Distinguished Concerts Artist Series PRESENTS Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall Monday, December 7, 2015 at 8:00 pm Deborah Popham SOPRANO WITH BEN HARRIS ON PIANO FEATURING MUSIC OF: Respighi Rachmaninoff Barber and others DISTINGUISHED CONCERTS INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK Iris Derke, Co-Founder and General Director Jonathan Griffith, Co-Founder and Artistic Director 250 W. 57th St., Suite 1610, New York, NY 10107 (212) 707-8566 | [email protected] Dates, repertoire, and artists subject to change. @DCINY | #DeborahPopham Monday, December 7, 2015 at 8:00 PM Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) Iris Derke, Co-Founder and General Director Jonathan Griffith, Co-Founder and Artistic Director Presents DISTINGUISHED CONCERTS ARTIST SERIES DEBORAH POPHAM SOPRANO Featuring Ben Harris on Piano Program Music by Reynaldo Hahn: À Chloris Quand je fus pris au pavilion L’Énamourée Dans la nuit Music by Ottorino Respighi; Text by Antonio Rubino: Deità silvane, P. 107 I. I fauni II. Musica in horto III. Egle IV. Acqua Music by Sergei Rachmaninov: Ne poj krasavica, pri mne, Op. 4, No. 4 (Text by Alexander Pushkin) Na smert’ chizhika, Op. 21, No. 8 (Text by Vasily Zhukovsky) Vesenniye vodi, Op. 14, No. 11 (Text by Fyodor Tioutchev) Music by Ben Moore: So Free am I I. Mutta (Text by Indian Buddhist nuns, trans. by Uma Chakravarti and Kumkum Roy) II. Interlude (Text by Amy Lowell) III. Orinda Upon Little Hector Philips (Text by Katherine Philips) IV. Nervous Prostration (Text by Anna Wickham) VI. The Poem as Mask: Orpheus (Text by Muriel Rukeyser) VII. Mettika (Text by Indian Buddhist nuns, trans. by Uma Chakravarti and Kumkum Roy) Music by Richard Hundley: Sweet Suffolk Owl (Text is Anon. 1619) Music by Samuel Barber: The Monk and His Cat, Op. 29, No. 8 (Text is Anon. 8th or 9th Century, translated by W.H. Auden) Music by Irving Fine: The Frog and the Snake (Text by Gertrude Norman) Music by Lee Hoiby: The Serpent (Text by Theodore Roethke) Program Notes Music by Reynaldo Hahn: À Chloris Quand je fus pris au pavilion L’Énamourée Dans la nuit Reynaldo Hahn was a truly international man. He was born the youngest of twelve children. His mother was of Spanish descent and his father was German, but he was born in Venezuela and moved to Paris at the age of four. He began studies at the Paris Conservatoire in 1885, where he had Massenet as a teacher and became acquainted with Maurice Ravel. His music fell out of fashion after his death, but since the 1970s, his music, especially his mélodies À Chloris To Chloris (Text by Théophile de Viau) If it be true, Chloris, that you love me, S’il est vrai, Chloris, que tu m’aimes, (And I understand that you do love me (Mais j’entends, que tu m’aimes well), I do not believe that even kings bien,) Je ne crois pas que les rois could know such happiness as mine. même Aient un bonheur pareil au How unwelcome death would be, If mien, Que la mort serait importune it came to exchange my fortune With A venir changer ma fortune Pour la the joy of heaven! All that they say of félicité des cieux! Tout ce qu’on dit ambrosia does not fire my imagination de l’ambroise Ne touche point ma like the favor of thine eyes. fantaisie Au prix des grâces de tes yeux. Quand je fus pris au pavillon When I was caught in the (Text by d’Orleans) pavilion Quand je fus pris au pavillon De When I was caught in the pavilion ma dame très gente et belle Je me of my lady most noble and brûlay à la chandelle Ainsi que fait beautiful, I burned myself in the le papillon. candle’s flame as does the butterfly. Je rougis comme vermillon A la I blushed crimson in the brightness clarté d’une étincelle Quand je fus of a spark, When I was caught in pris au pavillon De ma dame très the pavilion of my lady most noble gente et belle. and beautiful. Si j’eusse été esmerillon Où que If I had been a falcon or had strong j’eusse eu aussi bonne aile, Je me wings, I could have shielded fusse gardé de celle Qui me bailla myself from her who stung me de l’aiguillon Quand je fus pris au with the dart when I was caught in pavillon! the pavilion. L’Énamourée The Enamored One (Text by de Banville) If they say, my dove, that you are Ils se disent, ma colombe, Que tu still dead and dreaming beneath rêves morte encore, Sous la pierre the headstone, but for the soul d’une tombe; Mais pour l’âme qui which adores you, you awaken, t’adore, Tu t’éveilles, ranimée, O reanimated, oh thoughtful beloved! pensive bien aimée. Through the starry, sleepless Par les blanches nuit d’étoiles, nights, through the murmuring Dans la brise qui murmure, breeze, I caress your long veils. Je caresse tes longs voiles, Ta Your flowing hair and your half- mouvante chevelure, Et tes ailes closed wings which flutter among demicloses Qui voltigent sur les the roses. roses. Oh delights! I breathe in your O délices, je respire Tes divines divine, blonde tresses, your pure tresses blondes; Ta voix pure, cette voice, this lyre, moves on the lyre, Suit la vague sur les ondes. swell of the waters. And gently, Et, suave, les effleure, Comme un touches them like a swan which is cygne qui se pleure! weeping. Dans la nuit (Text by Moréas) In the Night Quand je viendrai m’asseoir When I come and sit in the wind, dans le vent, dans la nuit, Au bout in the night, On the edge of the du rocher solitaire, Quand je rocky cliff, When I no longer hear, n’entendrai plus, en t’écoutant, le listening to you, the sound My bruit Que fait mon coeur sur cette heart makes on this earth, Do not terre, Ne te contente pas, Océan, be satisfied, Ocean, to toss On my de jeter Sur mon visage un peu face a little foam! With the swipe d’écume! D’un coup de lame alors of a wave you must then carry il te faut m’emporter Pour dormer me away To sleep in your bitter dans ton amertume! depths! Music by Ottorino Respighi; Text by Antonio Rubino: Deità silvane, P. 107 I. I fauni II. Musica in horto III. Egle IV. Acqua V. Crepuscolo Italian composer Ottorino Respighi is best known for his series of orchestral pieces about Rome: Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome, and Roman Festivals. Deità silvane, or Woodland Deities, was composed in 1925 as a song cycle for soprano and small orchestra. In this cycle, characters from Greek mythology are given life through Respighi’s music. For example, in “Crepuscolo”, one will hear the flute of the Pan, the dancing of “Egle” (a beautiful Naiad, the daughter of Zeus and Neaera) in the moving figures of the piano, and the clashing cymbals in the secret garden in “Musica in horto.” This cycle celebrates an ancient world, full of color, emotion, and imagery. I fauni The fauns S’odono al monte i saltellanti One hears the bubbling streams in rivi murmureggiare per le forre the hills murmuring through the astruse: s’odono al bosco gemer secluded ravines, one hears the cornamuse con garrito di pifferi sighs of bagpipes in the woods, giulivi. E i fauni in corsa per and the chirping of the merry fifes. dumeti e clivi, erti le corna sulle And the fauns run in the thickets fronti ottuse, bevono per lornari and over hills their horns erect camuse filtri sottili e zefiri lascivi. over their broad foreheads, drink E, mentre in fondo al gran coro through their flattened nostrils fine alberato piange d’amore per la potions and lascivious winds. And vita bella la sampogna dell’arcade while beneath the great choir of pastore, contenta e paurosa trees they weep out of love for the dell’agguato fugge ogni ninfa più beautiful life, the bagpipes of the che fiera snella, ardendo in bocca Arcadian shepherd happy, and yet come ardente fiore. fearful of the hidden traps, every nymph flees, more agile than the wild beasts, whose lips burn like blazing flowers. Musica in horto Garden Music Uno squillo di cròtali clangenti A clash of ringing finger cymbals rompe in ritmo il silenzio dei rhythmically breaks the silence of roseti, mentre in fondo agli the rose gardens, meanwhile, at the aulenti orti segreti gorgheggia un end of the fragrant garden a flute flauto liquidi lamenti. La melodia warbles its liquid lamentation. The con tintinnio d’argenti par che melody, with the tinkling silver a vicenda s’attristi e s’allieti. bells, seems to alternate between ora luce di tremiti inquieti, or sadness and joy, now shining with diffondendo lunghe ombre dolente: an agitated, flickering light, now Cròtali arguti e canne variotocche! casting long, sorrowful shadows. Una gioia di cantici inespressi Ringing finger cymbals and merry per voi par che dai chuisi orti pipes! An inexpressible joy of rampolli, e in sommo dei rosai, hymns for you seems to rise from che cingon molli ghirlande al cuor the closed gardens, and at the top degli intimi recessi, s’apron le rose of the rose bushes, that weave soft come molli bocche. garlands through the heart of the deepest recesses, the roses open like soft mouths! Egle Aegle Frondeggia il bosco d’uberi The forest is heavy with fertile verzure, volgendo i rii zaffiro e vegetation the brooks are turning margherita: per gli archi verdi sapphire and white, through the un’anima romita cinge pallidi green arches, a lonely soul circles fuochi a ride oscure.