon was said to have loved the novel, and read it several times.

The work was partially autobiographical, inspired by Goethe‟s unrequited love for a friend‟s fiancée, Charlotte Buff, and his friend Jerusalem‟s suicide resulting from the love of another man‟s wife. In the novel, the tragic protagonist, Werther, a highly strung and deeply sensitive young man, feels alienated from the world around him, as a result of losing the woman he loves, Charlotte, who is married to an older man. Werther plunges further into heartache, loneliness and despair, eventually taking his own life by shooting himself in the head. In the early part of the novel, the story is told through Werther‟s letters to his friend, Wilhelm, and thereafter by a narrator.

Die Leiden des jungen Werther had an immense influence on the youth of Europe, as Werther-Fieber (Werther-Fever) took hold. Fashionable young men of means dressed like descriptions of Werther in the novel, and some suicides were even attributed to the work. The theme of frustrated passion became a common one in the literature of the period, along with the idea that love and death are intricately connected.

The French opera Werther, composed in 1892 by Jules Massenet (1842-1912) to a libretto by Edouard Blau, tells Goethe‟s story with tender, beautifully scored music. It remains faithful to Goethe‟s original drama regarding the characters and the sequence of events, as well as to the general atmosphere of the piece.

Heinrich Heine (1787-1856), German poet and prose writer, was another master of the Romantic genre. His writing typically expressed themes of bittersweet or frustrated love, ranging from heartfelt, romantic lyrics to political satire, the latter (criticizing German politics and personalities) causing controversy long after his death, as many German people proclaimed him to be unpatriotic.

6 Heine‟s best-known work is Das Buch der Lieder (The Book of Songs), written in 1827 and published in 1828 when he was thirty. This collection of lyric poetry was inspired by his one-sided infatuation with his cousins, Amalie and Therese. (His infatuation with Therese inspired the verse Du bist wie eine Blume.) Texts contained in the work were set to music by such composers as Schubert, Schumann, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Brahms, Richard Strauss and Wagner. One of Heine‟s most melancholy and famous poems is Der Lorelei, set to music by Friedrich Silcher in 1837. It has become one of the most popular and best-loved German songs.

Interestingly, the Nazis insisted that Heine‟s songs in poetry collections should be marked “author unknown” because of his Jewish background. Heine‟s prophetic words, “Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people” are engraved in the ground to commemorate the memory of the burning of thousands of books, many of them works by Heine, by the Nazis on Berlin‟s Opernplatz in 1933.

A popular Romantic theme in literature was Nature, particularly its tempestuous manifestations, like avalanches and storms. Writers such as Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelly and Sir Walter Scott identified human emotions with the turbulent aspects of nature, and also took inspiration from rugged, majestic landscapes and the beauty of the countryside.

An example in art of the expression of the individual‟s personal emotions is the painting, The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818) by Casper David Friedrich (1774-1840), a leading German Romantic painter, showing a solitary figure standing and looking through the fog over a turbulent sea. Friedrich also produced other images of lonely figures placed in isolated settings amidst cemeteries, ruins and frozen, watery or rocky landscapes.

I believe that the work of Franz Schubert was a catalyst for the development of Romanticism in music. It is for this reason that I have chosen Schubert repertoire to begin

7 my study of music that expresses themes within the context of life and death, themes that became more important and relevant to nineteenth century composers. As Wendy Thompson correctly states:

Schubert represented a turning point in musical history. He inherited the Classical forms of his predecessors, but while his own musical style was essentially Classical, his inspiration looked forward to the age of Romanticism. One of the key features of Romantic music is its strong association with other art forms, particularly literature and painting. Schubert responded instinctively to the poetry and drama of the great literary figures of his time: Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich Rückert, Friedrich Klopstock, and Ludwig Hölty. Their writings, even when dealing with historical figures or events, expressed ordinary human emotions – love, happiness, sorrow – and the beauty of the natural world.3

The vital connection between music and literature was evident in all the works I studied. This interrelationship of music and other art forms during the Romantic period is emphasized by Alan Kendall:

Never has music been so in harmony with painting and literature. Mutual influence between the arts is phenomenal: opera turns to literature for its subjects, song writers to poetry and composers such as Chopin and Berlioz seek to express the extremes of human emotion through their music.4

Romanticism encouraged composers to undertake individual paths in their search to express intense emotions, such as melancholy, longing and joy - and the themes of love and death, in their many manifestations. Their imagination drove them to push past conventional limits and explore new possibilities.

3 W. Thompson, The Great Composers, Anness Publishing Limited, London, 2001, p. 98. 4 A. Kendall, The Chronicle of Classical Music, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1994, p. 152.

8 In nineteenth century song, the German Lied was the most influential, and in many ways was the quintessential Romantic genre, a fusion of music and poetry, focusing on the expression of individual feelings. Later in the century, Wagner and Verdi transformed opera.

ROMANTICISM IN SONG

The nineteenth century saw the song as an important means of musical expression. The art song was dominated by German composers. The Lied was an ideal medium for Romanticism, as it synthesised music and poetry. Franz Schubert lifted the Lied to hitherto unknown heights, and is considered generally to be the master of the German Lied. He developed a new, intimate genre, a perfect union of poetry and music; his songs are essentially duets for solo voice and piano. Two of Schubert‟s greatest masterpieces (indeed, many would place them as two of the greatest masterpieces of any composer of all time) were written, incredibly, before the age of twenty, both to texts by Goethe, Erlkönig (age eighteen) and Gretchen am Spinnrade (age seventeen). Schubert wrote songs to the poems of many other writers, most notably Schilling, Heine, Rückert and Müller. (The song cycles Die schöne Müllerin, 1823, and Winterreise, 1827, are both written to the poetry of Müller.)

Robert Schumann was also hugely influential in the development of the Lied. Like Schubert, Schumann was immensely influenced by literature in his compositions. His great song cycles Dichterliebe and Liederkreis were written to the poetry of Heine. The poems of Heine, in particular, seem to have inspired Schumann to new creative expression in his songs. The intimate nature of Heine‟s poetry beautifully interrelates with Schumann‟s expressive music. In my opinion, Du bist wie eine Blume is an example of the flawless collaboration between Heine‟s poetry and Schumann‟s music, with the lyricism of the text so beautifully fused with the exquisite melody and accompaniment.

9 In the songs of Schubert and Schumann, the piano became an equal partner with the voice, no longer providing merely an accompaniment. The piano helped to add more emotion to the song, enhancing the mood and meaning of the text by providing harmonic and rhythmic support to the voice. It also enhanced the emotion in the text with the use of preludes, postludes and interludes. Both Schubert and Schumann used these features to great artistic and creative effect (and later Brahms, Wolf, Mahler and Richard Strauss).

The art song flourished throughout the nineteenth century and on to the early twentieth century, becoming popular outside the Germanic countries as well, drawing on the traditions of poetry and song for each country.

Later in the nineteenth century Wagner was attracted by the legends of Northern Europe. In his operas, Wagner developed his ideas of music drama, in which all the arts were synthesised, and wrote his own libretti. By the end of the Romantic period, the verismo opera (depicting realistic rather than historical or mythical subjects) became popular in Italy (the Italian bel canto operas of composers such as Rossini and Donizetti came earlier in the century), followed by France with operas such as Bizet‟s Carmen.

The French Revolution was a turning point in French culture, clearly visible in literature and the visual and performing arts. In France, the towering figure in nineteenth century literature was Victor Hugo. He championed free thought, and was a major exponent of the Romantic movement in France. His works inspired many composers and had a great impact on music in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many of his plays were adapted into operas, and reflected an acute social conscience. Hugo was a passionate admirer of the works of Goethe and Shakespeare. Other influential French writers in the Romantic era, including Alfred de Musset, Alphonse de Lamartine, Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine, provided inspiring texts for French composers, such as Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Hahn, Poulenc and Duparc.

10 The melancholy of Gautier‟s poems provided the tumultuous and passionate Hector Berlioz with inspiration for the magnificent song cycle, Les nuits d’été, a landmark French Romantic work and the first true French song cycle. Berlioz´s most well-known masterpieces were strongly influenced by literary works, such as The Damnation of Faust, based on Goethe´s Faust. Berlioz was one of the most innovative of French nineteenth century composers, and had a major influence on the development of French Romantic music.

Gabriel Fauré was also a master at capturing the meaning and atmosphere of the poet‟s text in his music. He seemed to have a special affinity with the poems of Paul Verlaine, and many consider his most beautiful songs (such as Clair de lune and the song cycle La bonne chanson) to be those that are set to Verlaine‟s poetry. French songs of the later Romantic era were more expressive of atmosphere, rather than narrative. Whilst Berlioz generally expressed intense, raw emotion in his songs, Fauré‟s music was more intimate and restrained.

Spanish songs of the nineteenth century were generally written for the church or the theatre. Vocal music in Spain during this period was based on Italianate opera, or the popular forms of theatre, the zarzuala and the tonadilla. By the middle of the nineteenth century a group of composers, such as Barbieri, began writing zarzuelas with Spanish texts. The development of the Spanish nationalist movement (late nineteenth century and early twentieth century), initiated by Pedrell, saw composers such as Falla, Turina, Granados, Guridi and Albéniz (and Rodrigo, later in the twentieth century) drawing on texts from sixteenth century Spanish poets (The Golden Age) and traditional folk songs. Composers such as Granados also began to use contemporary Spanish texts.

Spanish music is very diverse from region to region. Flamenco, for example, is Andalucian, and is not widespread in other regions. Folk music is quite distinctive, according to its region of origin.

11 The Romantics believed that love and death are in mystical affinity; they flow from one to the other, endlessly, seamlessly; one is needed to express and experience the other; they are intimately, eternally united. Indeed, the interconnection between love and death is the subject of much of Romantic opera and many art songs. By the end of the nineteenth century the union of love and death – Eros and Thanatos - became the most popular operatic finale. By linking love‟s bliss with death, Wagner had eroticised death; death was the only way that perfect union could be experienced.

In fact, one could say that in music (and I would say in vocal music in particular) love and death are the two most potent forces, and therein is the paradox: apparent duality, but also interwoven.

12 RECITAL 1 1810 – 1840

Introduction

Because of my love of German Lieder and the music of Franz Schubert in particular (along with points already noted about the importance of Schubert‟s music in the context of Romanticism), I decided to begin my first two recitals with songs by this composer.

I wanted a song with a fairly bright melody to open this recital, to convey a sense of joy and optimism. I chose Lachen und Weinen because it fitted this requirement, and also because of the opposing character of love expressed in the text. This song would thus serve as an overview for the whole recital, indeed the whole series of recitals: love, in all its aspects, the joy and the pain, the Lust and the Schmerz.

The following Schubert songs provide contrasts, texturally, musically, atmospherically and thematically, each presenting me with different performance challenges. Each was chosen to express different aspects of love. Der Tod und das Mädchen is the only song in this bracket that deals expressly with the theme of death. I felt it fitting that this song came last in the bracket.

I chose Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben as it gave me the opportunity to express both facets of my theme, namely love as well as death. I also liked the way different aspects of love were explored, from the earliest infatuation of the young woman, which grew into a deeper love with the progression of her courtship and betrothal, through to the bliss she found in their wedded union. With the arrival of the couple's first child, she experienced the overwhelming emotions of mother love: nurturing, protecting, intense bonding. With the death of her beloved in the final song, she is brought face to face with a grief so engulfing that she can no longer imagine going on living.

13

The final choices of repertoire were two bel canto arias, which gave me the opportunity to revel in my enjoyment of coloratura singing. Both arias tell stories of love, anguish, betrayal, secrecy, lust and death; intense passion expressed in flowing lines and exciting coloratura passages.

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828)

It sometimes seems to me as if I did not belong to this world at all. Franz Schubert5

Franz Schubert was born and lived all his life in Vienna. He had a wonderful gift of communication, and was the first great master of the Romantic Lied. In his short life of less than 32 years,

…he composed more than 600 songs and no other composer had ever displayed such an ability to match music to poetry so closely that the words seem to have been written expressly for this purpose.6

Unbelievably, Schubert‟s music was neglected for most of the nineteenth century, even though by 1821 it was performed widely in Vienna at the Schubertiaden (Schubert evenings), where his friends and acquaintances would gather to hear his songs, with Schubert at the piano, singing himself or often accompanying his friend, the singer Johann Michael Vogl. Schubert was lovingly called Schwammerl by his large circle of friends (literally means ”little mushroom” and can be translated as “Tubby”, probably a friendly allusion to his short stature).

5 P. Kavanaugh, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, Zondervan, Michigan. USA, 1996, p.64. 6 The Rough Guide to Classical Music, edited by J. Staines & D. Clark, Rough Guides Ltd, London, 2005, p.474.

14 These performances brought him very little financial rewards, and he lived much of his adult life in poverty.

As noted by Patrick Kavanaugh,

The short life of Franz Schubert is a study in incongruity. Known for so many beautiful and joyous compositions he encountered a doleful succession of disappointments, anguish and poverty.7

Even though for much of Schubert‟s life he was destitute and struggling, in spite of his financial hardship, he never lost his drive to compose. Kenneth S. Whitton writes that

Hans Fröhlich saw „lost love‟ as one of the four major themes of Schubert‟s art, the other three being yearning, wandering and death.8

In fact, fifty of Schubert‟s Lieder contain death.

Schubert‟s “lost love” changed his life. He never forgot his first love, Therese Grob, or she him. He was not able to marry her as he couldn‟t support her, and was heartbroken when her parents insisted she marry someone else. In 1816, Schubert wrote the following entry in his diary, expressing how much the loss of Therese affected him.

She was not really very pretty, she had pock-marks in her face; but she was good, (she was) an angel. For three years I hoped to marry her, but I couldn‟t find a position which would maintain us both. She then married another man, at the wishes of her parents, which hurt me greatly. I still

7 Kavanaugh, op. cit.,p.66. 8 K.S. Whitton, Goethe & Schubert: the unseen bond, Amadeus Press, Oregon, USA, 1999,p. 105.

15 love her and, since then, no other girl has meant as much to me or more. She just wasn‟t meant for me, I suppose.9

Schubert composed music to poems of many writers, including 59 poems of Goethe. Some of his finest Lieder are found in his two song cycles on poems by Wilhelm Müller, Die schöne Müllerin (The Pretty Miller-Maid 1823) and Winterreise (Winter‟s Journey, 1827). Schubert‟s focus was to make the music equal to the words, with the piano accompaniment taking equal place with the voice in conveying the emotions, situations and actions of the character in the song.

I heartily concur with the following sentiments concerning Schubert‟s Lieder.

Schubert‟s ability to capture the mood and character of a poem and make the music its equal in emotive and descriptive power, along with the sheer beauty of his music and the pleasure it gives to those who perform it, have endeared Schubert‟s songs both to his contemporaries and to generations of singers, pianists and listeners. His songs set the standard that later song composers strove to match.10

Schubert experienced the love of his many friends but was denied the only intimate love he wanted. In spite of his financial woes and health problems, he never ceased to compose. When one considers that his composing life was a mere fourteen years, it is extraordinary. One could say that his love for his music surpassed all else. Schubert refused to be anything other than himself. He was totally authentic and so was his music. He was unwilling to compromise his art to popularise it as a means to fame or fortune.

9 ibid., p.106. 10 J. Burkholder, D. Grout, C. Palisca, A History of Western Music, W.W.Norton & Co. New York, 2006, p.611.

16 The inscription on his tombstone by his friend, the poet Grillparzer, expresses the love of all who knew the man and his music.

The art of music here entombed a rich possession, but even fairer hopes.11

A comment on Schubert‟s tomb from a Viennese paper of November 1830 reads:

The tombstone is simple - simple as his songs. But it conceals a profound soul, as they do12

My favourite artists performing Schubert Lieder are Renée Fleming, Barbara Bonney, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. I have found great pleasure and inspiration in the interpretations of all these wonderful artists.

THE SCHUBERT SONGS

Lachen und Weinen (Laughter and Weeping)

The poem is by Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866) and the music is thought to have been composed in 1823. It was published in September 1826 as the fourth and final song in Opus 59. The other three titles are Du liebst mich nicht (you love me not), Dass sie hier gewesen (That she was here) and Du bist die Ruh' (You are peace). Lachen und Weinen and Du bist die Ruh' beautifully complete the set of songs, by emphasizing the pleasurable as opposed to the painful side of love.

11 K. &V. McLeish, Schubert, Heineman, London, 1979, p. 73. 12 ibid., p. 73.

17 I wished to begin the first recital with a song that is uplifting in mood. This song was chosen because of the brightness of the melody, somewhat Viennese in character, and the way in which the text expresses two opposing facets of love, the joy and pain, "laughing and weeping". Because of this contrast in the text the song was, I felt, a perfect introduction to the theme of the whole series of recitals. In addition, this song could well symbolize Schubert‟s life - the joy, the laughter, the struggles and disappointments.

The text places equal importance on both laughter and weeping, whilst the liveliness of Schubert's music gives greater emphasis to laughter. The melody rollicks along, and careers into the minor to express the disappointment and sadness expressed in the text.

The main challenge in this song was to create a legato line, while the notes seemingly work against this tendency, because of the way they rise and fall so suddenly and consistently. When first beginning to study the song, I had to be careful not to "poke" at the second, higher note in each set of quavers in the first line of each stanza, which tended to interrupt the rhythm and phrasing. I needed to take care to stress only the first beat in each bar in the opening line, and not the second as well. By really concentrating on the first beat of each bar, and mentally travelling towards it, I was able to develop and maintain proper musical phrasing. The main stress, however, (or the feel of the stress) needed to be on the first beat of each phrase, to create the legato line.

The rests at the ends of the phrases created another challenge, namely to keep the voice going forward, and not to let the energy fall. To do this I visualized a continuous flow of sound, even though I was observing the rests.

Du bist die Ruh' (You are peace)

The poem is once again by Friedrich Rückert and was composed in 1823, the third song in Opus 59.

18

This song was chosen because it provides such a contrast, in text, tempo and atmosphere, with Lachen und Weinen. Its theme is pure love, rising above any erotic thought. The loved one is seen as a safe refuge from the pain of the world. There is an intimacy present. The poet expresses the adoration of the beloved as having an almost divine quality.

The long, seamless lines of the phrasing perfectly give expression to the peacefulness and serenity of the text. This creates challenges for breath control and support. Always when singing this song, I focused on the beauty of the phrases and the necessity of correctly articulating the language (by ensuring that all consonants could be heard), whilst still singing softly. In fact I had to be careful in semitone phrases such as voll Lust und Schmerz and mein Aug' und Herz to ensure that every note could be heard. I was not to sacrifice musical detail and text for line.

Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the spinning wheel)

The poem is by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), from his play Faust 1, which was completed in 1806. Schubert probably found the text in an edition of Faust published as volume one of Goethe's Collected Works in Vienna in 1810.

At that time Schubert was deeply in love with Therese Grob, who had sung in his Mass in F Major in 1814. He most probably wrote the song shortly after that performance, making a copy for Goethe in 1816.

I chose this song as a complete contrast to the first two songs, and to provide a dramatic climax for the group of Lieder. It expresses a different aspect of the theme of love, the anguish of unrealized desire, which appears to almost border on hysteria and madness. The absence of eroticism in Du bist die Ruh' is the antithesis of Gretchen's unassuaged

19 passion. As I wrote in my program notes for this song, the theme of Du bist die Ruh' is peace in love, whereas in Gretchen am Spinnrade, all peace has been lost, because of Gretchen's lust and obsessive need of Faust. She has lost not only her sense of peace, but all control over her own life. The song expresses the helplessness felt by the character over her powerful, all consuming emotions. In the words an seinen Küssen vergehen sollt (in his kisses I should expire) Gretchen expresses that there is “death” in the pleasure of passion; could it be that at that moment time stands still, so she is “dead” to all other moments except that one? Or perhaps the experience was so sublime that she had already reached “Heaven”, and so “died” in that moment.

The composition of Gretchen am Spinnrade is a landmark in the history of Lieder. It was really the first time that the music and the text were of equal importance. The piano part is not merely an accompaniment to the voice, but an entity in itself, wonderfully expressing the tortured emotions of Gretchen. The relentless, driving accompaniment, symbolizing the spinning wheel and accentuating Gretchen's racing heartbeat and her tumultuous state of mind, only ceases momentarily when she thinks of kissing Faust, the object of her desire.

As Kenneth S. Whitton ably writes,

The spinning wheel is personified by the monotonous allegro non troppo of the sixteen notes' accompaniment, in 6/8 time, which only ceases at the most miraculous moment in song literature - when Gretchen thinks of Faust's kiss. She cries ecstatically: und ach, sein Kuss! (And, oh, his kiss!) The dramatic pause, which comes after the high G, is followed by the resumption of the spinning wheel motive in the accompaniment, until Gretchen sinks back exhausted, and Schubert (not Goethe) makes her repeat „my peace is gone, my heart is heavy‟, as the very last words.17

17 K. S. Whitton, op. cit., p.159

20 This song presents the singer with many challenges, not the least being memory, due to the apparent similarity of the ongoing semiquaver groups. It takes some time to get the feel for this song, but when one has done, it is extraordinary to sing. It has an incredible intensity, and the power of the text and music combined allows the singer to participate in the helplessness in Gretchen's mind. It is rightly considered, I believe, to be one of the great musical masterpieces, not only in the Lieder repertoire, but in classical music generally. And how incredible to ponder that Schubert was a mere seventeen years old when he wrote it; such artistic maturity in one so young.

My greatest challenges in this song were support and intonation, and a tendency to slide into opening phrases, instead of making a clean entry into the centre of the note. I considered singing in the lower key which, being a mezzo, would have been easier for me to sing (especially the rising tessitura of und küssen in, so wie ich wollt to the second vergehen sollt), but I considered the original key to be much more dramatic, and therefore more effectively able to express the emotion of the piece.

I also had to work on keeping the voice going ahead and the energy progressing forward, especially through the many rests at the end of phrases. It is most important to observe the rests, while at the same time keeping the intensity, as they suggest Gretchen almost gasping for breath, as the spinning wheel and her emotions drive her and the drama of the whole piece onward. Gretchen can gasp for breath but the singer must not! Support must be strong and the breath control very secure.

Erster Verlust (First loss)

This song is number four in a group of five, Schubert's only five-song set, published in 1821. All five songs are set to poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Erster Velust was written in 1815. The other songs in the set are Rastlose Liebe (Restless Love), Nähe des

21 Geliebten (Nearness of the Beloved), Der Fischer (The Fisherman) and Der König in Thule (The King of Thule).

I chose this song because it expresses a different aspect of love from the others in the group of Lieder. Its theme is the nostalgia and bittersweet memories of first love, and the yearning for return of the happiness of loving days long passed. Being in a minor key (F minor), it expresses an atmosphere of mournfulness and poignant regret, especially in the ending phrase. It provided a complete contrast with Gretchen am Spinnrade, in theme, text, atmosphere, tempo and singing style.

In the nostalgic yearning of Erster Verlust, the pleasure of the memories is coupled with the pain of the ending, the death of the relationship. There is almost a pleasure in recounting the pain of the past; perhaps living in the past and unable to move on with the present life; perhaps to escape the pain of the present, remembering a first love that could never be completely fulfilled, and thus it had to die. Therefore, this song explores not only love but also death. It expresses the pain of endings, but inherent in endings is the promise of new beginnings, and new possibilities to love.

Once again, as in Gretchen am Spinnrade, the tessitura presented me with challenges, as my particular strength does not lie in the effortless floating of notes that are high up in the stave. Once again, however, I chose to sing the song in the original key because I felt that the dramatic quality would have been compromised in the lower key. I therefore set about meeting the challenge of the tessitura as best as I could.

Intonation and support were also areas I had to work on. I had to concentrate on legato phrasing and keeping the vowels open and pure.

22

Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the maiden)

This song was composed in February 1817, and made a deep impression on Schubert‟s friends when he first sang it to them. It is the third song in a set of three of Opus 7, poetry by Matthias Claudius (1740-1815). The titles of the first two songs in this set are Die abgeblühte Linde and Der Flug der Zeit. The theme of all three songs is the passing of time.

Der Tod und das Mädchen is one of the most famous poems by Claudius. His most successful poems are generally accepted to be ones concerning nature, especially those that hover between love of life and a desire to welcome “Friend Hain”, his name for death. It was first published in 1775 and remained popular for over fifty years, because of its simplicity and its contribution in dispelling the long-held medieval symbol of death as a fearful, punitive, grotesque skeleton.

In this poem, death has a comforting presence, even though it is faced by the youth of a maiden, with limited experience of the passing of time, and not someone old whose hair has turned white.

The fearful urgency of the maiden; Vorüber, ach vorüber! (Pass by, ah, pass by!) is imploring death to depart, contrasted with the calm, serene quality of death portrayed by the poet. Death is seen to be gentle and supportive, welcoming the maiden to a better, more peaceful and beautiful world. The serenity of death promises to envelop the maiden with calm assurance and love. This poem is indeed about love as well as death.

The opening theme of the song is a lamentation, akin to a funeral march; slow, deliberate, solemn. Schubert beautifully illustrates the contrast between the urgency of the maiden‟s cries and the repeated notes of the second section, conveying the calm assurance of death;

23 sollst sanft in meinen Armen Schlafen (You shall sleep softly in my arms). Death‟s reassurance has the feeling of a lullaby, gently calming the maiden and surrounding her with love.

This song is deceptively challenging, appearing so simple on the page. Its challenges lie not only in the need to convey the contrasting emotions of the two characters, the maiden and death, but in the need to support the voice properly, especially in the repeated notes of death. It is essential in the death section, marked piano, that the voice is still properly supported and projected, so that it can be heard. I also had to be aware of adequate support in the A-Bb-A intervals of the maiden, in order to ensure correct intonation.

As well as this, it was important to phrase the maiden section with a feeling of legato, so that each vorüber was not poked, or unduly accented, but expressed within the integrity of the overall line. This was a challenge because the rests can break up the voice if the singer is not conscious of the legato of the whole section.

I also had to watch the timing of the anacrusis on the A in geh Lieber, to ensure that it was given no stress, but could still be heard. It was important to keep it in time, without a sense of it being rushed, even though the character is singing with a sense of great urgency.

I greatly admire the performances of Der Tod und das Mädchen given by Christa Ludwig in the CD “Erlkönig: The Art of the Lied” and Renée Fleming in her CD “Schubert Lieder”.

ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)

Robert Schumann was an enigmatic, complex composer who occupied a key position in nineteenth century music. He was a quintessential Romantic with a deep knowledge of

24 literature and philosophy, his mission, as he saw it, being to “fuse all the arts into music, which profoundly expressed the voice of its creator.”14

As Schumann himself wrote, “I am affected by everything extraordinary that goes on in the world and think it over in my own way…then I long to express my feelings and find an outlet for them in my music: a poem, something infinitely more spiritual, the result of poetical consciousness.”15

His music was an expression of his inner life; tragic, tortured periods of depression with occasional bouts of light, joy and creative energy. He never recovered from his sister‟s suicide. Schumann‟s compositions can show sudden changes of emotion, from pain to optimism, passion to nostalgia and yearning, brooding to joyousness.

Schumann‟s music was the product of a nature so sensitive, and it spoke in so personal an idiom, that it was many years before it began to be accepted by the public.

Schumann was a fine pianist and had wanted to become a concert pianist until he damaged two fingers on his right hand (due to using a contraption he had invented to strengthen his fingers). As a pianist-composer he made the piano partake fully in the expression of emotion, often giving the piano the most telling music when the voice had finished. This is illustrated in the piano postlude of the last song in Frauenliebe und Leben. The process of giving the piano equal importance to the voice was taken over by Hugo Wolf and is one of Schumann‟s great legacies to the art song.

In 1840, after years of despair, Schumann finally won legal action to overturn the objections of Clara Wieck‟s father to their marriage. Their marriage took place one day before Clara‟s twenty-first birthday.

14 The Rough Guide to Classical Music, Edited by J Staines & D Clark, Rough Guides Ltd, London, 2005, p. 486. 15 ibid., p. 486.

25 FRAUENLIEBE UND LEBEN (Woman‟s Love and Life)

The song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben, opus 42, was composed in 1840, during Schumann‟s co-called “Year of the Song”. Because of his happiness in finally being able to wed Clara, this particular year saw an outpouring of his creativity.

In Frauenliebe und Leben Schumann used the first eight of Adelbert von Chamisso‟s cycle of nine poems (In the ninth poem the woman becomes a grandmother). Chamisso (1781-1838) was a German poet and botanist, one of the most gifted lyricists of the Berlin Romantics.

The cycle tells the story, from the woman‟s point of view, of her journey from a young, impressionable girl to a mature woman, experiencing her roles as young bride, married woman, mother and finally as widow. Her husband is at the centre of her whole existence. At each stage, her past is seen through older, wiser eyes.

This is an intensely personal portrait of the woman‟s inner life, as she expresses the devotion she feels for her husband and her joy in becoming a mother. It is important, I feel, not to view these songs from a modern perspective, seeing them as outdated sentimentality and sexist denigration of a woman‟s role in the world. They should be seen in their historical perspective and appreciated for their beauty. The following is an interesting viewpoint from a recent contemporary text.

It is very much a nineteenth century male‟s conception of womanhood: and Schumann edits the text so as to reinforce further the impression that the girl‟s happiness can exist only alongside that of her man (ironically his wife had an extremely successful career and finished up as the family breadwinner). But matters of sexism aside, Frauenliebe und Leben has

26 maintained its key place in the repertoire as a supreme embodiment of Innigkeit, inwardness, intimacy and sincerity of feeling.16

Interestingly, the untranslatable direction innig (the closest in English is inwardly) appears on four songs out of eight in Frauenliebe und Leben (compared with five out of sixty-three in other songs). This inward mood matches the interior, utterly personal quality of the scenes and emotions described.

The cycle also features frequent changes of tempo within the same song, first hesitant, then impetuous and excitable.

As a singer, I agree with Lotte Lehmann‟s view of Frauenliebe und Leben and concentrate on its beauty:

In this cycle try to forget the present and let yourself be free to enjoy the romantic sentimentality of a century which was far less matter of fact than our own… You should begin the cycle with the kind of reverence and enchantment with which you might take from an old cabinet a rare piece of precious lace….. I am certainly a modern woman and I can‟t tolerate anything which is sentimental or „sweetish‟ and yet I say: Yes, to be sure, this cycle is old fashioned, but thank heaven that it is! One can never be an artist if one cannot place oneself convincingly in any atmosphere, however distant or foreign. So forget the present when you sing this cycle. Be a woman of the Biedermeier period, knowing that she loved and felt in the same way as the women of today although she expressed herself differently.17

16 ibid, p. 495. 17 L Lehmann, More than Singing: The Interpretation of Songs, Dover Publications Inc, NY, 1985, p. 151.

27 The artists I particularly admire singing Frauenliebe und Leben are Teresa Berganza and Anne Sofie von Otter.

Seit ich ihn gesehen (Since first I saw him)

In this song we hear the woman‟s voice as a young, impressionable girl. She starts in a dreamy state, expressing the love and admiration she feels for the older man she deeply admires.

She starts as if with a sigh, creating the first challenge for the singer. The voice needs to be very well supported in order to ensure audibility and correct intonation. There should be no crescendo and a soft, very slight accent given to ihn in the first phrase. The line should be beautiful, flowing legato, right through the song.

My technical emphasis, as well as support and intonation, is to ensure that there is plenty of space when producing the sound (created by raising the soft palate and keeping the tongue down). This is especially important when producing the vowels. I had to be aware of keeping the vowel sound open and clean, especially in descending passages, to avoid distortion of the vowel. I have found that if there is ever a problem with my intonation, it is usually due to inadequate support and insufficient space.

The space must also be kept open in the rests, to ensure beautiful vowel sound and continuity of line, so that the energy flows through from phrase to phrase. During the rests, the mind must be continuing forward with the next thought, the next phrase.

All tempo changes – larghetto, ritardando, a tempo – need to be carefully observed. After the ritardando it was important that I concentrate on keeping the pulse going.

28 In the first bar of the third system it is important to maintain the space from the Eb through to the Bb at the beginning of the next bar (wachen Träume) to ensure that the „a‟ vowel is kept open and unchanged.

Each heller needs to be accentuated with the “h” stressed. Consonants need to be clearly articulated, especially in a word like Schwestern; and begehr should be stressed in nicht begehr ich mehr.

I had to be very conscious to avoid scooping, especially in lieber weinen still im Kämmerlein. Each syllable needs to be perfectly distinct. Any scooping or sliding in this music would be inappropriate for the style and period, as well as causing over- sentimentalisation.

The last phrase, glaub’ ich blind zu sein, is pianissimo, almost whispered, but of course still very well supported so the voice goes forward, and can be clearly heard.

Er, der Herrlichste von Allen (He, the most wonderful of all)

The young girl looks with rapture at her beloved, and finds herself unworthy of his attentions, even though she deeply desires to be chosen by him. She even talks about being happy for the lucky woman he will one day take for his wife! She is imagining the birth and death of her relationship with him in this one thought. It is impossible to share her love with anyone. His image seems to be constantly before her and above her, like a star in the sky. Her greatest joy is praising his virtues, his wonderful character and his great beauty.

This song is begun radiantly and joyfully. The first phrase is almost victorious, but one must be careful not to make it dramatic. (This is Lieder, not opera, and one must stay true

29 to the form.) It must be sung in exact rhythm, with absolute accuracy (however still with a sense of relaxed flexibility - it should never appear stilted).

Once again, special consciousness needs to be given to the legato line. The dotted rhythm can tend to make the sound jerky if one is not very aware of the voice always going forward. The singer needs to develop an innate sense for the phrasing (a conscious awareness at first, then automatically absorbed into the mind and body once the song has been thoroughly learned and is very comfortable).

The support and energy must not drop at the end of each phrase; the intensity of the support must be maintained from phrase to phrase, and through each rest. At a rest the voice stops momentarily, but the energy must not.

The turns in wie, fester, nur and Herrlich need to be very clear and very legato, with a slight easing of the tempo. I had to be conscious of taking my time with the turns and not to rush.

I needed to be aware of giving emphasis in the forte section - Holde Lippen, klares Auge – without force or attack. In this phrase, the young woman emphasises the wonderful qualities of her beloved.

Wandle, wandle deine Bahnen should be sung with great warmth, with a lovely crescendo. The subito piano in Demuth needs to be beautifully sung, whilst still giving accent to the word. Subito piano is also given to sollte mir das Herz auch brechen.

Once again, in this song as in the last, there has to be an absence of scooping. I had to watch the tendency to do this, especially in betrachten.

The last section – Er, der Herrlichste von Allen – is sung fervently and with great joy. She has gone through the motions in her mind of the possibility of sacrificing her love to

30 his happiness lest he choose someone else. She once again focuses on his perfection and her joyous hopes of being his.

Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben (I can‟t understand it, I don‟t believe it)

The young woman is overwhelmed that she has been chosen by her beloved. How could this be? Out of all others he has chosen her. This song has a breathless quality - she cannot be sure whether this is just a dream or amazing, magical reality! She is utterly shocked - she had never dared to dream that she could be his, even in the secrecy of her own heart.

This song is fast and con passione - a challenge for the articulation, especially the consonants - and must not sound garbled. Breaths must be taken quickly but with poise, and not gulped.

At first the young woman seems to question her understanding of the situation: Mir war’s, er habe gesprochen (I thought I heard him say). This needs to be sung piano and più lento to convey her misapprehension. Dare she believe it? The voice must still be properly supported during the piano section. But yes, it is true: ich bin auf ewig dein (I am forever yours). I had to be careful to avoid scooping on ewig, keeping the ornamentation clear and clean.

In O lass im Traume mich sterben (O let me die in this dream) the tempo returns to that of the opening, and it is sung forte. I had to ensure that it was not too loud, but still sung with beauty. I had to ensure that there was no ritardando on Brust. I needed to keep the pace moving and flowing, thus highlighting the effectiveness of the adagio on Thränen unendlicher Lust (with tears of unending joy). This line has an almost religious reverence to it.

31 The last sentence, Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nich glauben is marked piano, but I aimed for almost pianissimo, as if with tears of joy. I needed to be conscious of making full use of the pause on Traum in the second last bar, as if accentuating that her dream has been realised.

Within the context of my theme, I find the line Den seligen Tod mich schlürfen (Let the most blessed death drink me up) most interesting. Why the mention of death in this song, so exquisitely joyful? (whilst also conveying a certain wistfulness) Is she “dead” to all other ecstatic moments apart from this? Does time stand still (and thus momentarily die) in this wondrous instant? Is she “dead” to all others but him? Is it, as the Romantics believed, that the most exquisite flowering of love can only be fully realised in death? The duality of life and death/love and death perfectly realised in this moment. This perception is developed and explored more fully in the works of Wagner and other later Romantic composers.

Could it also be that this line is an actual forecast of the death of her future husband?

Du Ring an meinem Finger (You, ring on my finger)

Now the young woman is betrothed and sings of her happiness, calm and content in the realization of his love. She does not speak of passion or desire. She wears his ring and surrenders her soul to his. She belongs completely to him and will do whatever he asks of her. She will live only for him.

In this song my technical challenge was to make each phrase a beautiful legato, keeping the energy flowing from one phrase to the next. This presents challenges for breath control. The support needs to be very strong.

32 I aimed for a beautiful blossoming of the phrases, an example being dich fromm an die Lippen an das Herze mein, giving emphasis to Herze. I consciously aimed for Herze when beginning the phrase to effect the blossoming, and to avoid stressing the quavers of Lippen, an das.

Once again, as already stated for other songs in the cycle, I had to avoid any scooping, especially on the last note of the song, the Eb-mein!

This is the only song which is occasionally sung out of the context of the whole song cycle. It appears to be more self-contained than the other songs, and is popular because of its beautiful melody.

Helft mir, ihr Schwestern (Help me, sisters)

The wedding day has arrived and the young woman is surrounded by her sisters and the friends of her childhood. She is blissfully happy and excited but cannot entirely overcome her maiden‟s fear of the new experiences which await her. She tells of how she has been content to be in the arms of her beloved and how she sensed his passionate urgency for this day to arrive. She asks her friends and sisters (Schwestern seems to refer to both) to help her overcome these fears, which she considers foolish. These conflicting emotions need to be really felt by the singer and brought out in the performance.

Freeing herself from her worrying thoughts, she delightedly recalls the image of her beloved. She surrenders herself to him, and in humility bows her head.

Dressed in her bridal dress she bids her sisters and friends farewell. She is no longer one of them. Her happiness is tinged with sadness as she leaves her friends. As she steps forward to marry her beloved, the music takes on the feeling of a wedding march.

33 This song has a joyous feel and is sung quite fast - Ziemlich schnell; however not too fast lest the consonants become garbled. Careful articulation of the text is essential.

I had to be very conscious of the legato feel to each phrase, by concentrating on the pulse, and leaning on the first beat of each bar, whilst avoiding stressing the third. I had to be careful not to poke at the Ds in the first two phrases. I avoided this by thinking of these two phrases as one phrase, keeping the energy (and the mind‟s focus) flowing through to the end of the phrase. This mental focus was held right throughout the song.

Süsser Freund, du blickest (Sweet friend, you gaze)

The young woman has undergone a change; she is now a married woman, blissfully in love, and the singing of this song needs to reflect this. Her tender addressing of her beloved husband as Süsser Freund conveys that he is far more to her than husband and lover; he is also an understanding friend and confidant.

She lies in his arms and blissfully tells him her secret – that she is going to have a baby. This will surely complete their love, their happiness. The music suggests that her sharing of her joyful news takes place during the piano interlude, along with his ecstatic response.

The technical challenges of this song generally lay in support, breath control, and ensuring that the vowel sounds stay open and clear, especially when descending in pitch during a vowel. Once again, the consonants had to be carefully articulated, but not forced. Also there had to be no scooping anywhere in the song.

I had to concentrate on making each D entry note to each phrase sufficiently strong, but sung piano, with no hint of undue stress. The note had to be sung as part of the whole phrase. The quaver following it should not be clipped, but given its full value, and sung very legato. In this song, especially, I had to aim for seamless legato throughout.

34

The section beginning with Bleib an meinem Herzen (Rest against my heart) should be sung with more animation but still within the dreaminess of the whole song, but the crescendi on Lass der feuchten Perlen and freudig hell erzittern should be very subtle, almost barely noticed.

I endeavoured to give a warm crescendo to der Morgen, wo der Traum erwacht (in the morning when the dream comes true) and daraus dein Bildniss (your image). The last dein Bildniss! fades away in the Adagio.

An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust (At my heart, at my breast)

With motherhood the young woman‟s happiness knows no bounds. She looks adoringly at her tiny infant; she is laughing, weeping, smiling, talking, all in one breath. She relishes her new role, and is sorry for men that they are unable to experience the joys of motherhood.

Even though this song is sung with a joyous, almost rollicking tempo, Schumann interestingly still marks it with Fröhlich innig (loosely translated “happily inward”). The landscape is of the interior, the room and the personal emotions of the woman.

I had to ensure that my tempo was bright and joyful, but not rushed. I needed to be careful not to overstress particular notes, and give each phrase a beautiful legato line, once again focusing on a threading effect, each note heard but completely within the phrase.

35 Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz gethan (Now you have hurt me for the first time)

Life has showered the woman with many blessings, but now her happiness had ended with the death of her beloved husband. We are left to wonder if her husband died at a young age leaving her to bring up her child or children alone. She is deprived of the opportunity to grow old with the man she loves. Death has dealt her a cruel blow. Her grief strikes at the very core of her being. It overwhelms her. It feels like it consumes her.

In her profound grief she is also angry; at Life, for robbing her of the one she loves, and at her husband, for leaving her: Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz gethan (Now you have hurt me for the first time). She feels forsaken. At this moment she feels there is no love in her life; all that is left is emptiness and barrenness; Die Welt ist leer, ist leer (The world is empty, empty). She feels not only that she is without love, but without life. She is living, but no longer has life; ich bin lebend mehr (I am no longer living).

When first learning this song I needed to take special care with the apparent freer nature of the rhythm and tempo. I still had to be aware of the pulse, right throughout the song.

The first note is quite declamatory and is accented. It should not be overdone, however. I had to ensure that the quavers were not jerky, but kept very legato.

The piano sections and the pianissimo at the end of the song needed to be sensitively done, but still very well supported, and not undersung. The mournful, sombre, desolate mood needs to be maintained right through the song, and to the end of the piano epilogue.

The recall of the melody of the first song in the piano postlude is very moving, suggesting how the woman‟s mind keeps returning to the past; this is her only consolation now. Love and Death; the cycle is complete.

36 It is interesting to think of the original poem when considering this ending, with the woman becoming a grandmother. Death has meant the physical end of her husband, but life goes on after him: Life and Love. Love, Life and Death, entwined.

Bel raggio lusinghier (A beautiful, enticing ray)

Semiramide was Rossini‟s last opera for an Italian audience and the last of his neoclassical works. The libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire‟s tragedy, Semiramis.

The opera was first performed on 3 February 1823. The Venetian public found it too long, so Rossini radically cut the first act for the next twenty-eight performances. Another problem with first night was Isabella Colbran‟s voice. The Venetians put mourning posters throughout Venice, cruelly announcing her artistic death! (By 1823 her voice was badly damaged.) This is an interesting insight into the real drama behind this opera‟s inception, providing a minor parallel to the themes of lust, obsession, greed, vindictiveness, betrayal, and murder portrayed by the characters on stage.

Semiramide was the high point of Rossini‟s bel canto style, soon to be outmoded because few singers could cope with its technical demands. Bel raggio lusinghier is probably the most famous aria from the opera (Act 1), a song of desire conveyed through vocal brilliance. Semiramide contains some of Rossini‟s most demanding and difficult vocal writing, especially for the two singers who play mother and son.

As noted in my program for this recital, Semiramide, along with Prince Assur, has murdered her husband, Nino. She has fallen in love with Arsace and in this aria joyfully awaits his triumphant return from battle (neither of them knows that he is her son).

37 The technical challenges of this aria involve the need for strong support and breath control. The breath needs to be sustained over long phrases, enabling the voice to sing florid passages over sometimes many bars at a time, on one breath. The text needs to be well articulated, a challenge because the tempo is so fast; carefully formed consonants and beautiful, open, pure Italian vowels.

The voice needs to develop the flexibility to sing the long, florid passages. This is achieved firstly with technical exercises to develop this facility. When first beginning to study a very florid aria, the notes and passages need to be learned slowly, carefully ensuring that they are all correct. Speed is built up slowly. To rush this stage of the learning process is disastrous to the future performance. Correct pitch of the intervals between notes is essential.

In florid singing such as this coloratura aria, each note must be clear and distinctly heard, without smudging or slurring. The singing is fast but each note needs to be crystal clear. Rossini‟s florid passages also need elasticity or flexibility to the feel and sound of them. They must never be stilted, but free and spacious.

Even though my voice seems to have a natural flexibility, I found the final semiquaver bars, amore, di gioia e amor challenging, as the turns are through the passaggio in my voice, E to F. I had to pay particular attention in carefully learning the notes, and building up speed gradually, even more so here than in the other florid passages.

Once it was learnt and worked up to speed, I found the singing of this aria wonderfully exuberant and freeing. The music seems to completely take on a life of its own.

38 O mio Fernando (O my Fernando)

This aria is from the opera La Favorita (The Favourite) by Gaetano Donizetti. The libretto was written by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Waez, adapted from the drama Le Comte de Comminges by Baculard-Darnaud. It was first performed in Paris in 1840.

The character singing this aria, Leonora, is overcome with regret and guilt. The pain of her self-loathing and shame overtake her and she sees no future for herself other than divine retribution and punishment; Scritto è in cielo il mio dolor! (My sorrow is inscribed in heaven!) Death is her only escape, but even in death she will be punished, everlasting damnation for her perceived sins in this life.

The shame felt by Leonora lies in her past association as the mistress of Alfonso, King of Castile. Ferdinand is a young novice in the Monastery of St James of Compostella. So deep is Ferdinand‟s passion for Leonora, that he renounces his novitiate to seek for her. Leonora‟s fear is that when Ferdinand learns of her past he will renounce her - which is what in fact happens.

His passion has changed to anger. He feels betrayed by Leonora and rejects her. In this action we see what can be a fine line between love and loss of love, the duality of love and hate (even though the love may have been suppressed, not necessarily destroyed, by the anger, jealousy and sense of betrayal).

At the end of the opera we see another duality, life and death, as Leonora loses her life. O mio Fernando is a very popular mezzo aria, due to its beautiful melody and long, flowing lines.

39 The recitative needs to be sung with a great sense of urgency and foreboding; Lenora is frightened of what she feels befalls her. The lento of Tutto mel dice contrasts with the declamatory style of lo sposo di Leonora!

Emphasis must always be given to a seamless legato line. Strong support is essential to achieve this. The well-known cantabile section O mio Fernando needs to beautifully sung with flowing legato, as Leonora expresses her desperate love for Fernando.

Once again, in this aria as well as the last, emphasis needs to be given to articulation, especially in the faster sections; well-enunciated consonants and clean, pure Italian vowels.

In the recitative, the minims such as the C on Fernando and the G# on Tutto need to be given accent, and I also aimed for a slight crescendo during the note, for a blossoming of the sound. This was also true for the G natural on disperata in the a piacere section at the end.

40

Conclusion to Recital 1

A few weeks before this recital I broke my ankle, so in the light of this injury, I felt pleased to have been able to undertake the performance. The injury meant that in the final few crucial weeks before the recital, I was unable to drive the one-hour journey to the home of my vocal coach. Fortunately, my vocal coach kindly travelled to my home for a final rehearsal before the recital.

In fact, considering that I still needed crutches to walk, even on the day of the recital, only leaving them to walk unaided on stage, I consider myself fortunate to have completed the recital. I was certainly quite tired by the end. Interestingly, I consider the two arias at the end of the program to be my best singing.

It was also too painful to do very much practice standing up, in the few weeks prior to the recital. This meant that I was concerned about losing some strength in my support and breath control. This may have contributed to some inconsistencies in intonation at the start of the recital. I certainly believe that it did. I certainly feel that I need to keep this injury in mind when I am evaluating my performance in this recital.

During the Schubert Lieder, I noticed, when listening to the recording, a spin in the vibrato, especially at the top, and some lack of absolute clarity in certain phrases, especially in Gretchen am Spinnrade. I felt that more clarity was needed in the turns of Er, der Herrlichste von Allen. I feel that, at times, I was not exactly in the middle of each note when opening certain phrases.

As already noted, I was feeling quite tired by the end of the Schumann song cycle, and noticed in the performance that I needed extra breaths in the first aria, Bel raggio lusinghier. Apart from that, I was pleased that the aria flowed fairly easily. When I

41 listened to the recording, I was satisfied to hear that the runs were clear and the extra breaths did not compromise the fluency.

By the time I began to sing the final piece in the recital, O mio Fernando, I was certainly very tired. The last few weeks of insufficient technical practice had taken their toll. I felt the tiredness not just generally through the body, but also vocally, as I needed to occasionally clear my throat, possibly due to a build up of tension, causing some mucous. It was certainly, in my view, not as good a performance of this aria as I had achieved previously.

Overall, apart from a few disappointing intonation concerns, I was pleased with my performance of the repertoire I had worked so consistently over many months to develop, especially in the light of the injury I had sustained so close to the recital.

42 RECITAL 2 1810-1875

Introduction

I began this recital, like the first, with Schubert. I felt the need to further explore my theme with Schubert Lieder, firstly because I have a great love for the music of this composer, and also because Schubert brought such richness and inspiration to the art song genre.

Most of Schubert‟s songs deal with the subjects of love and death in some way or another. Even the songs with an apparent lightness of mood often reveal an underlying melancholy. This is certainly true of the first in the recital, the beautiful Ständchen, which is loved by singers and audiences all over the world, and the lovely, lyrical Frühlingsglaube. I chose Die junge Nonne as a dramatic contrast to the first two songs, and to explore the theme of love and death in relation to faith and spiritual development. Even though in the song the young nun goes on a turbulent journey of spiritual discovery, the ideas in the underlying theme are universal.

With so much wealth in the music of Robert Schumann, I wanted to study more songs by this composer, to further explore my theme. I chose three songs by Schumann, beginning with the well-loved Widmung, to express the joy of mutual love. In Du bist wie eine Blume a gentle, innocent love is being expressed, like that for a young child, particularly a child one loves. The bitterness expressed in Ich grolle nicht provides a marked contrast to the first two Schumann songs. This song explores the heartache and rejection felt when love ends.

In order to further explore the theme of love and death in the Romantic period, I moved to French repertoire. The great song cycle by Hector Berlioz, Les nuits d’été, is one that I have always wanted to study and perform. It is such an important landmark in the

43 development of French song, and provided me with many beautiful songs expressing aspects of love, and in particular, love in relation to death and separation.

I wanted to explore love of freedom and personal identity, and the three operatic arias concluding the recital gave me the means of doing that. These arias are sung by two very strong and independent heroines; Isabella, from L’Italiana in Algeri, and Carmen, from Carmen. Both arias express the self-assuredness of the characters, and their determination to live their lives by their own rules.

In the two Carmen arias, Carmen expresses her attitude to love, and displays her provocative, seductive powers. Underpinning this, of course, is the knowledge that her freedom to love and live her life by her own determination will later see her choosing death rather than giving up that freedom.

THE SCHUBERT SONGS

Ständchen (Serenade)

Ständchen was composed in 1826, to poetry by Ludwig Rellstab ( 1799-1860). It is number 4 in the song cycle Swanengesang (The Swan Song). This cycle consists mainly of poetry by Rellstab and Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). It was not conceived as a cycle by Schubert, but was posthumously and aptly named by the publisher, Haslinger, who had bought the songs from Schubert‟s brother after Schubert‟s death. Swanengesang is not coloured by the relentless, desolate grief of Winterreise, but the mood is still fairly sombre overall.

44 An exception is the well loved and often performed Ständchen, originally composed as an alto solo and male chorus, subsequently arranged for female voices only. It expresses a passionate delight in life and a celebration of romantic love, infused with a sweet melancholy, which is evoked by alternating minor and major forms of a key or triad, an effect that is almost a trademark of Schubert‟s style. The accompaniment also evokes images of a serenader plucking a guitar.

The poet serenades his beloved with his passionate longings. The text also hints at past and possible future disappointments in love:

Sie verstehn des Busens Sehnen, Kennen Liebesschmerz (They know the heart‟s yearning and the pain of love.) and also…

Bebend harr’ ich dir entgegen! Komm, beglücke mich! (Trembling, I wait for you. Come, make me happy.)

These words infer that the poet‟s happiness rests on the beloved; will he be accepted or refused? If he is accepted, he will experience great joy; if rejected he will suffer greatly, in desolate disappointment. This text beautifully expresses the two-edged sword of romantic love - the bliss of acceptance and union and the heartache of rejection if it ends. In each moment, both are possible.

The poet expresses his vulnerability to his beloved. His happiness, he says, is in her hands.

Laß auch dir die Brust bewegen, Liebchen, höre mich! (Let your heart too be moved - hear me, my love!)

45 Technically, when preparing this song, I needed to be mindful of keeping the vowels open, and the soft palate up, to ensure plenty of space, which, when combined with strong support, ensured correct intonation. I had to be mindful of maintaining a beautiful legato line throughout the song. I also needed to give the dotted crotchet (for example in the first bar) its full value, and not to cut it short. In addition, I had to take care with the timing of the mordent, and to ensure that the triplets were perfectly even; for example komm zu mir! (come to me).

Frühlingsglaube (Spring hope)

This beautiful, lyrical song was composed in 1820, the only song which Schubert set to the poetry of Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862). Charles Osbourne refers to Uhland as an “excellent poet”.18 I agree with Osbourne, that this song

is a setting of great beauty….in which Schubert softly whispers his heart‟s secrets, as the season of renewal comes around again19

On a surface level, this poem celebrates the new life of spring and the wondrous changes bursting forth in the countryside. The poet expresses joy and wonder as the fragrance and sight of spring blossoms lift his spirit with optimism; a fresh hope and promise for the future.

As in Ständchen, however, there is also an underlying melancholy and suggestion of past and future pain and uncertainty: for example:

Nun, armes Herze, sie nicht bang! (Now, poor heart, be not anxious!)

18 C. Osbourne, The Concert Song Companion, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1974, p.42. 19 Osbourne, loc.cit.

46 and…

Nun, armes Herz, vergiß der Qual! Nun, muß sich alles, alles wenden (Now poor heart, forget your torments! Now all things, all things must alter)

The duality of life, of love, is present in this poem also; pain and joy, peace and anxiety.

Schubert‟s music expresses the poetic images in the text exquisitely. In the lilting, swaying feel of the accompaniment, one can almost hear the gentle breeze rustling the leaves, the breeze which carries the fragrance of the blossoms.

When preparing this song I aimed for a feeling of flow, paying particular attention to legato line and beautiful phrasing.

To ensure correct intonation, I needed to be mindful of giving the vowel sounds adequate space and support. This was especially important in a descending phrase (for example in the second bar, die linden Lüfte), when I had to be very particular in keeping the shape of the vowel constant, and avoiding changing or compromising it. The soft palate needed to be up, to avoid the sound becoming dark.

At the beginning of each phrase I mentally and physically prepared - support (to ensure the breath was maintained effectively), and space; and I had to maintain both right through the phrase. I needed to be careful to keep the space high and my focus going forwards when preparing each new phrase. For beautiful legato, the energy and thread of sound had to flow from one phrase to the next. Also important to the legato line was for me to think of the semiquavers as one group, and not as individual notes.

47 On repeated phrases I aimed for a slight echo effect, to create interest and to convey the breeze trailing the fragrance of the blossoms. It also served to accentuate the sense of wonder.

Die junge Nonne (The young nun)

This wonderfully expressive song was composed in 1825. By that time, Schubert was looking for works by a poet whose work was known beyond the Germanic countries, in order to make his Lieder reach a wider audience. His intention was that the German text would be written underneath the original text.

At the beginning of 1825, Schubert set the poem Die junge Nonne to the text by Jakob Nikolaus Craigher (1797-1855), a Hungarian poet. It is one of several of Schubert‟s masterpieces in his last years between the two great song cycles, Die schöne Müllerin and Die Winterreise.

Through its bleak, desolate landscape, Die junge Nonne tells of the internal war of faith being waged by the young nun in the poem, of her journey through the darkness of doubt as she questions her faith.

Immerhin, immerhin, so tobt’ es auch jüngst noch in mir! (On and on, so it raged in me but a while ago!)

The trials of her inner life are expressed with images from nature of a raging storm.

Wie braust durch die Wipfel der heulende Sturm! (How the howling storm rages through the treetops)

48 The storm gathers its intensity and threatens to overpower her, as she is filled with dread.

Und finster die Brust, wie das Grab! (and my heart was as dark as the grave!)

In the course of the storm, her faith strengthens and she finds the peace for which she has been searching.

Im Herzen ist Friede, im Herzen ist Ruh’! (In my heart is peace and rest!)

From the peace within her heart arises exultation, as she feels herself drawing closer and closer to divine love.

Es lockt mich das süße Getön allmächtig zu ewigen Höhn. Alleluja! (The sweet sound draws me irresistibly to the eternal heights. Hallelujah!)

I agree with Charles Osbourne that Die junge Nonne conveys

a superb dramatic landscape of the soul. The tempest raging outside is but a reflection, it seems, of the storm raging in the young nun‟s mind and heart. At the end, the nun‟s repeated Alleluja! asserts that the conflict is resolved and she is at peace.20

This magnificent song is, I believe, symbolic of the personal journey of a soul through life, with all its challenges and tribulations, finally finding resolution and peace. It could be said that inherent in peace is love, for oneself and for others; to be at peace is to be in a

20 ibid., p. 45.

49 state of love. Like any great work of art, this song can be interpreted on a number of different levels, as pure narrative, or through its symbolism for a deeper meaning.

Rhythm and phrasing constituted my main focus in the study of this song. The challenge was to bring out the tension in the driving nature of the surging, powerful rhythm, but to always keep this in the framework of the legato phrases. The focus must not be given to each note, causing a stilted effect, but to the movement and flow of the phrase.

The repeated D notes (heulende Sturm!; zittert das Haus!; leuchtet der Blitz) presented the voice with the challenge of singing into the centre of the note, and keeping the vowel open, to ensure correct intonation. These passages have to be dramatic, but not forced.

It is important to change the atmosphere from the jubilance of komm, himmlischer Bräutigam, hole die Braut to the peace and serenity of erlöse die Seele von irdischer haft!

THE SCHUMANN SONGS

Widmung (Devotion)

This well-loved song by Robert Schumann (Op.25 No.1) is the first song in the song cycle Myrthen (Myrtles), with texts from the poems of Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866). Myrthen is appropriately named after the blossoms traditionally associated with marriage festivals, inspired by his wedding to Clara Wieck, and was his wedding present to her.

Schumann began the cycle in the early part of 1840, finishing it in April. Schumann wrote many of his songs at that time, inspired by his love and marriage to Clara, and also as a secure means of income, so that he could support his new bride.

50

When complete, Widmung and its accompanying poems were lavishly bound with a red velvet inscription, which lovingly read “To my beloved bride”. The song cycle also contained the composition Zum Schluss (In Conclusion), that together with Widmung, made up the two Lieder der Braut (The Bride‟s Songs), which express the most passionate outpouring of emotion in Myrthen.

In Widmung Schumann expressed all the things Clara was to him; his peace, angel, repose, rapture, heart, soul, grave for sorrow, better self and his heaven. It describes the peace brought to his heart through mutual love, and the dedication of his life to her. It is a hymn of devotion to the beloved, a celebration of love.

Lotte Lehmann describes Widmung as an expression of: a happy confession of the deepest love. Your whole being expresses blissful happiness.21

When singing this song, there must be a freedom of expression to convey unbounded joy: free, but not rushed. Underpinning this exultation, however, I was aware of keeping the voice under control so that intonation was always correct, and the vowels open and clear.

When considering intonation, I especially had to be aware of having enough space (by keeping the soft palate sufficiently high) in order to go straight into the centre of each note, for example the repeated Ab rising to Bb in the opening bar, and once again, the repeated Ab to F in the second and third bars. I began singing the song mezzo forte, developing a full, but not forced, crescendo up to Wonn, with a diminuendo on o du mein Schmerz.

21 L. Lehmann, More than Singing: The Interpretation of Songs, Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1985, p. 33.

51 There is no sadness in the mention of death in: o du mein Grab, in das hinab ich ewig meinen Kummer gab! (Oh you my grave in which I have buried forever my sorrows!)

The death mentioned could mean the ending of all pain and despair; the death of the previous life before the blossoming of this one; the sending of all troubles to their grave, as life is now so blissful and free from the past.

Lotte Lehmann‟s comments concerning the mention of death in this joyous song are interesting, particularly the bracketed section, linking romantic love with death.

Here the grave has no mournful implication….with this eternal finality, you place all your pains, all your worries, all your doubts, in the hands of your beloved. You know that he will take your whole being into his own - with finality, in eternity. (When one loves, one always plays with the idea of death. Nothing seems to be enough, no surrender quite complete. One says with exultation: “I want to die with you…so the seemingly gloomy picture of the grave is really very natural here.)22

Du bist die Ruh’ has a feeling of devotion. This needs to be sensitively conveyed, whilst also paying careful attention to the timing, with the triplets being played in the bass. Timing also had to be carefully executed in verklärt du hebst mich, and leading into liebend über mich, along with the dynamics changing from forte to piano, and the tempo from ritenuto to a tempo. I also had to be aware of eliminating any tendency to scoop, for example the Eb to Ab of meine Welt in the last section of the song.

22 Lehmann, loc.cit.

52 Du bist wie eine Blume (You are like a flower)

Schumann composed this song in 1840, to a text by Heinrich Heine. It evokes an enchanting tenderness and delicacy, and is almost in folk-song idiom. The beautiful lyrical nature of this song reveals Schumann‟s great gift of exquisite melody.

I like to think of this song as being about a beautiful little child, so full of freshness and innocence. In fact, whenever I sing this exquisite song, I have just this image in my mind. I have included it to depict love for a child, which is warm, gentle and protective.

There is also sadness expressed in the poem:

Ich schau dich an, und Wehmuth Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein. (I look at you, and sadness steals into my heart)

Could this be fear, lest this small child might not always be secure and safe? Or, could it be perhaps a fear of losing the innocence of this time in the child‟s life?

Ever since I discovered this song some years ago, it has been one of my favourites. It is an absolute gem, and, I believe, perfectly illustrates Schumann‟s great genius in melding text so wondrously with melody, and the perfect partnership between the voice and the piano accompaniment.

When referring to Schumann‟s interweaving of the vocal and piano parts, Denis Stevens states that

often it occurs subtly, the voice entering in the middle of a phrase or, more frequently, ceasing before the end, and leaving the piano to finish it. Sometimes,

53 as in Aufträge and Du bist wie eine Blume, the piano steals the climactic note of a phrase, that may well be galling to the singer.23

I believe, however, that any singer sensitive to this music, and wishing to bring honour to the expression of it, would be more than happy for Schumann‟s music to take centre stage.

One of the greatest challenges of this song is breath control; for example needing to maintain the breath through long phrases such as: und Wehmuth schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.

The song must not be rushed in any way. It is marked Langsam, but must still maintain a feeling of effortless flow. In order to achieve this, the mind must go ahead, even on the rests. The flow, the legato of the song must not be interrupted. There is a seamless quality to this song: always moving, but intimate, loving and gentle.

Once again, as in other songs, my aim was to ensure open, clean, beautiful vowel sounds and clear consonants. I had to be careful of maintaining correct pitch in the repeated C notes of halte. Coming off each phrase had to be done with delicacy and finesse.

Ich grolle nicht (I bear no grudge)

This powerfully emotive song is number 7 in the Dichterliebe (A Poet‟s Love) song cycle (Op. 48, No. 7), composed by Schumann in one week in May 1840. He used 16 poems from Heinrich Heine‟s volume Lyrisches Intermezzo. The cycle of poems suggests the course of a relationship from longing to initial fulfilment, abandonment, dreams of reconciliation and resignation.

23 D. Stevens, A History of song, Hutchinson and Co., Ltd., London, 1960, p. 147.

54

Even though Dichterliebe is usually sung by a man, I wanted to include Ich grolle nicht in this set of Lieder, because of the aspect of romantic love it expresses, that being regret, disillusionment, bitterness and loss (even though the poet denies that he feels this way).

Charles Osbourne considers Dichterliebe to be “Schumann‟s greatest achievement in song.”24

He makes the following interesting comments, when he states that in his opinion,

these miniature songs of love and despair are not only a perfect union of words and music but are also extraordinarily moving in their effect and in their implication. Both Heine and Schumann wrote from a dualism of sickness and health, gentleness and bitterness (the Florestan and Eusebius of Schumann‟s imagination) and it is in this cycle that we hear, perhaps for the first time in music, that modern Angst which continues through Wolf and Mahler.25

Charles Osbourne continues by stating that he considers Ich grolle nicht to be

one of the finest songs composed by Schumann or any other Lieder composer. „I‟ll not complain, though my heart breaks and my love flows away, though I feel the emptiness in your heart.‟ The relentless vocal line, proud and bitter, emphasised by heavy, repeated chords in the piano, surges forward to a great climax.26

24 Osbourne, op. cit., p. 71. 25 Osbourne, op.cit., p. 71. 26 Osbourne, op. cit., p.72.

55 In Ich grolle nicht, as in other Schumann songs, the piano once again becomes an equal partner with the voice.

Even as a mezzo, I found it challenging to begin the song in the lower part of my voice with such intensity of emotion. It is imperative in this song to express the intensity and sense of urgency in the voice, whilst avoiding heaviness and forcefulness.

Considering the emotion, there could be no easing into it. One had to feel the intensity of the poet‟s pain before singing the first note. The emotion, as well as the vocal technique, needed sufficient preparation.

The singing of this song should be legato, in spite of the depth of the emotions being expressed. I kept the momentum, the energy, going through to the end of each phrase, in order to keep the line and avoid a chunky note by note feel.

This focus also helped me to maintain the pulse of the piece; the relentlessness; the pulsating forward motion driving it. Each phrase needs to end with clear, crisp consonants. Even in the ritardando towards the end of the song, on ich, sah, mein Lieb’, wie sehr du elend (and bist on a tempo), this sense of relentless urgency needs to be really felt and maintained, as this is an important musical depiction of the poet‟s overwhelming emotions.

HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869)

Hector Berlioz is best known for his Romantic orchestral and choral works, and large- scale opera, such as Symphonie fantastique (1830), Grande messe des morts (1837), Roméo et Juliette (1838-9), La damnation de Faust (1846) and Les Troyens (1856-8).

56 His large scale works are performed relatively infrequently as they are very expensive to present. An insight into Berlioz‟s character is provided by the following: “Sensitive, passionate and compulsive by nature, Berlioz was prone to violent emotions.”27 He is also described as being “quintessentially Romantic and classical music‟s Byronic epic.”28

Berlioz did not learn the piano in childhood, rare among the musical giants, but studied the flute and guitar instead. Perhaps his lack of experience with the piano contributed to his lack of creative flair in writing for that instrument. Berlioz found his true talent writing for the orchestra and large ensembles.

Berlioz became obsessed with the actress Harriet Smithson after seeing her perform Ophelia in Hamlet in 1827. He finally persuaded her to marry him in 1832, but soon tired of her, and formed a liaison with the singer Marie Recio, who later became his second wife. Harriet died of alcoholism in 1854.

Towards the end of his life Berlioz found some solace through conducting, but his last seven years were overshadowed by illness and resentment at his lack of recognition in his native France.

The restoration of some of his previously neglected masterpieces, such as Les Troyens, has affirmed Berlioz‟s importance as one of the foremost nineteenth century composers.

His music was doubtless very strange for its time, with its irregular rhythms and almost boastfully complicated orchestration, and certainly it can be pompous and overblown. However, Berlioz is one of music‟s great originals, spurning traditional formulas to blend literary, pictorial and musical elements into highly energetic and highly personal creations.29

27 W. Thompson, Illustrated Book of Great Composers, Anness Publishing, London, 2004, p. 108. 28 The Rough Guide to Classical Music, edited by J. Staines & D. Clark, Rough Guides Ltd., London, 2005, p. 75. 29 ibid., p. 76.

57 Les nuits d’été (Summer Nights)

Les nuits d’été is a cycle of six songs, set to a text by Berlioz‟s friend and fellow journalist, Théophile Gautier (1811-1872). The cycle was first published in 1841 as a composition for voice and piano.

A couple of years later, Berlioz orchestrated the third song, Absence. In 1856 he decided to write an orchestral version of the other five songs.

Pierre Bernac makes the following insightful comment on the orchestration of Les nuits d’été:

It is in this orchestral version that they show their true worth: the piano accompaniment, badly written for the instrument, at times obscures the true beauty of the music. The character of these songs is often close to that of an operatic aria, and consequently their interpretation is similar in style.30

I included Les nuits d’été in this recital because I believe that these songs so beautifully express many aspects of love and death, and because I also wished to explore my theme through French song of the Romantic period. Add to this my love of the work, and my desire to study and perform it. For me, this cycle is the pinnacle of French song repertoire of the nineteenth century.

30 P. Bernac, The Interpretation of French Song, Cassell & Co. Ltd., London, 1970, p. 36.

58 I firmly agree with the following comments, that:

it is impossible to overstate the importance of this piece to French music: whereas Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann had already established the concept of the song cycle in Germany, it was Berlioz who single-handedly introduced the form to France. Yet its novelty is but a small part of the appeal of Les nuits d’été, for these are among the loveliest songs of the nineteenth century, thanks to music that‟s completely attuned to the melancholic languor of Gautier‟s poems which are mostly concerned with love – though usually in the context of death or separation.31

During my period of study of Les nuits d’été I was inspired by the singing of Régine Crespin, recorded in 1963 when she was at the height of her powers.

I greatly enjoyed studying and performing these exquisite songs, and as I neared closer to performance and they were memorized, I felt a deep sense of connection and affinity with them.

The last word on this amazing song cycle goes to Rita Benton and Frits Noske:

In the composition of Les nuits d’été Berlioz displayed the kind of artistic devotion usually reserved for operas or symphonies. All ties with the dying romance are broken; the mélodie has become a serious genre.32

31The Rough Guide to Classical Music, Edited by J. Staines & D. Clark, Rough Guides Ltd., London, 2005, p. 78. 32 R. Benton & F. Noske, French Song from Berlioz to Duparc, Dover Publications, New York, 1970, p. 111.

59 Villanelle

The first song in the cycle has a rustic, pastoral charm, buoyed by a light, carefree, joyous rhythm. I think that Lotte Lehmann‟s description of Villanelle is most apt, when she likens it to: a lovely painting of a rural scene. The accompaniment is like light footsteps and always slightly staccato. It is so lovely and uncomplicated a joy to walk with your beloved to gather lilies of the valley in the woods.33

The two lovers take joy in being alone together in spring, the season blessed by lovers. Even the birds are singing love songs in their nests. The lovers draw near to the mossy bank and speak of their eternal love for each other: et dis-mois de la voix si douce: toujours! (and tell me in your sweet voice: forever!)

This song tells of a carefree, joyous, innocent time, as the lovers take delight in enjoying simple, blissful moments in the woods together, and come home at last from their wanderings, their fingers entwined, carrying the wild strawberries. It is enough to be together, sharing and celebrating their love.

When first beginning to study Villanelle, there were a few places where I needed to be particularly mindful of correct intonation; for example Bb to Ab in le muguet in the first verse, C to Db in égrénant, and in the descending pattern Bb-Ab-G in aile in the second verse.

I needed to give this song a gentleness of manner, to bring out the carefree atmosphere, but still keep the voice properly supported. When first beginning my study, I had to be

33 Lehmann, op. cit., p. 151.

60 especially aware of the legato line of the phrases, and not let the staccato bass detract from the legato.

Of course, singing in French, the vowel sounds needed to be kept pure, being absolutely true to whether the vowels were either open or closed. All tempo markings need to be carefully observed.

Villanelle is a charming song, and a wonderful opening song in the cycle. I agree with Charles Osbourne, that it is: an exquisite song with a flowing melody of great delicacy and charm.34

Le spectre de la rose (The spectre of the rose)

This beautiful song has long, languishing phrases, a sweeping, dance-like rhythm and a sublime melody. The long introduction sets the scene and paints the picture; the music is perhaps that which the girl danced to at the ball. The girl dreams of the rose she wore to the ball; that it is speaking to her, whispering to her: je suis le spectre d’une rose que tu portais hier au bal (I am the spectre of the rose that you wore yesterday at the ball)

Even though the rose has died, it claims no remorse for its fate; it expresses joy at this, a desired death, and asks for no outpouring of grief.

Mais ne crains rien, je ne réclame ni messe ni De Profundis (But do not be afraid, I demand no mass or De Profundis)

34 Osbourne, op. cit., p. 129.

61 I found the interpretation of Lottle Lehmann helpful in my understanding of the song:

The soul of the dying rose comes, heavy with its lovely scent, directly from Paradise.35

The rose dies on the alabaster of the young woman‟s breast. car sur son sein j’ai mon tombeau (for my tomb is on your breast)

This, for the rose, is the sweetest of deaths, envied by kings. ci-gît une rose que tous les rois vont jalouser (Here lies a rose which every king will envy)

Here we see the intimate connection of love and death for the Romantics - the duality; the two are exquisitely bound, one with the other. In every beautiful, loving, longing moment, there is death. It is not just in the death of each moment of love when it passes, but death also bringing the ecstatic fulfilment of love; the ultimate expression.

This song presents the singer with considerable challenges, not the least being sustained breath control and support, in order to bring a lovely full sound to the long, sweeping phrases. Underpinning this needs to be a secure feel for the rhythm, and the changes in tempo and dynamics. It is very important to observe each of these aspects faithfully, in order to be true to the full expression of the music, whilst also being true to the text. One supports the other.

The rests between mais ne crains rien, je ne need to give the impression of gentle gasps, yet should not be overdone. The flow of the legato line must not be compromised.

35 Lehmann, op. cit., p. 152.

62

I particularly enjoyed singing this magnificent song, and after intense study, found that it flowed effortlessly. The words of Pierre Bernac eloquently express my interpretation of this song: A mysterious and calmly poetic atmosphere should emanate from this beautiful mélodie.36

Sur les lagunes (On the lagunes)

This song is a lament, aptly described by Charles Osbourne as “a remarkable expression of despair.”37

The poet‟s beloved friend, assumed to be his wife, dies, and he expresses the immense depth of his grief. His anguish is such that he feels he will eternally mourn her. He can never be happy again. je pleurerai toujours, sous la tombe elle emporte mon âme et mes amours (I will weep forever; into my grave she has taken my soul and my love)

There is anger and bitterness at his loss, as the angel who took her away left him alone. He would rather have been taken with her.

He cries out in anguish in the passionate crescendo:

Mon âme pleure et sent qu’elle est dépareillée (My soul weeps and feels deprived of a companion)

36 Bernac, op. cit., p. 40. 37 Osbourne, op.cit., p.129.

63 and also in the last phrase of each verse:

Ah! sans amour s’en aller sur la mer! (Ah! to sail out on the sea without love!)

I like Lottle Lehmann‟s interpretation of the final Ah! Ah! :

The sound of his lament vanishes as if the bereaved man were disappearing over the horizon.38

Challenges were, once again, in breath control and support, and maintaining a feeling of flow into each phrase. I had to give adequate preparation to take a full enough and properly supported breath to get right though to the end of each phrase effortlessly, without compromising the sound in any way.

There are numerous changes in dynamics, tempo and expression, which need to be completely memorised just as thoroughly as the text and music. Each change is important to the entire artistic feel of the piece and is necessary for the integrity of the expression.

Once all these changes are learned and internalised, something magical happens and the performance becomes real. The singer must understand, feel and express the deep grief in this song, in order to be true to this music.

Absence (Absence)

Absence, like Sur les lagunes, is also a lament, but this time the absent beloved may or will return. It is, once again, an expression of grief at having to part from the loved one. This time the parting is not caused by death, but other unnamed circumstances, and

38 Lehmann, op. cit., p. 153.

64 certainly great physical distance lies between them. In this sense, there is at least some opening to hope; hope that the pain and longing of separation can one day end. Even though this is not stated in the text, I believe it to be there, albeit implied. Certainly, the poet is lost and languishing in the pain of this separation.

Charles Osbourne lavishes praise on Absence, in his belief that it is:

perhaps the most profoundly beautiful and unspoiled piece of music ever written by Berlioz, a song of polished melancholy whose graceful lines have a marvellous simplicity and spontaneity.39

This song must be sung by conveying not only the overwhelming grief of the separation, but also the passion felt by the poet at the image of the absent beloved: tant d’ espace entre nos baisers! (so much space between our kisses!) o grands désires inapaisés! (O great unassuaged desires!)

With so many changes in dynamics, expression markings and tempi, this song is a potential minefield for the memory. It must be thoroughly memorized and sufficiently sung in before the performance, in order to really be present in the moment with the expression of the emotion. (Indeed, these comments apply to the whole of the song cycle).

I had to take great care in the intonation of some of the upward phrases, like the Bb to C of ma bien aimé, and the downward phrase from F to Eb then D, of soleil. Strong support

39 Osbourne, op. cit., p. 129.

65 and breath control are once again relied upon for the adagio section and for the long, flowing phrases. This song must be sung very legato at all times.

The crescendo and diminuendo over the second and third phrases need to be strongly supported, with the diminuendo not occuring too suddenly.

The two pauses must be sensitively and effectively observed. The pauses in this song create great dramatic tension and they must all be an important part of the interpretation - almost like a gasp of longing - or the heartbeat stopping for an instant. I feel that the space in the pauses also symbolises and accentuates the distance between the lovers.

Likewise, all rests must be faithfully observed for full dramatic impact, particularly just before the entry of the verses. The singer needs to make these entries with poise, and not allow them to be rushed in any way. Strong support is especially needed in the pianissimo entry of the last verse.

Au cimetière (At the cemetery)

This song has a melancholy and mysterious atmosphere, with a sense of foreboding. The poet is drawn to the cemetery in the moonlight, with its deep shadows cast by the yew tree, and the haunting sound of a dove, which is sad and alone.

Throughout the first section of the song, the accompaniment plays without expression and pianissimo, adding to the mystery. The poet is irresistibly drawn to the song of the dove, for in its sweetness it is both comforting and threatening: un air maladivement tendre, à la fois charmant et fatal (a tune of morbid sweetness, both charming and deathly)

66 It sounds as though an angel from heaven had fallen in love and was sadly sighing. un air, comme en soupir aux cieux l’ange amoureux (a tune which may be sighed in heaven by a lovesick angel)

Legend tells that an awakened soul weeps beneath the earth, and its tears are the song of the dove, plaintively crying how dreadful it is to be forgotten. A form, like an angel, passes in a shimmering ray of light. une ombre, une forme angélique, passe dans un rayon tremblant, en voile blanc (a shadow, an angelic form, passes in a shimmering beam veiled in white)

The ghost reaches out to the poet and murmurs: tu reviendras! (You will return!) But the poet promises never to return to that place, at that time.

Oh! jamais plus, près de la tombe, je n’irai, quand descend le soir au manteau noir (Oh, never again will I go near the tomb, when the evening is spreading its back cloak)

When preparing this song for study, I had to be especially mindful of maintaining the legato in the vocal line, especially in the first section, whilst the piano accompaniment mostly played three crotchets to each bar. I had to be careful not to let this affect the legato phrasing.

There were a few danger areas for intonation, such as the descending phrases Db-C-Bb in soleil couchant, the repeated Bb then to Ab of chant son chant, and the chromatic intervals B natural-Bb-A in une ombre une. Especially strong support is needed in the final ppp phrase, son chant plaintif.

A challenge for the singer, in an atmospheric song such as this, is to create the required mystery, whilst still propelling the voice with the necessary energy to go forward.

67 L’île inconnue (The unknown isle)

This song is full of seduction, excitement and gaiety. I like to think of it as high hopes on the high seas. A young man promises his girl a life of carefree adventure, if she will only join him on a voyage in his ship, which is full of wondrous, amazing things:

L’aviron est d’ivoire (the oar is of ivory) le pavillon de moire (the pennant is of watered silk) le gouvernail d’or fin (the helm of fine gold) and even more than that! There is an orange for the ballast, for a sail the wings of an angel, and for the cabin boy, a seraph.

The accompaniment captures the joyful mood and appears to be laughing along with the boy, as he confidently asks his girl, “Where would you like to go?” The girl does not at first reply, so the boy continues with his promise of travelling to exotic lands; est-ce dans la Baltique? (Is it to the Baltic?) dans la mer Pacifique? (or to the Pacific Ocean?) dans l’île de Java? (to the island of Java?)

When the girl finally replies to his fantasy, she expresses that she wishes to go to the shore of fidelity where love lasts forever. The staccato chords in the accompaniment seem to suggest his hesitation, and laugh at him. This is not what he is expecting! He soon continues, though, with his truthful reply:

68 cette rive, ma chère, on le la connaît guère au pays des amours (That shore, my darling, is hardly known in the land of love.)

His last question to her, repeating his opening entreaty, is not quite as jaunty as before, suggested by the poco rit before returning to the original tempo. He has not given up hope, but now his song is much more subdued, as the accompaniment fades away to pianissimo. où voulez-vous aller? La brise va souffler! (Where do you want to go? The breeze is rising!)

This song is wonderful to sing and is a perfect finale to this amazing song cycle. The voice must be given very strong support and breath control, whilst conveying a sense of lightness, freedom and fun. The changing mood of the girl‟s thoughtfully considered response needs to effectively expressed, whilst still capturing the lively nature of the music.

In order to ensure a flowing legato line, I endeavoured to keep my voice going forwards, mentally continuing to sing through the rests between the phrases. Extra strong support is needed for phrases such as La voile enfle son aile, le brise va souffler in the first section, especially with a ritenuto and crescendo at the end of the phrase. I took a breath after va at the height of the crescendo, before singing souffler, into the diminuendo and back to a tempo.

I have always felt a particular affinity singing in French, and this facility, combined with excellent direction by my singing coach, ensured that the language presented me with no problems.

69

Cruda sorte (Cruel fortune)

Cruda sorte is sung by the heroine Isabella, in Rossini‟s opera L’Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers). It had its first performance in Venice in 1813.

Rossini turned to an established comic libretto by Angelo Anelli, commissioned a quick revision, and so it is claimed, composed the two and a quarter hour score in twenty-seven days. It is Rossini‟s first successful comic opera, a romantic farce with an exotic setting.

The Bey, Mustafà, is bored with his wife, Elvira, and tells Ali, captain of his corsairs, to find him a European wife. The Italian girl, Isabella, is in search of her lover, Lindoro (who is being held captive by the Bey). She has been shipwrecked, along with Taddeo, her elderly admirer, and is brought to Mustafà, who is captivated by her.

At first she expressed dread at her possible fate, then regains her faith in her ability to take care of herself. Her driving motive is her determination to guard her freedom, which she prizes above all else. She will decide whom she weds; she and she alone.

Isabella reassures herself by remembering that her captors are only men, and as such can easily be won over with feminine wiles, knowing that they will not be able to resist the charms of a beautiful woman. She is strong, independent and confident.

One of the main challenges in Rossini singing, of course, is the fast sections, and the speed in which the voice must fly up and down the range. One needs to develop great vocal flexibility to sing this repertoire. The singing must be very fluid, but each note must be clearly heard.

70 In the preparation stage, many hours of slow, deliberate practice are needed, to ensure that the timing is correct, the text crisp and each note perfectly clear. Only when these aspects are all mastered at a slower speed should the tempo be increased, gradually at first, until proficiency is up to performance level. Breaths need to be taken fast, but not gulped, with very strong support being maintained throughout.

Carmen The opera Carmen, by Georges Bizet, was set to the libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on Prosper Mérimée‟s novel of the same title (1845). It premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1875. It tells of the passionate and turbulent life of Carmen, a gypsy.

At first Carmen met with intense hostility, but within the next four years critics and audiences had come to appreciate its beauty, power and originality. It was then performed all over Europe and in America.

A tragic parallel to the opera occurred in Bizet‟s own life. On the night of its thirty-third performance, he died of a heart attack brought on by rheumatic fever, just after the singer playing Carmen had fainted (not part of the production!), during the famous card scene in which she foretells her own death.

The following expresses the importance of Carmen in the operatic repertoire, and is also an apt description of Carmen, the character.

Carmen is arguably the most successful mezzo-soprano role in all opera. Her manipulative and magnetic personality is articulated through music of

71 graphic sensuality - her opening Habanera and Seguidilla are especially sexy.40

Habanera

Carmen asks the assembled men in the recitative, “When will I love you? Well, I don‟t know; perhaps never, perhaps tomorrow, but not today, that‟s certain.‟

She notices the young officer, Don José, looking at her, but apparently indifferent to her. She goes on to sing the aria, extolling her views on love. Love, she says, is like a rebellious bird, which can‟t be tamed. It is a child of the gypsies, which knows no law. “If you don‟t love me, I love you. If I love you, watch out for yourself!”

In this aria, Carmen expresses her need for freedom. In fact, one could say, that freedom is the law she lives by (and dies for). She can never be owned, not by anyone, even for love.

The challenge in the Habanera is to express the sensuality and passion of the character, whilst fully supporting the voice, and ensuring a warm, rich tone. The phrases are long and languid. Breath control is of utmost importance to support through the long phrases.

Seguidilla

Carmen has been captured after a fight with another girl, and Don José has been given the job of guarding her. The Seguidilla is the ultimate song of seduction, in which she proclaims that she has sent her last lover to the devil and is now available to take another. She promises Don José a future of love and pleasure if he will only set her free, which of course he subsequently does.

40 The Rough Guide to Classical Music, edited by J..Staines & D. Clark, Rough Guides Ltd., London, 2005, p. 84.

72

As in the Habenera, the singing must be as smooth as honey, to express the sexiness and utter irresistibility of the character of Carmen. The audience should be in no doubt as to why he must grant her freedom and follow her (and desert his military position in doing so).

Underpinning the sensuality of the singing, as with the Habanera, the singer must have very strong support and breath control. The rhythm of the Seguidilla can also present some challenges when first learning the aria. The dotted notes need to be faithfully observed, but they should flow easily, and never be stilted.

Because of its faster tempo, the Seguidilla needs to be practised slowly when first beginning to study it, to ensure that each note can be heard, building slowly up to speed as proficiency is gained.

73

Conclusion to Recital 2

The performance of the Schubert Lieder was, overall, quite pleasing. During the recital I felt confident and strong, and I think this showed in the performance. Ständchen provided a strong and secure opening to the recital, apart from occasional sections like nacht and schlagen in the first verse, which needed more sustained support throughout the entire notes.

On occasions I could have more effectively sustained the support through to the end of the very long phrases, particularly in Frühlingsnacht. However, in spite of this, I feel it was a sensitive performance, and most pleasing to say, true to the essence of the music.

The most challenging of the Schubert Lieder is, I believe Die junge Nonne, being more dramatic than the preceding two Lieder, and overall, I was quite pleased with the performance. Some higher notes at the climax of certain phrases could have been given more space. I felt there was plenty of light and shade in the song, effectively conveying the contrasting turbulence of the darker emotions of desperation and doubt, to the final moments of resolution and peace. Some notes in the faster sections were not as clear as I would have liked.

The opening of Widmung was a little pushed (I had wanted to communicate an exclamation of love), which instead needed more devotional feeling, and an easing into the song. Technically speaking, I was happier with the more subdued middle section.

The best of the Schumann Lieder, I feel, was Du bist wie eine Blume. I was successful, I believe, in creating a sensitive and gently loving atmosphere, and was very pleased, on the whole, with the long, legato phrases and gentle crescendi on the sustained notes.

74 Breath control was generally strong and well supported, in spite of a couple of instances where I would have liked a little more clarity on some of the quavers.

I realised during the performance, and especially when I listened to the recording, that Ich grolle nicht is too low for me, and I will not be keeping it in my repertoire. However, I feel there were some good moments, when the text was communicated well. I am still happy with its inclusion in this recital, however, because of its valuable contribution to my exploration of the theme of love and death.

For me, the most fulfilling aspect to hearing the recorded performance was the singing of Les nuits d’été. It is a huge work, and taxing in many ways, not the least being for the memory. Having learned this wonderful song cycle and having performed it successfully, I now look forward to singing it with an orchestra. When I had fully memorized this music, it felt completely natural. Listening to the recording confirmed, for me (with the added feedback from audiences over the last few years), my growing affinity with French repertoire.

Technically, I feel my best singing in Les nuits d’été was in Villanelle, Sur les lagunes, Absence and Au cimetière. In some of the descending phrases, such as sans amour s’en aller sur la mer in Sur les lagunes, support needed to be more strongly sustained through to the end. I was pleased with the rich tone at the lower end of the voice, and generally the top was not forced.

I feel that L’île inconnue, though still a pleasing performance overall, was not as successful as Villanelle, as the top notes needed more space around them.

In Cruda sorte, the opening note was a little forced and needed more space. When I push the note I run the danger of the pitch being sharp. Some of the lower notes in the recitative were a little smudgy, I believe, and some of the notes in the cadenza needed more clarity, but overall, the performance on the recording is quite pleasing.

75

The change in mood of the aria was executed well, and overall, I was pleased with the fluency and clarity of most sections. The last note needed more space and could have been sustained for longer.

On the whole, I feel the Carmen arias were quite well done, with plenty of light and shade and good legato singing. In the Seguidilla, the pitch of the final près de remparts de Seville could have been clearer and more distinct. The last note was clear and spacious, and was a fitting end to the whole recital.

76 RECITAL 3 1857-1887

Introduction

For this recital I chose to begin with French repertoire, in order to further explore my theme of love and death in the nineteenth century. To open the first two recitals, I had chosen individual songs by Schubert and Schumann, so this time I began with a selection of songs by Gabriel Fauré, a composer whose music I have always admired.

I wanted to study works by Fauré as he was a French Romantic, whose music was more subdued and restrained than that of the German Romantic composers I had studied, and a very different, more intimate style than that of Berlioz.

I chose to begin the recital with the joyous and uplifting Chanson d’amour. This song expresses the bliss in romantic love when all goes well and the love is mutual. The second song, the beautiful Après un rêve, conveys an atmosphere of ethereal sadness, when the happiness of the forlorn lover can only be attainable in his dreams; the theme here is love lost and intense loneliness, providing a lovely contrast to the first song. Clair de lune beautifully captures the mystical melancholy of the characters in the poem, who can‟t seem to believe in their own happiness. I thought it belonged perfectly coupled with Après un rêve. The charmingly bright Le papillon et la fleur is like a child‟s story, but contains a much deeper message about identity in love.

The opening French bracket ends with Massenet‟s Elégie, chosen for its lovely melody, and for the grandness of the emotion expressed; the devastation of abandonment. The style is very different from the more restrained manner of Fauré‟s songs.

For my song cycle in this recital I returned to German repertoire, with Wagner‟s Wesendoncklieder. These magnificent songs offer a complete contrast to the opening

77 French songs, in their musical style, expression and the themes they explore. The last song in the cycle, Träume, points to the intersection of death and blissful fulfilment of love, given its ultimate expression in Tristan und Isolde.

Two French songs close the recital. The first, Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix, from the opera Samson et Dalila, is one of the best known arias in the mezzo repertoire. It has as its theme the manipulative desire for control, with passion and love being the promised prizes.

I chose to end with the exuberant and light-hearted Les filles de Cadix. This lovely song provided a sparkling contrast to the preceding songs, a light-hearted look at attempted seduction, and an animated close to the recital.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

Gabriel Fauré was one of the founders of the National Society of French Music and first president of the Independent Musical Society. He studied composition under Saint-Saens (from 1861 to 1865), who became his lifelong friend and mentor.

Fauré became professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory in 1896, and its director from 1905 to 1920, when he resigned because of deafness, leaving him feeling increasingly alone. This sense of isolation possibly contributed to a more introspective style in his music.

Fauré was primarily a composer of songs, piano music and chamber music. Over the course of his lifetime, Fauré wrote nearly 100 songs, which show his lyric gifts, in their tenderness, grace and charm.

78 His songs include settings of poems by Baudelaire, Gautier, Victor Hugo, and Paul Verlaine, the poet who inspired some of his most beautiful and sensuous compositions (most notably the song cycle La Bonne Chanson). With texts by this poet in particular, both poet and composer are concerned with atmosphere more than description – instrumental line is never just accompaniment, but shapes and directs the vocal line so as to express and change the mood. Fauré‟s music, for all its surface poise, its grace, restraint and sense of order, is very often passionate underneath.

Fauré‟s songs are characterised by a combination of extended tonality and modality, rapid modulations to remote keys and continuously unfolding melody; techniques which he uses to great effect to create the atmosphere expressed in the poem.

Fauré is known outside his native France mainly for his immensely popular Requiem (1887-1890), but apart from this, the output of his work shows:

…a wealth of highly refined and beautiful music. Fauré‟s style reveals a Romantic sensibility held in check by a classical sense of form and decorum – it is music of feeling, sometimes of passion, but it never aspired to the epic or the transcendent, preferring a more discreet and intimate means of expression.41

Fauré‟s musical expressiveness came from his fluency at the piano (his favourite instrument). In music school, Fauré had learned that originality of thought and intensity of expression were more important than virtuosity. He also believed in following the written page exactly, keeping strict time. Musical effects were written note by note by Fauré, depending on how he wanted them played.

41 The Rough Guide to Classical Music, Edited by J. Staines & D. Clark, Rough Guides Ltd. London, 2005, p.190.

79 The following words express Fauré‟s legacy to French music, indeed to Western music in general. Fauré is worth remembering for more than the beauty of his music; he set an example of personal and artistic integrity by holding to tradition, logic, moderation, and the poetry of pure musical form in an age when these ideals were not generally valued…..his influence on his new pupil Ravel, and through the famous composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, on countless later composers, is one of the important factors in the history of twentieth century music.42

I am particularly inspired by Gerard Souzay‟s singing of Fauré‟s songs.

The Fauré Songs

Chanson d’amour (Song of Love)

Chanson d’amour was composed in 1882, set to the poem by Armand Silvestre (1837- 1901). It is song number 1 of Op. 27. It is a delightfully charming song, which is rarely performed. For me personally, it is a perfect choice to open a recital or a bracket of French songs.

The poet loses himself in rapture as he delights in the charms of his beloved. He lovingly revels in his desire for her, as he extols her many beautiful features.

J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ton front (I love your eyes, I love your face)

42 D.J. Grout & C.V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 4th Edition, J.M.Dent & Sons., London, 1988, p. 793.

80 J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ta bouche (I love your eyes, I love your lips)

J’aime tout ce qui te fait belle (I love everything that makes you beautiful)

There is intense passion in this song:

Mon enfer et mon paradis! (My inferno and my paradise!) and:

J’aime ta bouche où mes baisers s’épuiseront (I love your lips where my kisses will exhaust themselves)

But the passion is restrained and refined.

I chose this song to open the recital because its tempo is joyous and its theme uplifting and positive. There is no underlying melancholy here, as in the Schumann and Schubert songs discussed in Recital 2. The outpouring of delight is rapturous, within the restraint and delicacy of Fauré‟s music.

When beginning my study of Chanson d’amour, I had to be careful to keep the quavers perfectly in time. The legato should flow effortlessly from one phrase to the next, with the most graceful, poised, barely perceptible, yet strong breath between each phrase. I aimed for a seamless legato line and a feeling that no breath had been taken.

In order to maintain the legato line, I observed the comma after the first J’aime tes yeux, but did not take a breath. After the second J’aime tes yeux, however, I needed to take a

81 very well supported breath, to enable me to sing right through to the end of s’épuiseront. I allowed myself the slightest stretching of the tempo over où mes baisers in this phrase, observing the senza rigore, but still very aware of Fauré‟s dislike of rubato. It must not be overdone, but kept very restrained, and true to the style of this music.

I had to watch the intonation on the C natural on voix, the G on O (ma rebelle), and the G sharp on J’aime, beginning the last verse. On the D sharp of O (ma farouche) in the last verse, I aimed for a bright tone and a blossoming of the crescendo; not too heavy, but still allowing the note to shine.

Après un rêve (After a dream)

This wonderful, sublimely lyrical song has a marvellous, ethereal atmosphere. It is number 1 in Op. 7 (from Trois melodies, written between 1870 and 1878, and published in 1878). The song is dedicated to Madame Marguerite Baugnies.

The text is by Romain Bussine (1830-1899). Bussine was a French poet and singing teacher, and a close friend of Fauré‟s. Bussine translated and adapted an anonymous Tuscan text (Levati sol che la luna é levata), which speaks of how we too often long to return to the world of our sweet dreams.

Fauré composed Après un rêve after the break up of his engagement with Marianne Viardot, whom he loved very much. The estrangement between them devastated Fauré, and it took years for him to recover from his grief. I am reminded of a similar unhappy time in Schubert‟s life, when he failed in his bid to marry Therese Grob, and of how, like Fauré, he expressed this unhappiness so eloquently in his music.

When discussing Après un rêve, Fritz Noske and Rita Benton make the following pertinent comments about the beauty of Fauré‟s music and advise the singer thus:

82 The purists may think that the accompaniment of this mélodie is too simple, with its repeated chords; but the harmonies are refined and support the most exquisite melodic line which, with its apparent Italian facility, never loses its serene loftiness. This is enough to indicate to the singer that, although he has to sing this mélodie with a true and beautiful bel canto line, his style must always be perfectly controlled.43

The theme of Aprés un rêve is the pain of lost love – where joy can be found only in dreams. A young man dreams that he arrives at the gate of heaven.

…the poet tells of a blissful dream, beguiled by an image of his beloved44

He has been called by his beloved, and he joyously flies to her:

Tu m’appelais, et je quittais la terre Pour m’enfuir avec toi vers la lumière (You were calling me, and I left the earth to flee with you towards the light)

Unfortunately, when he awakes from his dream, the young man faces the cold, hard facts of reality; he has been separated from his love. He longs to return to the comforting security of night, when he can escape his pain and be reunited with his love in his dreams.

Hélas, triste réveil des songes! Je t’appelle, ô nuit, rend-moi tes mensonges (Alas, sad awakening from dreams! I call to you, O night, give me back your illusions)

43 R. Benton & F. Noske, French Song from Berlioz to Duparc, Dover Publications, New York, 1970, p. 109. 44 ibid., p. 109.

83

In the sad awakening from his dream, the poet calls night to return with its marvellous deception.45

This song must be sung with warm, flowing, seemingly effortless legato. Support must correspondingly be very strong, with subtle breaths between each phrase. I very much like Lotte Lehmann‟s points on interpretation when she describes the legato and dynamics in the following way:

It is tremendously important that each phrase be sung with a swing, with a soft rise and fall. There is no straight line; everything is floating unreality. The fortes are soft and warm, never heroic, never dramatic. This applies to the whole song. Begin with a delicate ecstasy, in a sustained and soft flow.46

My main challenge in this song, as well as maintaining a beautiful legato line, was to capture the delicacy of the music but not to under sing the piano and pianissimo sections. Likewise the forte sections, as Lottle Lehmann advises, should not be forced or dramatic in any way. The mind must always be going ahead, to maintain the legato and energy through the song.

I had to concentrate especially on keeping the soft palate up, creating enough space for a beautiful, bright sound; otherwise the sound could become dull and compromise correct intonation. The French vowels must always be pure and correct, and consonants clear (but never forced).

45 ibid., p. 109. 46 L. Lehmann, More than Singing:The Interpretation of Songs, Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1985, p. 180.

84 The crescendo and diminuendo sections needed to be sung with grace and subtlety. Nothing is sudden or poked. The shimmering calmness of the music must always be maintained (even in the section where the poet‟s heart is aching).

It is essential to convey through the voice and interpretation, the difference in the young man‟s mood, from the radiance of:

Les cieux pour nous entr’ouvraient leurs nues, Splendeurs inconnues (The skies opened their clouds for us, splendours unknown) to the complete change of colour and expression when he sadly awakes from his dream. The first Hélas! is like a painful outcry, and his grief must be conveyed without any force. His yearning to return to the comfort of night needs to be beautifully conveyed - sung pianissimo but with strong support to the voice.

Reviens, ô nuit mystérieuse! (Return, O mysterious night)

Lotte Lehmann‟s comments on the waking of the young man are very interesting. The young man‟s “reality” (that is his desired state) is actually in his dream state. That is where he feels most real; most like himself; the way he feels things are meant to be – in the arms of his beloved; in a state of pure happiness.

Your waking is unimportant, is a disturbance, is for you unreality: your dream is life and happiness...You live for this dream…47

47 ibid., p. 181.

85 Clair de lune (Moonlight)

The exquisite song was composed by Fauré in 1887, and is number 2 of Op. 46. Clair de lune was Fauré‟s first setting of the poetry of Paul Verlaine (1802-1885), a Symbolist poet. (The Symbolist poets wrote in a style that appealed to the senses, conveying ideas through symbols and metaphors, as opposed to narrative and the expression of overwhelming emotions).

The poem Clair de lune is from a series of Verlaine‟s poems called Fêtes galantes. Both Fauré and Debussy were inspired by these verses. The typically French atmosphere of Fêtes galantes is that of the eighteenth century French paintings, particularly the paintings of Watteau, which feature charming figures of both sexes, seen in the delightful costumes of the period; very elegant, refined and sophisticated, and even at times, melancholy. They are pictured in shady parks, with statues and fountains, sitting or wandering about two by two, or playing the mandolin or lute.

When setting this beautiful poem to music, Fauré wrote an elegant and graceful minuet, which perfectly evokes the mood of the poem. I concur with Charles Osbourne, in his discussion of Clair de lune:

…..his settings of Verlaine are unquestioningly among his finest achievements in song. He seemed to have a special affinity with Verlaine‟s delicate, occasionally melancholic lyric gift, and sometimes actually enhances the beauty of the words, revealing even more clearly, but with an infinite tact, the poet‟s meaning and his mood. This sympathetic collaboration of poet and composer recalls famous earlier ones such and Schumann and Heine…. 48

48 C. Osbourne, The Concert Song Companion, Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1974, p. 136.

86

The poem, Clair de lune, has an interior, intimate feel, painting an ethereal, mystical world, seem through the silver sheen of moonlight.

Votre âme est un paysage choisi que vont charmants masques et bergamasques (Your soul is a chosen landscape where charming masqueraders and dancers are promenading)

Bergamasque is a poetic word made with “masque” and “Bergamo”, the Italian town.

The figures going about their activities have an air of unreality about them; masques (people masquerading) and déguisements (disguises); underneath their apparent joie de vivre are a sadness and a loneliness, barely perceived:

Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques (sad beneath their fantastic disguises)

This is the chosen landscape of the soul. One could ask if this poem expresses the apparent disconnectedness of the soul from what is its true essence; from what it really feels. Or, one could interpret this landscape as symbolising a lack of belief in one‟s own happiness; a questioning of love and happiness; maybe a search for more, when all that‟s needed (for happiness) is essentially already there.

Ils non pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur (They seem not to believe in their happiness)

The moonlight shines down, revealing the loveliness and joy of the scene. It takes the moonlight to reveal it; the beauty that was already there, but not previously believed:

Au calme clair de lune, triste et beau,

87 qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres, et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau. (The quiet moonlight, sad and lovely, which sets the birds in the trees dreaming, and makes the fountains sob with ecstasy.)

Considerable challenges met me when I began to study this beautiful song. Strong support is needed for the long, legato phrases – good breath control is paramount. Tone must be warm and very even. There must be no sense of drama in this song. The voice is painting the scene of the poem, not conveying emotion.

Some of the challenges are well expressed in the following words of Frits Noske and Rita Benton, in which they give sound advice to the singer, as to how to enter after the long piano prelude, especially pertaining to the emotional and technical preparation needed:

After the long piano prelude, the voice should give the impression of entering quite unexpectedly; this means that the singer must be completely in the mood during the prelude, must take his breath at least one bar before beginning to sing, and then enter quite easily and naturally, piano, legato, with clear diction, and almost no nuances, singing with elegance and charm (There should be no sadness).49

An example of the need for excellent breath control is the necessity to breathe after luth (being careful to keep the vowel open for the full minum beat), in order to maintain the breath right through to the end of the phrase on fantasques.

In the phrase tout en chantant, sur le mode mineur, I had a tendency, at first, to sing a Bb on mode (which is the minor), instead of a B natural. Fauré has written this phrase in the

49 Benton & Noske, loc.cit.., p. 123

88 major key, even though the text is speaking of the minor key. I had to sing this phrase in isolation many times, in order to fix it into my musical memory.

I think that Fauré beautifully expresses how the figures (and thus the soul) seem to be unaware of the happiness already present.

The few crescendo and diminuendo sections must be sung with subtlety and finesse; nothing is forced or sudden.

Le papillon et la fleur (The butterfly and the flower)

This delightful song is number one of Op.1 (the other being Mai), written to poems of Victor Hugo. This is one of Fauré‟s earliest songs, probably composed when he was about twenty years of age.

Le papillon et la fleur and Fauré‟s other early songs were written in the strict classical style he had learned at music school, and for this reason alone, it is an interesting one to study. This charming song, although written early in Fauré‟s musical career, still hints at his developing originality.

It was characteristic of Fauré to renew himself constantly in his compositions; he always wanted to try something new, which no one else had done. His songs, therefore, display a continuous personal and unique artistic evolution.

I chose this song to complete my set of Fauré songs, because of its beautiful lyric melody, its light and pretty accompaniment (which so beautifully captures the fluttering of the butterfly from flower to flower), and because of its theme of wishing, in love, for

89 something (or someone) that is unattainable. It also provides a perfect contrast to the atmosphere of the preceding two songs (which are mature works of Fauré).

The poem tells the story of the flower who loves a beautiful butterfly (papillon céleste: heavenly butterfly). The flower laments that the two have different destinies, and therefore cannot be together. They love each other, and are alike in that they are both beautiful; but unalike in that which prevents them from being together: one of them is held down by the earth, while the other is free to fly.

Vois comme nos destins sont différents, je reste, tu t’en vas! (See how our destinies are different. I stay, you go away!)

There is only one way to solve the problem, according to the sad little flower. The butterfly needs to grow roots, or give the flower wings, so that they can be united in flight.

Prends comme moi racine ou donne-moi des ailes comme-toi! (Take root as I do or give me wings like you!)

But the flower perhaps asks too much. Does one give up one‟s freedom for love? Does one give up the essence of one‟s identity to please, or be with, the beloved? This may be a simple story, but contains a much deeper message.

The apparent simplicity of this song belies some technical challenges. If these challenges are not met, this is just a song; if met, this is a piece of art.

It is essential that this song be sung phrase by phrase, and not note by note. Once again, strong support and breath control are required. Once the voice enters, the accompaniment changes from the lightness of the piano prelude, symbolising the flying butterfly, to quaver chords (in the right hand of the piano) denoting the more restricted life of the

90 flower. The singer must mentally keep the voice and energy going through each phrase to avoid a “lumpy” or rigid feel. The singing must always feel free, even thought the flower is not.

The crescendo and decrescendo effects on ne fuis pas, tu t’en vas, sort cruel, dans le ciel, luire ailleurs and tout en pleurs should be subtle, not sudden or forced.

With the music of the three verses being so similar, memorizing at first can be tricky; one cannot rely on the music for memory cues. The text needs to be very well memorized.

Elégie (Elegy)

This beautiful, well-known song was written by Jules Massenet (1842–1912). Elégie is an air from the incidental music composed in 1873 for a dramatic work, Les Erinyes, by French poet Charles Marie Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894) based on Aeschylus‟ Eumenides. Massenet‟s music shows a sensitive feeling for the words, with the musical interest divided equally between voice and accompaniment, as, for example, with Schumann.

Massenet‟s popularity rests mainly on his operas, featuring graceful, sensuous melodies and sentimental plots, for example Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). Along with Bizet and Gounod, Massenet was one of the foremost opera composers in France in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Elégie started as a piano piece, called Invocation. This plaintive and melancholy work was scored for strings. Somewhat later Massenet arranged it for cello and piano. Louis Gallet (1835-1898) wrote the poem for this arrangement, with Elégie in this form receiving world renown.

91 This song, being an elegy, is a song of lamentation; an outpouring of grief caused by abandonment by the beloved, presumably through conscious separation, rather than by death. But whatever the cause, it is forever. Happiness, along with the lover, has vanished, never to return.

ô doux printemps d’autre fois, vertes saisons, vous avez fui pour toujours! (O sweet spring of another time, green seasons, you have gone forever!)

All that remains is the black desolation of loneliness and despair; the poet has been forsaken. The emotions expressed in this song are acute and intense.

Comme en mon coeur tout est sombre est glacé! Tout est flétri! Pour toujours! (How in my heart everything is dark and frozen! All is withered! Forever!)

This song is marked triste et très lent. The emotions are operatic in intensity, so the singer must bring this atmosphere to the interpretation. The fact that the song needs to be performed slowly brings challenges for support, in order for the breath to be comfortably maintained throughout the long phrases. Each phrase needs to swell and blossom, in order to express the enormity of the emotion. It is très expressif and very legato.

The mood becomes more agitated from ô bien aimée, tu t’en es allé (marked animez peu à peu), gradually building in even more intensity and desperation. Extra strong support is then needed for the change in tempo for the long phrase; et c’est en vain que revient le printemps! (marked en retenant beaucoup).

92 The phrase les jours riants sont partis begins pianissimo, and is fortissimo by partis. In order to do this skilfully there must be extremely strong support and very good breath control. I aimed to take a deep enough breath, in order to have plenty in reserve by the end of the phrase. The fortissimo and intensity have to be followed right through comme en mon coeur tout est sombre et glacé. Throughout the tout that follows, the singer only has a minim beat, on one note, to bring the voice back to piano, then pianissimo for est flétri. Enormous support and control are needed to carry off this effect successfully, and be true to the music. It must not be harsh or forced, but warm and full. The desperation needs to be expressed in the voice, and indeed in the whole performance. The emotion needs to be felt, in the moment of the performance, in order to express it.

RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883)

Richard Wagner, one of the most influential cultural figures of the nineteenth century, was composer, critic, librettist, poet, conductor and polemicist. He had abundant energy, which enabled him to ruthlessly and single-mindedly pursue his creative vision; to create major, large-scale works, mainly operas, which broke musical and dramatic boundaries, revolutionizing the concept and structure of opera.

His early inspiration came from the music of Weber and Beethoven, and his influence can be seen in the work of such composers as Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.

Just after he began his musical career at age twenty (he was already writing dramas in his early teens), he rushed into marriage with Minna Planer, an actress. It was the beginning of a stormy, unhappy relationship. Poverty and debt characterised this time, before Wagner was championed by King Ludwig the second (“Mad King Ludwig”) of Bavaria, who became Wagner‟s patron and paid all his debts, gave him a generous salary and

93 greatly encouraged his art. (Ludwig‟s enthusiasm for Wagner was such that his fairy tale castles in the Bavarian Alps had interiors based on images from Lohengrin.)

In 1862 Wagner separated from Minna. Wagner created a scandal by wooing the brilliant Cosima von Bülow, (daughter of Franz Liszt and Countess Marie d‟Agoult), wife of Hans von Bülow, a noted conductor and devotee of Wagner‟s music (and conductor of Tristan und Isolde).

The von Bülows‟ marriage was annulled in 1869, so this, and the death of Minna, enabled Wagner to marry Cosima in 1870, after they had already been living together for a couple of years, producing three children, Isolde, Eva and Siegfried.

In 1876 Wagner inaugurated a festival entirely devoted to his own music in the small Bavarian town of Bayreuth.

The last thirty years of Wagner‟s life (his marriage to Cosima provided his life with much needed stability) were devoted to his visionary ideal of the intertwining of music and drama, so that they become indivisible. Wagner believed that the two were equally important. His highest ideal was music drama, in which music, poetry, drama and the visual arts were synthesised. The idea of salvation through love is a common theme in Wagner‟s work, which first appeared in Der fliegende Holländer (“The Flying Dutchman”).

Wesendoncklieder (The Wesendonck Lieder)

By 1852 Wagner was chronically in debt. He was helped by the wealthy Swiss merchant Otto Wesendonck, who became his patron. Wagner and Minna were living on

94 OttoWesendonck‟s estate in Zurich, when Wagner subsequently became passionately infatuated with his wife, Mathilde Wesendonck.

Their relationship inspired the opera Tristan und Isolde (1856-59). This passionate portrayal of love, which can only find fulfilment in death, is believed by many to be one of the supreme achievements of Western art. In it, Wagner pushed chromatic harmony to its limits, from the unresolved, yearning motif of the Prelude to the ecstasy of Isolde‟s Verklärung (“Transfiguration”), often subsequently referred to as the Liebestod (Love- Death).

During his love affair with Mathilde Wesendonck (whom Wagner considered to be his muse) and the composition of Tristan und Isolde, Wagner set five of Mathilde‟s verses (Fünf Gedichte) to music during the winter of 1857-8. (As a poet, Mathilde Wesendonck is remembered today only for these five verses.)

The songs were originally written with piano accompaniment. Wagner composed, however, a fully orchestrated version of Träume, which was performed by a chamber orchestra under Mathilda‟s window for her birthday on 23 December 1857. The songs were later orchestrated by Felix Mottl, around 1880. Mottl conducted Tristan und Isolde at Bayreuth after Wagner‟s death.

The Wesendoncklieder song cycle is virtually Wagner‟s only contribution to the literature of Lieder, except for some early songs dating from before the composition of Rienzi (which premiered in 1843).

The first and fourth songs (Der Engel and Schmerzen) provided Wagner with sketches for Die Walküre, whilst the second (Stehe still!), third (Im Treibhaus) and fourth (Träume) were sketches for Tristan und Isolde. Im Treibhaus has long passages which appear in the Prelude to act three of the opera. Träume points to the love scene in act two. Der Engel also contains echoes of Isolde‟s Liebestod.

95

I chose to perform the Wesendoncklieder because of the themes of love, hope, sorrow, deliverance from sorrow, freedom and redemption contained in this work. The fact that these songs were conceived within the passionate emotional union of their creators made them, for me, even more irresistibly appropriate for study, in the context of my theme of love and death. I also really love them and wanted to study them in depth.

I think in order to do these songs justice, the singer needs to truly love them, and be willing to express the text and music as beautifully and as truthfully as possible. All the songs are, I believe, sublimely beautiful. One of the performances of the Wesendoncklieder I most admire is the singing of Waltraud Meier.

Der Engel (The Angel)

This poem‟s theme is heavenly redemption. It opens with the telling of the legend about angels who would exchange the sublime bliss of heaven for the sun of earth. They fly to those souls languishing in sorrow, comforting them and lifting them up towards heaven.

The poet then tells of her personal experience, as she was touched by the love of such an angel:

Ja, es stieg auch mir ein Engel nieder, und auf leuchtendem Gefieder führt er, ferne jedem Schmerz, meinen Geist nun himmelwärts! (Yes, even for me an angel descended, and on shining plumage he now carries my spirit far from every sorrow, heavenward!)

Lotte Lehmann interestingly postulates that this angel, for Mathilde, is Wagner:

96 Who could that angel be but Wagner? The shimmering wings are bearers of the music which he created and which carry the poet away from the earth and its conventions and restrictions - upwards, to what, for her, is heaven.50

When first beginning my study of Der Engel, and indeed for my study of the whole cycle, I had an image in my mind of sweeping, soaring phrases, like ocean waves - one seamlessly linking to the next - and an accompanying image that there were no bar lines at all. Such had to be the sense of effortless legato. This is especially true in Der Engel and Träume, where each phrase seems to blossom, then flow into the next. As per the German markings at the beginning of the song (sehr ruhig bewegt), there should be a serene and flowing atmosphere throughout.

When considering the production of the voice, as well as strong support, I had to be constantly mindful of keeping plenty of space around the sound, with open vowels and clean, well-articulated consonants. In fact, the mantra within my mind was support, space and legato. The mind must always be going ahead, from one phrase to the next, to keep the energy flowing right throughout the piece.

There were some places where I had to be particularly mindful of space (raising the soft palate) and support, in order to ensure correct intonation; for example the C on sorgen, the Bb on dass, the C on führt and the Eb on Welt.

I aimed for hairpin crescendi and decrescendi on long notes, to enable them to swell and shine, and give a full, luminous effect. The tone needs to be very warm and lustrous throughout.

The interpretation from ja, es stieg auch mir ein Engel nieder changes to become more intimate and personal, as the poet now speaks of her own experience with a special angel.

50 Lehmann, op. cit.,p. 129

97 The voice becomes even warmer and the face needs to shine. Whether or not one agrees with Lotte Lehmann‟s views concerning the angel being Wagner to Mathilda (it is very likely to be true, I think, considering their relationship when these verses were written), it is still possible for the singer to convey that these words are true for one‟s own experience; the intimacy of the meaning needs to be sensitively conveyed.

Stehe still! (Stand still)

Stehe still! provides a complete contrast to Der Engel. It is as though, with its opening phrases, this song suddenly lurches out of the rhapsody of the final moments of the preceding song. The serenity is broken by the incessant, driving force of creation; time, the “knife of eternity” (Messer du der Ewigkeit); conveyed by the groups of semiquavers, which help to communicate the agitation. It is an impassioned plea; the relentless pace is too much to endure.

Halte an dich, zeugende Kraft, urgedanke, der ewig schaff! (Halt, procreating power, original purpose which forever creates!)

The mood then changes, where the text speaks of love and peaceful serenity, and the music becomes soft and gentle. Love opens an understanding of the world; it solves the mystery of nature; it is the secret of creation (and also the reason for creation).

There are considerable challenges in this song. The driving semiquavers in the accompaniment and the dotted notes in the voice line can easily tempt the singer to sing in a forced note-by-note way, rather than concentrating on the phrasing. In fact, this was my tendency when I first began to study Stehe still. It must not be sung in a heavy way. It

98 must still flow, in beautiful long phrases, even though the music and text are expressing a great sense of urgency. (I think here of the truth in my vocal coach‟s advice to me when I first began studying this song: “Think of a Tibetan prayer wheel; not a semi-trailer wheel!”)

It was important to train myself to mentally sing through the rests, so that the voice would continually flow. The energy needs to keep circulating forward, just like the wheel of time; round and round; nothing broken or interrupted. Support and breath control are, of course, paramount, and adequate space around the sound is essential. The vowels must always remain open and pure.

Im Treibhaus (In the hothouse)

As already noted, Wagner wrote Im Treibhaus as a study for the Prelude to act three of Tristan und Isolde. It tells of the sorrow of the plants in the hothouse – forlorn, lost and loveless in a faraway and alien world – exiled, away from their homeland. They may be beautiful and exotic, but they have been uprooted; they are not home; they are not free; they are surviving but not living.

Likewise the poet is not free. The poet and plants are alike in this respect. They are both far away from their homeland.

Wohl, ich weiss es, arme Pflanze: Ein Geschicke teilen wir (Indeed, I know it, poor plant: We share one destiny)

As day passes to night, those who suffer take refuge in silence.

99 Lotte Lehmann offers some very valuable insights for the interpretation of this wonderful song:

The song is pervaded by a mysterious half light. The prelude seems to breathe the faint perfume of exotic flowers. The plants seem like tall canopies of emerald. They come from distant countries; they are sad and lonely. They stretch their branches upward like pitiful hands, and sigh. The music too, floats upwards in softest pianissimo, as if guided by the trembling branches. The fragrance is sweet and barely perceptible. I see the poor plants stretch out their arms into nothingness. I stand there, forlorn, in their midst, but I feel I am a part of them. I, too, live in splendour of light and yet I know that my home is not here. When evening comes I welcome the darkness, because those who are truly unhappy like to hide in the darkness of silence. The music trembles in mysterious unity with the plants. A sigh floats through the wide and silent hall, and I see heavy drops like tears on the edges of the leaves. The postlude fades away and the last chords fall like drops into nothingness… 51

I think this song is challenging for many singers in numerous respects. Of course, as mentioned before, support, breath control and keeping plenty of space around the sound are of prime importance. Once again, phrasing is vitally important. Each note must weave and thread to the next. Each phrase must flow on to the next, in a beautiful, seamless legato line.

For me, there were some pitch trouble spots that I had to particularly watch; for instance the G sharp on mir, the Bb to A on klagt, the B natural on Weit and D on ein (after Pflanze).

51 Lehmann, op. cit., pp. 130-131.

100 The phrases containing the abovementioned notes needed to be thoroughly practised in isolation, fixing them into my memory. Likewise, another challenge lay in the pitch of the chromatic notes in und der Leiden stummer Zeuge, steiget aufwärts süsserDuft.

I also had to ensure that intervals (such as Bb to D in scheidet) were clean, with no scooping.

I had to be careful to keep the beat going internally within my mind, during the unaccompanied phrase ein Geschicke teilen wir. The rests must be observed, and kept in correct time, whilst not interrupting the legato of the phrase.

Schmerzen (Sorrows)

The theme of this song is victory; victory of joy over sorrow. I believe it is a song of hope. It is an entreaty to love life, an outpouring of faith and optimism, with the belief that pain will not prevail; but, as nature decrees, darkness gives way to light, death gives birth to life, sorrow to bliss. It is the cycle of life – the gift of nature, the ever-present promise of renewal.

The poet takes the sun as inspiration. Each evening the sun “dies”, only to rise again, to “live”, with the coming of morning. doch erstehst in alter Pracht, glorie der düstren Welt, du am Morgen neu erwacht, wie ein stolzer Siegesheld! (but you arise in ancient splendour, glory of the gloomy world, in the morning, newly awakened, like a proud, victorious hero!)

Following on from the image of the sun and its cycle of renewal, the poem becomes more introspective, with an entreaty of encouragement to the self; be not overtaken by sorrows;

101 even in the midst of them, remember the sun, and indeed the example of all nature. Why should I grieve with such a heavy heart, if the sun itself must despair and perish? What is my pain to the sun‟s?

Remember the cycle of life; remember that sorrow transforms to happiness. Nothing is static. The universe is constantly changing.

The poet then goes one step further than this, with an expression of gratitude for sorrow; gratitude stemming from the knowledge that all things change, and that even in the midst of sorrow, one can take heart that joy will be the eventual outcome. Indeed, the poet says, sorrow is itself the source of joy. und gebieret Tod nur Leben, geben Schmerzen Wonnen nur: O, wie dank’ ich, dass gegeben solche Schmerzen mir Natur! (and if death only gives birth to life, if sorrows only yield delights: oh, how grateful I am that nature has granted me such sorrows!)

I must disagree with Lotte Lehmann in her assessment of Schmerzen:

This whole song has something almost military in its pompous outbursts.52

She does, however, give the following concession that:

Yet it is effective and so much a part of the unity of these 5 Lieder that one must include it in the cycle.53

52 Lehmann, op.cit., p. 131. 53 ibid., p. 131.

102 I think the style is victorious and hopeful, rather than military, as Lotte Lehmann believes, and I certainly do not think it is pompous. The stirring nature of the music, I feel, perfectly captures the optimism of the poem. Schmerzen certainly provides an ideal link between Im Treibhaus and Träume.

This song demands exceptionally strong support and breath control. The tempo marking of Langsam und breit (slow and broad) necessitate long, sustained phrases. The commanding nature of the music must be expressed with strength and conviction, not force.

My former comments about other songs, concerning the necessity for adequate space around the sound, are equally applicable to the singing of Schmerzen. It is essential for correct intonation.

The support and mental preparation must begin at the start of the piano entrance, not just when the voice enters. The mind must be continually focused forwards, to maintain the flow and energy through the piece.

The phrase doch erstehst in alter Pracht needs to build from piano to forte, with a wonderful swelling, grand, victorious crescendo; then a full, supportive breath, before singing a warm, glowing Ab on the Glo of Glorie, expanding through to Welt; likewise the strong preparation and triumph of wie ein stolzer Sieges held!

The voice changes to piano and dolce, with the poem becoming more introspective on Ach, wie sollte ich da klagen, through to Sonne untergehn; before increasing again in intensity and becoming more powerful, with a gradual crescendo right through to the end of the song. Preceding the last two phrases, there needs to be a beautiful, swelling allargando on the G on O. I had to place the last two notes, Bb to Ab on Natur, very carefully, to ensure that the intonation was correct.

103 Träume (Dreams)

This exquisite song provided Wagner with a study for the love duet in act two of Tristan und Isolde. It has certainly grown from Wagner‟s original intention, and has become a well-known, loved and oft performed song in its own right.

The poem tells of the dreams that come from heaven, touching the soul and blossoming into awareness. They paint a picture of eternal bliss, blooming and growing with each day, then softly dying away and sinking into nothingness. One abandons earthly concerns in dreams, finally finding complete expression in death. Here we see the foretelling of the major theme of Tristan und Isolde; the sublime union of blissful love can only find perfect fulfilment in death.

Sie der neue Tag begrüsst, dass sie wachsen, dass sie blühen, träumend spenden ihren Duft, sanft an deiner Brust verglühen, und dann sinken in die Gruft. (the new day welcomes them, so that they grow, bloom, dreamingly diffuse their scent, softly die away on your breast and then sink into the grave)

During the long piano prelude, the singer needs to prepare emotionally (and of course technically, a few bars before the voice enters) in order to begin singing softly, and in a dream-like manner. The voice is soft, but still must have a warm, full sound, needing strong support. It must not be under-sung.

I aimed for a gentle swell from welch and into wunderbare; with a gentle hairpin crescendo and decrescendo on Träume. The crescendi must always be kept within the gentle piano effect. This also applies to other phrases, such as halten meinen Sinn umfangen.

104 In this song, a beautiful, seamless legato line is especially important. The legato must be as smooth as cream, especially in the last few phrases, from träumend through to Gruft. This last section is sung piano. I aimed for morendo right through to the end of Gruft, and in doing so, had to keep my support especially strong. The calm, dream-like atmosphere must be maintained right through the piano postlude, and even to the pause after the last note has been played.

The section from die wie hehre Strahlen is more animated (marked belebt), until the tempo subsides with a poco rallentando on Tag begrüsst. Every single change in tempo, dynamic and mood need to be faithfully observed, in order to sensitively perform this song. As already mentioned for preceding songs, the vowels need to be kept open and pure, and the consonants clearly articulated.

Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix (My heart opens at your voice)

Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix is the best-known aria from the opera Samson et Dalila, by Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921); the libretto was by Ferdinand Lemaire. Samson et Dalila premiered in Germany in 1877. It is a work known for its great melodic and rhythmic power, though its origins as an oratorio make it somewhat cumbersome to produce on the operatic stage.

This aria, sung by Dalila, is a song of seduction, as is the Seguidilla from Carmen. Dalila‟s objective is, on behalf of the Philistines, to gain from Samson the secret of his great strength. In order to achieve this, she uses her beauty, considerable persuasive charms and declarations of love and desire, in order to seduce him and win his trust. By the end of the aria he is totally hers, and putty in her hands.

Dalila is a very strong character, and this needs to come through in the singing of this powerful aria, which is often a cornerstone in the repertoire of many mezzos. As well as

105 Dalila‟s strength, the singer needs to also convey her desperate need for manipulation of Samson. Dalila is not singing from love, but from a desire for control and power. Her drive is to overcome Samson‟s resolve (which is to stay silent and not reveal his secret) and overpower him with her passionate entreaties. She is appealing to the desire that she knows he feels for her, and this knowledge puts her in a place of power over him.

There is thus a very strong sexual element to this passionate aria, which is conveyed in the ravishing music. The singer needs to bring this out in the performance, with the luscious, swelling crescendi and decrescendi.

The long, sweeping phrases in Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix demand great warmth of tone and enormously strong support. Breaths must be taken deeply, right down low in the body; the support needs to be felt in the lower back and into the legs. If this is not achieved, maintaining the breath through to the end of each phrase (without gasping) is very difficult. This is especially true in the un poco più lento sections beginning with the phrase Ah! réponds à ma tendresse.

This aria demands good physical as well as psychological strength, in order to meet the demands of the music and also to convey the personality and objectives of the character.

Les filles de Cadix (The Girls of Cadiz)

This charmingly light and beautifully lyrical song was written in 1879 by Léo Delibes (1836-1891), set to a verse by Alfred de Musset (1810-1857).

Delibes wrote operettas and comic operas from 1855 to 1869 for French commercial theatre. He is best known for his ballet music, especially his masterpiece, Coppelia, and a number of grand operas, one of which, Lakmé, is still performed. The content of Delibes‟

106 songs was often exotic, as in Les filles de Cadix, but his music was always essentially French in character.

The mood of this song is one of gaiety and light-hearted flirtation. It opens with three boys and three girls, the girls of Cadiz, dancing a bolero and playing their castanets, on their way back from the bullfight. The girls sense the admiring glances of the onlookers, and flirtingly ask if they are found to be appealing and attractive.

One evening as they are dancing, a wealthy nobleman (hidalgo) comes along and propositions the darkest of the girls, offering her gold in return for her favours. She haughtily sends him on his way, with mocking innocence ; the girls of Cadiz do not understand such things !

Passez votre chemin beau sire. Ah ! les filles de Cadix n’entendent pas cela. (On your way fine sir. Ah ! the girls of Cadiz don‟t understand that.)

This song requires great vocal suppleness and flexibility, and once mastered is a wonderful performance showpiece. I chose it to end this recital because of its light and joyous mood – and also because I find it such fun to sing. It provided a contrast to the heavy emotions of the preceding songs.

The runs need to be practised slowly at first, before they are mastered and become fluent. As speed is increased, clarity and intonation must not be compromised. Each note must still be clearly heard.

Each dynamic, expression and tempo marking needs to be carefully observed and absorbed into the performance - they must become automatic, so that the singing flows effortlessly. This song needs to be practised slowly until it is easy.

107 The Ah ! sections at the end of each verse should be joyous and bright, and sound like peals of laughter. The coquetishness of the girls should be vivacious and carefree, whilst still being sung with charming subtlety.

The change in attitude towards the advances of the nobleman needs to be conveyed with the voice and eyes, in particular; likewise the more seductive words spoken by the nobleman need to be expressively sung to capture his character and intent.

108 Conclusion to Recital 3

On the whole, my performance of the Fauré songs met most of my expectations. Out of the whole recital, I am most pleased with the singing of these songs, and feel that they are best suited to my voice. I believe that I succeeded in creating the intimacy of these songs, singing often with subtlety and warmth, and with the restrained emotion that is necessary for this repertoire. As much as I love the Wesendonck Lieder, I found preparing the Fauré songs, in particular, a great joy.

I was pleased with my choice of Chanson d’amour to open the recital, and feel that it was mostly sung well, as was Après un rêve, apart from a few places where stronger support and more space around the vowels were needed. Clair de lune was effectively expressed, both technically and in the interpretation, although in some places it was a little under- sung. The highlight of the bracket was Le papillon et la fleur. It felt natural and free, created a lift in energy, and the singing was generally pleasing. There were a few occasions, however, where I could have given the voice more space.

The Massenet song, Elégie, began a little insecurely on the opening note, but then settled. I was, overall, pleased with the phrasing and the sensitive communication of the text.

Including the Wesendonck Lieder in the recital was certainly ambitious, as it is a very demanding work on its own, let alone as the middle bracket in an hour-long recital. I am very happy that I included it in my repertoire for this recital, and performed it from memory, and it certainly developed my vocal (and overall physical) endurance. Overall, I feel it was an admirable performance, with some very fine moments. It was a very satisfying experience to perform the cycle with orchestra, five months after this recital.

I could hear, though, in the recording, some examples of tiredness, where the endings of some phrases were not as sustained as they needed to be, and the breath was not always

109 as strong as I would have liked, as well as the extra breaths that I sometimes felt the need to take. When I was singing the cycle, though, I did not feel tired at all.

I consider the best singing in the cycle to be Träume. I feel that the crescendi on the long notes were well executed, and the phrasing generally well done. Some sections, as in the whole of the cycle, however, needed stronger support and more space around the voice.

Of the two French songs to complete the recital, I was most pleased with Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix. I liked the full, warm sound, and the legato phrasing was usually well done. There was some tiredness evident in the recording I think, which manifested itself in the lowest part of the voice, in the phrase verse-moi l’ivresse. However, I still maintained the necessary strength of support to sustain the long phrases effectively.

Les filles de Cadix was generally performed with grace and vocal agility, and effective interpretation of the character of the piece. Overall though, I would have liked more space around the voice, in order to enliven the sound and make the voice shine. I felt the sound needed to be more clear and free.

Although I can recognise the aspects of my performance that can be developed, I am nevertheless pleased with the success of the recital.

110

RECITAL 4 1874-1947

Introduction

This final recital features an all-Spanish program. I had long wanted to study the wonderful song cycle by Manuel de Falla, Siete canciones populares Españolas, and felt that these songs would provide me with a perfect means of expression in which to explore the theme of love and death. They are varied in character, from a mother‟s tender lullaby to outcries of revenge and sorrow. With these songs, I decided to include others from the great wealth of Spanish repertoire, from opera to zarzuela.

Likewise the beautiful song cycle Cuatro madrigales amatorios by Joaquín Rodrigo, which gave me the opportunity to express different aspects of love and death, from rejection and sorrow to exuberance and celebration. The exquisite singing of Victoria de los Angeles inspired me to study and perform them.

From the two song cycles, my attention turned to the wonderful, but little performed song cycle of Jesús Guridi, Seie canciones Castellanas. I would not have time, this recital, to sing the whole cycle, so chose number four, the melancholy No quiero tus avellanas, providing a perfect contrast to the Falla songs.

I then moved to Spanish opera, and the popular aria La maja y el ruiseñor, from the opera Goyescas, by Enrique Granados. This richly lyrical and romantic aria expresses deep longing and sadness.

I decided that two songs from Spanish zarzuela would give an uplifting finale to the recital; Canción de la Paloma from El Barberillo de Lavapiés, by Francisco Barbieri, and De España vengo from El niño judio, by Pablo Luna.

111

Joaquin Rodrigo

Cuatro madrigales amatorios (Four songs of love)

These beautiful songs were composed by Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999) in 1947, to texts by anonymous poets. They were firstly written for voice and piano, and orchestrated the following year.

Blind from the age of three years, Rodrigo is one of the foremost Spanish composers of vocal music. A fascination with Spanish literature led Rodrigo to the composition of songs, sometimes with piano or guitar, sometimes with orchestra. He maintained that his songs formed the most important part of his music, apart from his concertos (the most popular being the Concerto de Aranquez of 1939, a concerto for solo classical guitar and orchestra). Like Richard Strauss, Rodrigo felt a particular attraction throughout his life for the soprano voice, for which he wrote almost all his songs.

Cuatro madrigales amatorios are some of the most popular and frequently performed songs in the Spanish repertoire. They display a wide variety of mood and style over the four songs, and present different challenges to the singer, in both interpretation and technique. ¿Con qué la lavaré? and Vos me matásteis require long, flowing, legato lines to express the pain and drama and to express the beauty of the poetry, whilst the final two songs require technique of great fluidity and flexibility.

The four songs are love poems, expressing the anguished longing of loss and the exuberance of delicious playfulness of love in its first bloom. The English word amatory (and thus the Spanish amatorios) is derived from the Latin amatorius, which has to do with sexual love or desire. The songs are included in a collection of poetry entitled

112 Recopilacion de sonetos y sonatos y villancios a quarto y a cinco, dated 1560. In this collection Juan Vasquez (c. 1510-1560) included his own poetry as well as other popular poetry of the day.

The song cycle premiered in February 1948, with Rodrigo himself at the piano. The songs are dedicated to four singers, all of whom had very successful careers in the 1950s and 1960s; Blanca María Martinez Seoane, Celia Langa, María Angeles Morales and Cármen Pérez Durias. All four singers were former pupils of Lola Rodriguez Aragón, a prominent teacher in Spain in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Lola Rodriguez Aragón played a prominent role in the postwar musical world of Spain as a teacher and as a performer. She opened her Advanced School of Song in Madrid in 1972, her studio having produced singers of the calibre of Teresa Berganza.

¿Con qué la lavaré? (With what shall I wash?)

This is a song of sorrow, a lament. The idiomatic translation is as follows:

With what shall I bathe myself? The wives and mothers bathe with lemon water. I will wash my marks of anguish with tears wrung from my sorrow.

There is an element of guilt and shame in this text, as is evidenced in the literal translation of the following line: que vivo mal penada? (That I live badly punished?)

The poet sings that, unlike the wives and mothers who bathe with lemon water, she can only bathe with her sorrow. Perhaps she has fallen from the moral codes of the village;

113 perhaps she has been abandoned by the one she loved. In any case, she considers herself unworthy. It is as though she has to wash away her guilt.

This is a short song, but there is a lot of heavy emotion - a depth of grief and sorrow - in its two pages. The tone of the voice, however, still needs to be bright – not covered and dark. I had to be mindful of correct intonation on the D that ended the phrase que vivo mal penada.

After the piano interlude following that phrase, I had to be careful to wait for the third beat, before entering on Lávanse las casadas.

The tempo must move, but not be rushed. The composer‟s performance marking is andante molto tranquillo. The legato must be smooth and silky. All dynamic and tempo markings must be faithfully observed, for sensitive portrayal of the music and the emotions.

The last phrase con penas y dolores is repeated from mezzo piano to piano, then piano to pianissimo, finishing with a diminuendo. For the final phrase I attempted to make the sound richer, even though it is softer, in order to express the anguish of the young woman.

Vos me matásteis (You killed me)

This poem is told through the eyes of a young man, referring to a young maiden with beautiful, long hair, who has “killed‟ him with her eyes. The expression to “kill” with the eyes is a common theme in Spanish verse. This song has an implied expression of rejection, or the fear of rejection.

114 It is certainly a song of intense desire, and it is interesting to note how the suggestion of death, even though symbolic, is related to passion in Spanish verse. It suggests that the desire for the desired is so overwhelming that the person feeling that emotion is in a state where he or she cannot live without the desire being realised. This is fully realised in that moment of looking into the eyes of the desired, hence the words of the text telling the girl that she has “destroyed” him. It is thus her fault, he believes, that he feels this way. She is responsible for his anguish.

The idiomatic translation is as follows:

You have destroyed me, girl with the beautiful hair. You have killed me. On the banks of the river, I saw you. You have killed me with your love.

This song has to start piano, so the voice needs to be very well supported in order to have adequate tone and warmth. There should be a beautiful swell with the crescendo, coming back to piano on cabello.

The second vos me habéis muerto of the opening section needs to be sung pianissimo, in order to echo the mezzo forte of the first. The aching in the young man‟s heart needs to be brought out here. Once again, as in the first song, all changes in dynamics need to memorised just as carefully as the music and text. Each is vitally important to the interpretation of the piece.

I had to be careful to wait for the full minim rest before entering on ví moza vírgin, and the quaver rest before the final phrase of the song, which is sung pianissimo; vos me habeís muerto.

115

¿De dónde venís, amore? (From where do you come, love?)

This song poses light-hearted questioning of the beloved. It is a bright contrast to the first two songs. The idiomatic translation is as follows:

Where have you been, my beloved? I know well where you have been. Where have you been, my friend? I have been a witness. Ah!

The text seems to imply some mistrust, but it is in a very playful vein. Perhaps it is a mother questioning and playfully ribbing her adult son, whose reply is in the last song. Or perhaps the two verses are unrelated.

A challenge in this song is to keep the singing very legato, when the piano accompaniment appears to be moving to the contrary. The legato phrasing must still be maintained when the voice sings the staccato notes, for instance, in bien sé yo de dónde, then moving into the marked legato and diminuendo of de dónde.

In fact, the staccato right through this song presents a considerable vocal challenge when first beginning to study this piece. There must be very strong support from the diaphragm (and even below). There must be no tension or gripping in the throat at all. Great flexibility is required in the vocal technique. Practice at first must be slow, to ensure correct placement of all the notes, and the speed increased gradually.

The staccato on the Ah! from D to F# is especially tricky (and likewise D-F#-D and F# – A-F#), as it is right through the passagio. The voice must be kept very light and the

116 support especially strong. The fortissimo of the final Ah! must not be forced; there needs to be a beautiful diminuendo on de dónde.

De los álamos vengo, madre (From the poplars I come, mother)

This song is a splendid, sparkling finale to the song cycle. It sways and flows joyously, just like the poplars in the wind. It expresses an irrepressible optimism and love of life. A young man makes no secret about it; he has been by the poplars to see his beautiful girl. We know the loved one is female, from the feminine form of mi linda amiga.

The idiomatic translation is as follows:

I have been by the poplars, mother. I have seen their branches swaying in the breezes. Ah! I have seen my beautiful lover by the poplar trees of Seville.

As in ¿De dónde venis amore? , this song demands great vocal flexibility and dexterity, in fact even more so. Once again, in the early stages of study, it needs to be practised very slowly until pitch is secure. Speed should be increased gradually, to ensure that clarity is not compromised. Every note needs to be clearly heard when the tempo is increased. Impatience at this stage is counter-productive. The runs and turns make this song so essentially Spanish in flavour (that is, when they are smooth, clear, fast and sparkling, and sound effortless) - and this must be brought out in the performance. Once learned and up to speed, this song is excitingly freeing to sing, and is a superlative finale to the cycle.

Of course, in this song, once again, the legato of the phrasing is imperative, so that the song flows energetically. The fortissimo sections must not be forced; the voice needs to be full and warm, but still light and clear.

117

The piano and pianissimo runs in the final two phrases must be very strongly supported. It is important to keep the tone warm here also, and not to under-sing. The voice needs to drift away, as if carried by the breeze, down to the pianissimo of the last bar; however, each note still needs to be clearly heard.

Manuel de Falla

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) was born in Cadiz, an Andalusian. He is widely regarded as the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early twentieth century. Falla‟s music is distinctly Spanish, rooted both in Andalusian folk music and the classical traditions of Spain.

He was a fine pianist, and studied composition under Pedrell, founder of the modern national Spanish school of composition. In his youth, Falla was inspired by the strong national character of the music of Grieg, and desired to create music which was essentially Spanish in style. He was an authority on flamenco music, and made use of it in his compositions, keeping the vitality of flamenco but subjecting it to rigorous musical structure.

Falla was a keen student of native folk song, and organized festivals to maintain its cultivation. All of Falla‟s works are vigorously Spanish, drawing especially on the cante hondo (deep song), the passionate and sometimes melancholic song from Andalucia. Falla was quoted in an article for the Revista de Música in 1917 that: “One must take one‟s inspiration directly from the people.”54

54 A. Livermore, A Short History of Spanish Music, Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd., London, 1972, p. 191.

118 In his song writing, Falla took melodies from different parts of Spain, extracted the essence of the music, and wove them into completely new creations, as he did for Siete canciones populares Españolas.

He wrote five zarzuelas (1901-3) to provide financial support for his family, and in 1905 wrote his prize winning one-act opera, La vida breve („Life is Short‟). Ironically, it waited eight years for its first performance. Other famous works include his piano concerto, Noches en los jardines de España (1916 „Nights in the Gardens of Spain‟), and his two ballets, El amor brujo (1915 „Love the Magician‟) and El sombrero de tres picos („The Three Cornered Hat‟), which was commissioned by the Ballet Russe and produced by Diaghilev in 1919 in London (with the scenery by Pablo Picasso), establishing Falla‟s fame as a composer.

Falla was very superstitious, believing, among other things, that life was divided into seven-year periods. True to his belief, he died a few days before his 70th birthday, in Argentina (where he moved following Franco‟s victory in the Spanish Civil War).

Manuel de Falla never married and had no children.

Siete canciones populares Españolas (Seven Popular Spanish Songs)

This famous song cycle was composed by Manuel de Falla in 1914-15 for voice and piano, to texts taken from Spanish folk material, and dedicated to Madame Ida Godebska. The songs were first performed by soprano Luisa Vela, at the Atheneo Academy Salon in Madrid in 1915, with Falla at the piano.

The songs were composed during a time of intense creative activity, following Falla‟s return to Spain after the outbreak of the First World War, after a seven-year stay in Paris.

119 Though he composed very little during his Parisian years, he was befriended by France‟s leading composers, Dukas, Debussy and Ravel,who were greatly impressed by La vida breve.

These songs are the most performed of all Spanish language solo songs. Falla took melodies from folk songs from different regions of Spain, and, using a wealth of harmonic and rhythmic invention, created completely original works. This originality of Falla‟s is pertinently commented upon, in my opinion, by Denis Stevens:

It would be misleading to think of these simply as arrangements of Spanish folk-songs. Taking the traditional melodies of folk-songs from various regions of Spain, Falla has provided them with piano accompaniments, which, in the words of J.B. Trend, „are at the same time brilliantly pianistic and yet thoroughly in keeping with the spirit of the original melodies.‟ These accompaniments are truly creative, since they disclose indubitable artistry, invention and intuition, thus providing aesthetic values inherent but not hitherto revealed in the original folk- songs.55

There is a varied emotional range in the seven brief songs, from fierce passions of the joys and pains of love, to the tender intimacy of a mother‟s lullaby. The cante hondo, the low voiced throb of the melodies, rhythms often reminiscent of the clicking of castanets, and piano accompaniments often suggesting the plucking of guitar strings, are quintessentially Spanish in style, evoking the colourful world of Spain.

As well as voice and piano, there is also an arrangement of the songs for violin and piano, as well as for voice and guitar. My favourite performances of these songs that I find particularly inspiring are those by Victoria de los Angeles (with piano) and Teresa Berganza (with guitar).

55 D. Stevens, A History of Song, Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., London, 1960, p. 391.

120 El paño moruno (The Moorish Shawl)

This song comes from the Murcia region in South East Spain.

On the delicate cloth, in the shop, a spot has fallen. It sells for less now, for it has lost its value.

This verse implies that the stained cloth in the shop is like a maiden who has lost her innocence; in the language of the verse, she also has been “spoiled”. With such an apparent sorrowful undertone, this is a bright opening to the cycle, with the tempo marked as allegretto vivace.

After the long piano prelude, the voice begins very legato, with beautiful phrasing. The voice must be light and free, with the music marked grazioso e leggiero. It is essential that the mind is focused and the support ready before the voice enters. The energy needs to keep flowing forwards, from one phrase to the next. The voice has to lighten off after each tenuto marking.

I had to take care with the change of timing in the poco rit section beginning una mancha le cayó, and make a beautiful diminuendo over the next three bars. I also had to take care with the timing of the poco rit on the line porque perdió su valor (and changing to a tempo at the end of the phrase).

The crescendi and decrescendi of the Ay! at the end of the song need to be very faithfully observed, to be true to the Spanish flavour of the piece. This song needs to be very well practised (slowly at first) and well sung in so that it is automatic, feeling easy and natural.

121 Seguidilla murciana

This song, like the first, is from the Murcia region in South East Spain.

People who live in glass houses shouldn‟t throw stones at their neighbours. We are drovers. It may be that on the road we shall meet. For your promiscuousness I compare you to a coin that passes from hand to hand until finally it‟s rubbed so smooth that it‟s thought bad and no one will take it.

The seguidilla is a moderately fast dance of Southern Spain in triple metre, with a text based on four-line poems. In performance, these lines can be broken up and freely repeated, and are often interspaced with guitar passages.

The text starts with a well-known moral; people should not behave to others in a way that they do not wish others to behave to them. The text then takes on a bitter, accusing tone. A lover, inferred to be male, passes severe judgement on the behaviour of the one he once loved; her inconstancy (to him) reflects so badly on her standing within the community, that no one (he asserts) will want her.

For the word inconstancia I have seen three translations, one being “promiscuousness”, the others, slightly less character-blackening, being “faithlessness” or “inconstancy”. Certainly her behaviour has, to him, been so abominable that he now compares her to a coin that has been passed around from one to the other, finally having been rubbed so smooth, that is it now no use to anyone. In other words, according to him, she is now damaged goods. This song is, despite its bright, fast-moving tempo, a song of scorn, bitterness and a desire for revenge.

122 When first beginning the study of Seguidilla murciana, the main challenges I met lay in articulating the Spanish text, whilst singing allegro spiritoso, and fitting the text into the timing. I had to do very slow, repeated practice of the language at first, just speaking the text in rhythm, in order to master this song. Smooth, legato phrasing is of utmost importance.

I had to feel the pulse of the first beat very strongly, and actually had to think of just one beat to the bar. In fact at first, the rhythm had to become the starting point for me, and with lots of slow practice of the text, as already described, it was important for me to trust that all aspects - language, timing, expression - would come together. I found, in particular, that the phrase por tu mucha inconstancia (all on a repeated D, whilst singing fast), at first presented me with a challenge of articulating the Spanish clearly.

As well as the entry to the song, I had to watch the timing of the entry Que al fin se borra (waiting for the full crotchet and quaver beats). Every dynamic and expression marking throughout the song must be very faithfully observed.

Asturiana

This beautiful lyrical, sad song comes from the Asturias region of Northern Spain.

Seeking consolation, I drew near a green pine tree. Seeing me weep, it wept. The pine, as it was green, wept to see me weeping.

The Asturiana is a woman who comes from Asturias. The sad woman goes near to the pine tree to weep, perhaps because it is away from her community, where she may obtain some privacy, and seeks the solace, the consolation of nature. As she weeps she feels an affinity with the tree, so much so that she believes that the tree is weeping with her. She associates the green of the tree with her sadness.

123

I found that it was very important for me in this song not to under-sing, whilst trying to express the sad emotion and the quiet nature of the song. I had to ensure that my support stayed consistently strong.

The phrases are very long and molto legato, which brought challenges for breath control (especially as there is most often a diminuendo at the end of phrases); particularly a phrase like the opening one, Por ver si me consolaba (and making the sound last right through to the final minim) and Y el pino, como era verde. I had to give the ending note of each phrase its full value. It was also vitally important for me to keep plenty of space around the sound to ensure correct intonation. I particularly had to watch the intonation of descending phrases.

As well, I had to be careful not to dull the sound in order to express the emotion. The tone needed to be kept bright. This can be a challenge when one is expressing sorrow.

Jota

This song is a lively contrast to the last. It typifies music of the Aragon region of Northeastern Spain. The jota is a rapid dance in triple time, performed by one or more couples, and accompanied by castanets. This song appears to be a precursor to the famous jota in The Three Cornered Hat.

They say we‟re not in love because we‟re not seen talking, but let them ask your heart and mine! I must leave you now, leave your house and your window; and though your mother disapproves, goodbye, dearest until tomorrow.

124 This is a love song, of two who love in secret (implied in the first two Spanish lines). Their love may not be apparent to the outside world, but in their hearts, they know it to be true. The lovers determine that they will be together, against all odds, even without the approval of the girl‟s mother.

After the long piano prelude, it is easy for the singer to lose focus and not be sure of the entry. It took me some time before I was really confident in this aspect. I would say that I spent most of my vocal coaching time on these Falla songs, in order to facilitate my learning in all aspects; the language (that is the articulating of it within the tempi), timing, dynamics, expression; there is much to master (and I must say I really enjoyed the process and meeting the challenges. In doing so, I learned to love all the songs, even more than I had previously, before beginning to study them). In this song, the entries, particularly the first two sections, were among my greatest challenges.

There are a lot of dynamic changes, and each one must be carefully and faithfully observed; likewise all other markings, such as tenuto, pauses, changes in tempo. All the runs and turns need to be executed with grace, agility and clarity, and must not be heavy. I aimed for a beautiful diminuendo on the long notes. In spite of the speed (allegro vivo), I had to be aware of giving the quavers, especially, their full value, and not to rush.

In the tranquillo section at the end, when the voice has entered after the third long piano interlude, I needed strong support in order to begin pianissimo, and create a beautiful lontano effect through to the end of the song.

Nana (Lullaby)

The nana is a traditional lullaby. This nana was perhaps sung to Falla as an infant by his mother. It is based on a traditional lullaby from Andalucia, the region of Falla‟s birth.

125 Sleep, little one, sleep; sleep, my darling. Sleep, little star of the morning. Lullaby, lullaby. Sleep, little star of the morning.

A mother lovingly and tenderly sings her child to sleep. This song provides a serene contrast to the preceding song, and to the one following. It is lyrical, gentle and calm. It looks deceptively simple, when compared to the others, but is certainly not. Very strong support is, once again, required, and excellent breath control, especially with a semiquaver triplet (or demi semiquavers) run at the end of most phrases. Of course, with the marking of calmo e sostenuto, beautiful legato phrasing is paramount.

The ornamented C and E in the second Nanita must be executed with grace, clarity and poise. There must then be a gradual diminuendo right through to the end of the song. I aimed for a further lovely diminuendo on the final phrase, whilst being careful to keep support strong. I endeavoured to maintain plenty of space around the sound, and avoid under-singing.

Canción (Song)

In this song, Falla has created a completely original treatment of a melody that is known throughout Spain.

Because your eyes are treacherous I‟m going to bury them. You know not what it costs, dearest, to gaze into them, mother, to gaze into them, mother. They say you don‟t love me, but once you did. Make the best of it and cut your losses, mother, cut your losses.

126

When used in this way (that is, as an exclamation), madre refers to the Virgin Mary (the closest translation in English may be “Oh God!”), and is the speaker‟s way of stressing the depth of emotion being expressed. This verse expresses the resentment and bitterness of rejection, and the wanting to be free of it and start life afresh. The allegretto and con grazia of the tempo and expression markings seem to belie the depth of dark emotion being expressed.

The tenuto markings (followed by staccato notes) on the second and fifth quaver beats give the rhythm a syncopated feel. This makes the attention to legato phrasing even more important, to avoid a stilted and clumsy effect. The singing must be very graceful. Support must, once again, be very strong. I had also, once again, to be mindful of keeping plenty of space around the sound.

Polo

The polo comes from Andalucia, evoking the flamenco music of the Andalucian gypsies.

Ay! I have a pain in my heart which I can tell no one. A curse on love, and a curse on the one who made me know it. Ay!

This verse expresses not only the bitterness of rejection, but revenge; may the rejecting lover be cursed. It is raw gut-wrenching anger and pain, like a primal cry. It is challenging indeed to express this raw emotion, especially when the tempo is vivo!

I found this song to be, for me, by far the most difficult in the cycle, mainly because of the timing. The accompaniment gives the singer no cues (or at least very few), due to the syncopation. Coming in at the right time after the piano prelude and interludes was also challenging at first. I eventually had to trust that, after much sustained practice, it would

127 all come together; which, thankfully, it eventually did. If there was ever a case of the music needing to be “in the body”, this song is certainly it. I found I couldn‟t count in my entries; I just had to “feel” them in. This song certainly developed, among other things, trust in myself as a musician and as a performer.

Needing to sing so fast, and not being a native Spanish speaker, I found articulating the language in the learning phase, was at first a challenge. All the runs must be clear and very smooth. The first Ay! consists of grace notes, sustained notes and runs, and is marked intenso. This section must be strong, but not forced. The last Ay! begins on an F, ending on an E (both notes accented). It is marked forte, and molto crescendo until the end; the last final cry of pain.

No quiero tus avellanas (Gifts of hazelnuts)

This exquisite song was written by Jesús Guridi (1886-1961) in 1943. It is the fourth song in the cycle entitled Seis canciones Castellanas (Six Castillian Songs), Guridi‟s arrangements of folk songs from his native Basque homeland.

Guridi is little known outside of Spain. He mostly concentrated on Basque themes, and wrote some very popular zarzuelas, such as Mirentxu (1910), Amaya (1920), El Caserui (1921) and La meiga (1928); and later works such as Diez melodías vascas (Ten Basque Songs 1941) and the Cuartete (1946). In the last years of his life he emerged from local themes, with his Homenaje a Walt Disney (1956).

By the time of his death, Guridi had become virtually the Basque national composer.

128 This song tells of deep disappointment in love. The woman does not wish to accept gifts of hazelnuts or gillyflowers, as she has been hurt, rejected and betrayed; the words of love spoken to her had been false and empty. His promises to her had been broken.

I consider the whole of this song cycle of Guridi to be magnificent. I chose this particular song as it has long been a favourite; it provided an ideal contrast to the Falla cycle, and also to the Granados aria following it (the melancholy of the themes of both these songs, however, placed them ideally together).

The expression marking at the beginning of the song is molto calmo e misterios (with von espress e semplice as the voice enters), making beautiful legato phrasing of utmost importance. The whole performance must be very smooth and unrushed, although with enough movement in the tempo for the song to have life and energy.

I had to ensure that the energy in the voice kept moving ahead, and avoided making the diminuendo sections at the end of most phrases too sudden. They must be performed with delicacy and finesse. Of course, strong support and breath control were, once again, paramount, especially in the last phrase, with the diminuendo fading to pianissimo.

All tempo changes must be faithfully observed, as each one is most important for the interpretation to be conveyed sensitively. There must be an added urgency in the più intenso of the final two phrases.

La maja y el ruiseñor (The maja and the nightingale)

This popular aria was written by Enrique Granados (1867-1916), a Catalan composer and pianist. Granados maintained a high profile as a pianist throughout his career, and

129 through his compositions, made modern Spanish music known to the rest of Europe. This aria is probably the most well known of all the music in the opera Goyescas.

Granados developed a personal romantic style, which was until his time, largely unknown in Spain. He had an expressive, lyrical style, influenced by Chopin, Schumann, Schubert and Grieg.

Granados first wrote Goyescas as a suite of six piano pieces, first performed in 1912 in Madrid. This work was inspired by Goya‟s eighteenth century idealistic paintings and tapestries, which portrayed the colourful aristocratic figures, the majos and majas of the day. He had seen these works in the Prado in Madrid. Granados had such admiration for the paintings of Goya, that he had a number of pen and ink sketches of himself as a majo.

Encouraged by the success of Goyescas, Granados was persuaded by his friend Ernest Schelling to adapt it as a basis for an opera (originally entitled Goyesca). Granados engaged Fernando Periquet (1873-1940, his old collaborator on the texts for the songs in Tonadillas) to write the libretto.

Goyescas was to have premiered in Paris in 1915, but due to the outbreak of the First World War, this was not possible, and it finally opened at New York Metropolitan Opera on 26 January 1916.

On their way home to Spain two months after the success of the New York premiere of Goyescas, Granados and his wife Amparo were tragically killed when their ship the Sussex was torpedoed, on the final leg of their journey, crossing the English Channel.

Granados was an important influence on at least two other composers and musicians; Manuel de Falla and Pablo Casals.

130 La maja y el ruiseñor expresses intense sadness, longing and desire. The young woman, the maja, asks the nightingale why she (the young woman assumes the nightingale is female) pours out her soul in her amorous song. The maja ponders the theme of the nightingale‟s song; is it to express a grievance, or to avenge a wrong? Perhaps she holds within her a dark, hidden grief. The young woman believes that this mystic, passionate song is the sad tale of love. The maja, like the nightingale, expresses the melancholy song of love.

This aria demands strong vocal and physical strength, as well as the ability to express the depth of the emotion. The singer requires strong support. This aria cannot be sung without it. The long, languishing phrases demand that breath is skilfully (and comfortably) controlled at all times. The singing must sound effortless, and the technique so well in place, that in performance the singer can be free to feel and thus to successfully express the emotion of the character.

I had to concentrate, as well as those aspects already mentioned, on keeping plenty of space around the sound at all times, to assist the intonation. Particular trouble spots for pitch when first beginning the study of this aria were the phrase templorosa del pudor de amar and the G beginning the final phrase, Oh ruiseñor! (which also has to be sung adagio and piano).

There is great variety of mood in this aria, all of which must be artistically expressed, from the andante melancolio of the opening section to the intense emotional outburst of Ah! son los amores como flor a merced de la mar, and the expressive yearning of Amor! Amor!

131 Zarzuela

Zarzuela is Spanish musical theatre, a mixture of sung and spoken dialogue. Its origins were in the court entertainments in the 1650s at the Palacio Real de la Zarzuela (that is, “little bramble bush”), a hunting lodge outside Madrid.

In the early eighteenth century, the zarzuelas entered the public theatres. Just as the zarza is a common form of vegetation, the zarzuelas used mostly common forms of music. The zarzuelas were replaced in the 1770s by newer, shorter, more comic forms, notably the tonadilla (intermezzo).

The Teatro de la Zarzuela opened in Madrid in 1856, and staged works of popular composers, including Joaquín Gaztambide, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri and Pascual Emilio Arrieta. These patriotic composers, along with writers of the time, led the revival of the zarzuela. Librettos (though often based on French originals) were rich in Spanish idioms and popular jargon. The basic structure of the nineteenth century zarzuela consisted of dialogue scenes, songs, choruses, and comic scenes performed by two actor-singers.

In the 1860s the influence of French operetta began to infiltrate into Spain (with Viennese operetta following at the beginning of the twentieth century). A new type of one-act zarzuela, the more populist género chico (“little genre”), emerged. The three-act zarzuela, lasting up to four hours, was called the género grande (“grand genre”).

Many of the greatest zarzuelas were written in the 1880s and 1890s, but the form continued to adapt to new theatrical influences until well into the twentieth century. With the onset of the Spanish Civil War, the zarzuela form declined, and the last romantic zarzuelas were written in the 1950s.

132 From 1950, the zarzuela was revived due to the advent of the LP recording, featuring the best voices of the day, such as Teresa Berganza, Victoria de los Angeles, Plácido Domingo and Alfredo Kraus.

Since the death of Francisco Franco, the zarzuela started to become popular with many people outside the Hispanic world.

Cancíon de la Paloma (Paloma‟s song)

This popular song is probably the best known in the zarzuela El Barberillo de Lavapiés (The Little Barber of Lavapiés) by Francisco Barbieri (1823-1894), written in 1874. The libretto is by Luis Mariano de Larra (1830-1901). This zarzuela is considered by many to be one of the greatest zarzuela grande of the nineteenth century, a classic work of the Golden Age of the zarzuela. The story is set within the 1770 political upheaval in Madrid.

El Barberillo de Lavapiés features spectacular and memorable chorus scenes and numerous patter songs. The most memorable moment occurs early in Act 1, with the entrance song of the dressmaker, the soubrette Paloma. This aria is a popular piece in the repertoire of many Spanish female singers.

Paloma says that she was born in the Street of the Dove, and still carries this name today. She is most like the dove in her vitality and her faithfulness. She hates to see the poor doves being stewed in the market place, and remarks, half seriously, half jokingly, that there are certain inconveniences in being a dove!

When it comes to cooing, she says, she is faithful to her name, and goes about cooing for a male dove, and wonders, where could he be?

133 This song is bright and joyful, just like the character of Paloma. It has a rollickingly joyous tempo and exuberance. It is vocally quite showy, and is a perfect end to a recital, or useful also as an encore.

The tempo, as already noted, is fast, and there are a number of runs and turns, requiring great fluidity and flexibility in the voice. To achieve this facility, the singer must start with slow, careful practice, and build the speed as proficiency and confidence develop.

Because of the rapid tempo, I found the articulation of the Spanish, especially in certain places, a challenge. To master this I spent a lot of time slowly saying the text in rhythm, and gradually building speed until it felt easy and natural. When I achieved this state, I found this song great fun to sing, and very freeing for the voice; it always provided me with a great vocal warm-up.

De España vengo (From Spain I come)

This popular song is from the zarzuela El niño judío (the Jewish Boy), composed in 1918 by Pablo Luna (1879-1942). The libretto is by Antonio Paso (1870-1958) and Enrique García Álvarez (1873-1931). Luna composed more than 170 stage works, including operettas and revues. He was one of the most successful exponents of the operetta style in the 1910s and 1920s (zarzuela composers of the time were influenced by the popularity of Léhar‟s operettas in Madrid).

The cancíon española, De España vengo, comes from Act 2, and is sung by the character Concha, who is in love with Samuel, the Jewish boy. In this song Concha extols the virtues of Spain, and of being a Spanish woman. In her eyes she brings the light of Spain;

134 and her beautiful face, she sings, tells the world, wherever she goes, that she comes from Spain.

The accompaniment mimics the guitar, which supposedly accompanies Concha as she sings. This is a song of pride in identity; it is a celebration of love of the character‟s homeland, and because of that, the inherent value of her place in the world.

This song, like the preceding, demands great vocal flexibility, and a technique grounded in strong support to the voice. It is essential to achieve this fluidity, in order to sing the song well, and to communicate the Spanish style and character of the music. Excellent breath control is, of course, essential.

Once again, I had to do lots of slow practice of the text alone (in rhythm), and (when first beginning study) the music, especially the runs and fast sections.

The change of character of the middle section, beginning Campana de la torre de maravillas, needs to be conveyed, contrasting with the exuberance of the first and final sections, where Concha tells of her burning passion in the dark eyes of the gypsy man who has rejected her (this sentiment seems not to be related to the plot at all). I had to be careful to keep the voice well supported here, and to watch the pitch on the repeated E on ojos.

The darker mood changes to triumphant and ebullient exclamation, as Concha once again affirms to the world that she is from Spain; she is Spanish! De España vengo. De Españga soy!

135 Conclusion to Recital 4

In this recital, I feel that the Rodrigo and Falla songs, and No quiero tus avallanas by Guridi, featured my best singing. This was not evident to me during the recital, but later when I listened to the recording. I feel that these songs best brought out the natural warmth in the voice, and the technique in some way was more settled and secure. At times, however, I feel that the Spanish vowels could have been more open and pure.

Of the Rodrigo songs, I am most pleased with the singing of the first song, ¿Con qué la lavaré? The singing showed, I feel, a warm, even tone, good light and shade, and effective expression of the legato phrasing throughout the song. The atmosphere of the text was sensitively conveyed. It was certainly a confident and strong opening to the recital. In the singing of penada, the voice closed a little, showing that stronger support and deeper breath was needed at the start of the phrase.

In the second song, Vos me matásteis, the legato line was well done, I thought, however, the endings of a few phrases could have been sustained with a little more poise, for example at the end of cabello.

The final two Rodrigo songs generally showed good fluidity and clarity, and the voice usually met the challenge of flexibility quite well. In some instances there could have been stronger support and more space around the sound, particularly at the top. There also could have been a little more clarity in some notes of the fast runs in De los álamos vengo, madre.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with the singing of the Falla songs, considering the challenges that met me, particularly in Seguidilla murciana and Polo, when I first began to study them. Generally, I feel that I captured the Spanish essence of the music well, and the runs were mostly smooth and fluent. In fact, when I listened to the recording, I felt

136 that the singing of Seguidilla murciana featured some of the best singing of the cycle (astounding, I thought, as it needed to be performed at what at first felt like breakneck speed!), even though at times the Spanish could have been more clearly articulated.

The singing of Asturiana showed nice delicacy in bringing out the sorrow expressed in the text. I felt there was effective singing of the long, fluid legato phrases. In Jota I felt that at times, stronger support was needed in the middle of the voice on the sustained notes. This was also the case in Canción, for example, with madre needing greater depth of support.

The singing of Polo was generally quite effective. More strength was needed in the opening Ah!, which indicated to me that preparation before singing needed to be sooner and stronger, in order for the breath to last right through the very sustained vowels. In the singing of diré, the sound closed off a little at the end, indicating that the breath was not quite deep enough to sustain the sound effortlessly. The last note had, I am pleased to say, plenty of space around it, resulting in a clear, open, ringing tone; a great end to the cycle.

I am generally very pleased with the singing of No quiero tus avellanas. I feel that the music and text were sensitively expressed. There was good space at the top, with effective rise and fall of the voice. I believe that this music really suits my voice. In fact, I am keen to include some of the other Guridi songs in this cycle in my repertoire, particularly the wonderful number 6.

The singing of the dramatic and romantic La maja y el ruiseñor did not please me as well, even though it was expressively sung, and the runs were mostly clear and fluid. The crescendo on amour was very effective. More clarity, however, needed to be heard in the ascending notes of templorosa, which were, I feel, a little smudgy. Overall, the top notes needed more support and space. In the singing of Ah! no hay cantar, the voice was not in the centre of the note on the entry of Ah!, indicating that better preparation of support was

137 needed before coming in. The support must be in place before beginning to sing any phrase, but particularly one like this; so open, exposed, and at the top of the vocal range.

Perhaps there is some evidence of vocal tiredness here, in the singing of the upper registers of this demanding aria, especially after two song cycles. It made me think, upon hearing the recording, that it might have been wise to position this aria after the Rodrigo songs.

In the singing of the zarzuela repertoire, I was most pleased with the performance of Canción de la Paloma, which, I feel, showed good flexibility and clarity overall. The last note needed more preparation for the support (once again, showing me that support must be in place, deep within the body, before singing the note), and also more space. I would have liked a more resonant and spacious sound.

The final song, De España vengo, once again effectively conveyed the Spanish essence of the music in the flexibility of the voice and the general smoothness of the runs. The middle section provided a pleasing contrast and a good understanding of the text. There were times when there could have been stronger and deeper support, particularly in some of the top notes. They also needed more space around the sound, and a more open, fuller sound. At times the text could have been clearer in the fast sections. Even though I have greatly enjoyed singing this song, I do not think it suits my voice like the Rodrigo, Falla and Guridi songs.

Generally though, I feel that my voice is well suited to Spanish repertoire. The songs presented in this recital are but a few examples of the richness of Spanish music, which I am keen to explore further.

138 Conclusion to Love and Death

It has been a very valuable experience, in which I have grown as a musician and a performer, to have the opportunity to analyse my performances of these recitals. It has caused me to listen critically to each note and phrase, and to each word of text, evaluate what works well, and identify the areas in need of further development.

Occasional early inconsistencies in pitch were carefully attended to, resulting in overall improvement in intonation over the course of the four recitals. Mastery of the languages developed, with intense study of the texts, for meaning and correct pronunciation. Having met the challenges of four demanding solo recitals (and very gratifying to have performed a major song cycle in each one), I grew in confidence over the time and developed my vocal and general physical strength and endurance. Performing classical music is indeed a very physical art, which makes demands on the whole body.

My understanding of the repertoire of my four recitals has certainly deepened with the research, and the vocal and text preparation. It has been an immensely enriching experience to work with my excellent vocal coach, Maryleigh Hand, prepare the repertoire and work together as a team in the performances.

I have come to understand that my theme, love and death, may, at first, appear simple, but upon study and deeper analysis, find that it is much more astounding and complex. Love and death, as mentioned in the opening comments, is a universal theme, intimately meaningful for every human being, in the present, the past, and in the future. In my opinion, that is what makes the study of it so fascinating.

It has been immensely interesting to study not only the chosen works, but also the lives of the composers who created them. Within a theme such as love and death, it has been of great value to the understanding of each song - to glean some knowledge of the personal

139 issues confronting the composer when the work was written, or at least to achieve a glimpse into his personality and life situation.

It has also been of great benefit to place the music, including the texts, in the context of the times in which they were written, and the relationship of music to the other art forms, especially literature and painting. This study has provided an insight into the ways human beings express themselves creatively in the context of historical forces within their societies. It has been very interesting, also, to understand how music and the other arts were so interconnected, particularly in the Romantic period.

The theme of love and death is all-encompassing. It is life. The Romantics may have had fiercely passionate beliefs about the intimate relationship of love and death – death being the ultimate vehicle for the expression of love‟s desire (which to us in contemporary times might seem overly intense, exaggerated and melodramatic), but to experience the many varied of aspects of both is to be human and fully alive.

140 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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143

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144 Schumann, Irmgard Seefried, Irmgard Seefried & Erik Werba, Orfeo, 1995.

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145

APPENDIX

RECITAL PROGRAMS

146