WALLIS GIUNTA In recital with Philip Mayers

UKARIA WALLIS GIUNTA Mezzo-Soprano

Irish-Canadian mezzo, Wallis Giunta, in Bernstein’s for has been named “Young Singer of , along with Cherubino, the Year” in the 2018 International Siebel (), Prince Orlofsky (Die Opera Awards, and the same year Fledermaus) and Der Gymnasiast () was also named both “Young Artist for Oper Leipzig, to her acclaimed of the Year” by The Arts Desk and cabaret role of Anna I in Weill’s The “Breakthrough Artist in UK Opera” in Seven Deadly Sins for the Real Orquesta the What’s On Stage Opera Awards. Sinfonica de Sevilla, the Toronto Wallis’s 2019/20 season includes her Symphony and the Oregon Festival. debuts with as Rossini’s In her young career so far, she has Cenerentola, with Boston Lyric Opera also performed at the Metropolitan as Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Opera (; ), with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as (), the Canadian Bradmante in Handel’s , and with Opera Company (Cosí fan tutte; La the Melk Baroque Festival as Purcell’s clemenza di Tito), Fort Worth Opera Dido, along with concert debuts for the (Le Nozze di Figaro), Teatro dell’ Opera London Philharmonia Orchestra and di Roma & Le Théâtre du Châtelet (I Esa-Pekka Salonen, singing Mahler’s was looking at the ceiling and then I saw Das Klagende Lied, and for the Royal the sky), the Brooklyn Academy (The Concertgebouw in recital. She will also Nightingale & Other Short Fables), and debut at the Adelaide Festival, reprising for L’Opéra de Montréal in concert. her role of Dodo in the acclaimed 2019 She has appeared as a soloist with Scottish Opera/Edinburgh Festival many symphony orchestras worldwide, production of Mazzoli’s Breaking the including the Tokyo Metropolitan, Waves, and will return in the same role Munich Radio, Stuttgart Festival, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Hamburg, Edmonton, Taipei, the Orchestra and National Arts Centre, and Nürnberg. Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Wallis is the grateful recipient of the Highlights of Wallis’s last season 2016 Bernard Diamant Prize from the were her BBC Proms Festival debut Canada Council for the Arts, the 2013 in a solo recital celebrating Leonard Novick Career Advancement Grant, the Bernstein, debuting with the Grange 2013 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Festival as Cherubino at The Barbican, Career Development Award, and with the MDR Symphony as Haydn’s multiple prizes from the George London Berenice, and with the Royal Opera Foundation. Wallis is a 2013 graduate House Muscat in La Traviata. She also of both the Metropolitan Opera debuted the title roles in Carmen and Lindemann Young Artist Development , along with Rossini’s Program & the ’s Artist Rosina for Oper Leipzig, and Idamante Diploma in Opera Studies, and a in Mozart’s for Opera Atelier. 2011 graduate of the Canadian Opera Other recent highlights range from her Company Ensemble Studio. award-winning performances in the UK as Rossini’s Cenerentola, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortiléges, and Dinah The Program

GRIFFIN You, my longing, that agitates my His pains breast – Mary Are gently eased, When will you rest, when will you sleep? Silence the treetops! My child is sleeping. BARBER The winds and the birds whisper, Fierce cold Hermit Songs But when will you, yearning desires, slumber? Blows down on us, 1. St Ita Ah! when my spirit no longer hastens With what shall I cover PHILIP MAYERS 2. Crucifixion On wings of dreams into golden My little child’s limbs? Pianist distances, O all you angels, When my eyes no longer dwell PONCHIELLI yearningly Who wing your way Philip Mayers graduated with distinction from La Gioconda On eternally remote stars; On the winds, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Silence the tree-tops! where he studied piano with Max Olding. After Voce di Donna Then shall the winds, the birds winning the piano prize in the national concerto whisper My child is sleeping. competition “Young Performer of the Year” he O voice of woman or angel My life – and my longing – to sleep. went abroad with the assistance of study grants Who has freed me of my chains, from the Australia Council to study with Phillip FLEMING My blindness forbids me BRAHMS Moll in Berlin and Zelma Bodzin in New York. Confession Stone (Songs of Mary) The sight of your saintly face. Op 91 He is now based in Berlin, enjoying an enviable 1. O my boy: Jesus my first and only Still you cannot leave me Geistliches Wiegenlied reputation as pianist, associate artist, vocal son coach, composer and arranger (both in serious Without a pious offering. You who hover 2. Don’t pay attention to the old men and popular music), song-text translator and I offer you this rosary, emcee. Around these palms in the temple Pray, accept it. In night and wind, 3. Jesus, did you know that Lazarus is He has appeared at major festivals such as With my prayers added Schleswig-Holstein, Montreux, Aldeburgh, You holy angels, back? It will bring you luck. La Roque d’Anthéron, the Berliner Festspiele, Silence the tree-tops! 4. There’s a supper in Jerusalem New York “White Light” Festival, the London May my benediction tonight Proms, and even, with his ensemble “Blue My child is sleeping. Be on your head. 5. Cold and icy in my bed Noise”, the Spring Festival in Pyongyang. You palms of Bethlehem

Numerous radio and CD recordings attest to In the raging wind, 6. Bring me those needles, Martha his versatility, including prize-winning discs Why do you bluster 7. Everything is black, air, water, sun, BRAHMS with Cappella Amsterdam, RIAS-Kammerchor moon, all light, dirt is black So angrily today! and the Rundfunkchor Berlin. He has been Op 91 engaged as Musical Director for, among O roar not so! 8. O my boy: Jesus my first and only Gestillte Sehnsucht son others, the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, Be still, lean the Schwetzingen Festspiele, and the Berliner Bathed in golden evening light, Calmly and gently over us; Kammeroper, for whom he also wrote his first opera Trieste. Recent commissions have included How solemnly the forests stand! Silence the tree-tops! music for the silent film La passion de Jeanne The evening winds mingle softly My child is sleeping. d’arc and the long-running children’s musical With the soft voices of the birds. The heavenly babe Rumpelstilz! at the Staatstheater Klagenfurt. What do the winds, the birds whisper? Suffers distress, Philip is regularly a guest coach at the Lisa They whisper the world to sleep. Oh, how weary He has grown Gasteen National Opera School, and recently With the sorrows of this world. appeared as the Majordomo in their production But you, my desires, ever stirring of Ariadne auf Naxos, conducted by Simone In my heart without respite! Ah, now that in sleep Young. Intermission

MITCHELL SCHUMANN SCHUMANN Little Green Frauenliebe Frauenliebe Süßer freund An meinem herzen

MONTSALVATGE Sweet friend, you look On my heart, at my breast, Cinco Canciones At me in wonder, You my delight, my joy! Canción de cuna You cannot understand Happiness is love, love is happiness,

Lullay, lullay, lullay, How I can weep; I’ve always said and say so still. tiny little child, Let the unfamiliar beauty I thought myself rapturous, little black boy, Of these moist pearls But now am delirious with joy. who won’t go to sleep. Tremble joyfully bright Only she who suckles, only she who loves Head like a coconut, In my eyes! The child that she nourishes; head like a coffee bean, How anxious my heart is, Only a mother knows with pretty freckles How full of bliss! What it means to love and be happy. and wide eyes If only I knew Ah, how I pity the man like two windows How to say it in words; Who cannot feel a mother’s bliss! looking out to sea. Come and hide your face You dear, dear angel, you, Close your tiny eyes, Here against my breast, You look at me and you smile! frightened little boy, For me to whisper you On my heart, at my breast, or the white devil All my joy. You my delight, my joy! will eat you up. Do you now understand the tears That I can weep, You’re no longer a slave! DE FALLA And if you sleep soundly, Should you not see them, Siete Canciones Beloved husband? the master of the house Nana promises to buy Stay by my heart, Feel how it beats, a suit with buttons Sleep, little one, sleep, That I may press you to make you a ‘groom’. sleep, my darling, Closer and closer. Lullay, lullay, lullay, sleep, my little Here by my bed sleep, little black boy, morning star. There is room for the cradle, head like a coconut, Lullay, lullay, Silently hiding head like a coffee bean. sleep, my little My blissful dream; morning star. The morning shall come BRITTEN When the dream awakens, FLAHERTY Charm of Lullabies And your likeness Ragtime 1. Sephestia’s Lullaby Laughs up at me. Your Daddy’s Son 2. A Charm SONDHEIM Into the Woods Stay with me/Witch’s Lament/Children will Listen Acknowledgements

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Images of Wallis Giunta by Kirsten Nijhof Image of Philip Mayers by Dagmar Morath Brochure design by Jennifer Brunton Translations by Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005) Jacqueline Cockburn and Richard Stokes published in The Spanish Song Companion (Gollancz, 1992) *All information correct at time of printing.