On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, Jennifer wrote:
> I'm planning on doing an "aspects of love" theme -
> exploring things like wanting to be in love, falling
> in love, falling out of love, losing a loved one,
> feelings about being in love, etc. I'm a full lyric
> soprano with a good high C, a decent middle and lower
> range (but I prefer not to hang out there for extended
> periods of time) and a fair amount of flexibility
> (although I'm definitely not a coloratura). Since the
> audiences I'll be targeting include people who aren't
> overly familiar with opera, I'd like to do arias or
> art songs that have nice melodies or have some other
> appeal (strong emotion, for example). Nothing atonal
> :o). I wouldn't mind doing one or two lesser known
> arias/songs, but the majority should be fairly
> familiar.
And you must, of course, include a song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's ASPECTS
OF LOVE. :) Actually, "Love Changes Everything" might not be a bad song
to include, given your theme.
If you are willing to consider some "legit" popular stuff, the song that
immediately leapt to mind (after the Lloyd Webber) is Rogers & Hart's
"Falling in Love with Love". It would surely be a song familiar to many
people even if they don't know opera or art song. Another possibility is
"If love were all" from Noel Coward's operetta BITTERSWEET - again,
lyrically it fits in very nicely with your theme, and is also written for
a legit soprano/mezzo. I love the lyric: "Hey ho - if love were all, I
would be lonely/I believe that since my life began/The most I've had is
just/A talent to amuse..." Actually, Noel Coward is a wonderful source
for songs about love - his "Mad about the boy" is a great torch song about
the agonies of the wrong woman falling for the wrong man.
Then, there's Victor Herbert's "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" from NAUGHTY
MARIETTA, in which the singer discovers the glorious feelings that love
causes (seemingly for the very first time).
Some classical possibilities:
Amy Beach: Ah love, but a day (from her 3 Browning Songs; about the
mixture of hope, desperation and fear of unknown future that love can
bring; a song on a similar theme is John Dowland's "Dear, if you change";
a third, on the uncertainty of love, is Faure's "J'ai presque peur, en
verite", from LA BONNE CHANSON, op. 61 #5)
George Butterworth: When I was one and twenty (from his Songs from 'A
Shropshire Lad'; about growing up to understand love better)
Peter Warlock: Late Summer (about the enduring love of an elderly couple;
on a similar theme, Robert Schumann's "Familiegemaelde", which has two
different generations looking at each other - the young couple thinking of
how it will be to be an old, devoted couple in the future, and the old
couple looking at the young one and reminiscing about their love in youth)
William Lawes: He that will not love (about how miserable love is, and how
it just ain't worth it)
Henry Purcell: Love quickly is pall'd, Z.632 (from TIMON OF ATHENS, #11;
on how liquor is better than love, and why)
Aaron Copland: Heart, we will forget him (from 12 POEMS OF EMILY
DICKINSON; about forgetting an ex-lover; also set by John Duke)
Sir Lennox Berkeley: If, Lord, Thy love for me is strong (from FOUR POEMS
OF ST. TERESA OF AVILA, #1; on Divine love; another on this theme is Hugo
Wolf's "Neue Liebe" from his MOERIKE-LIEDER, #30)
Erik Satie: Chanson du chat (from LUDIONS, #5 - about love for one's cat -
very silly!)
Charles Gounod: O ma belle rebelle! (about unrequited passion; another on
unrequited love is Tchaikovsky's "Kaby znala ja [If only I had known] op.
47 #1)
Sergei Rachmaninoff: "Ja opjat' odinok [I'm alone again]", op. 26 #9;
interesting song about how a lover about to leave gets affectionate again
in anticipation of parting)
Maude Valerie White: The devout lover (about sacred love)
Johannes Brahms: Treue Liebe, op. 7 #1 (about dying for love; another
song on this theme is Donizetti's "Depuis qu'une autre a su te plaire -
#3 from his SEI ARIE, and a third is Sir Hubert Parry's "Lay a Garland on
my Hearse", also set by Peter Warlock as "A Sad Song", #2 in his first set
of PETERISMS)
Johannes Brahms: Guter Rat, op. 75 #2 (about parents getting in the way of
their children's true love)
Henry Purcell: In vain we dissemble, Z.385 (about all the games lovers
play to make the world - and each other - think they're not actually in
love)
Edward Elgar: After, op. 31 #1 (about the seeming briefness of the shared
life of lovers/spouses)
Camille Saint-Saens: Suzette et Suzon (about loving two women at once;
another Saint-Saens song on this theme is his later "Grasselette et
maigrelette")
Richard Straus: Glueckes genug, op. 37 #1 (the simple joys of romantic
love; also set by Max Reger as his op. 37 #3)
Enrique Granados: La maja dolorosa #2 (from Coleccion de tonadillas #10;
about a woman mourning her dead lover; another song on this theme is "Sur
les lagunes" #4 from Berlioz's LES NUITS D'ETE - also set by Offenbach as
"Ma belle amie est mort, in his LES VOIX MYSTERES; by Faure as "Chanson
de Pecheur [Lamento] op. 4 #1, and by Gounod as "Lamento - La chanson de
pecheur"; yet another is Rachmaninoff's "Ne mozhet byt' [It's impossible]"
op. 34 #7)
Hector Berlioz: Absence (#5 from LES NUITS D'ETE, about the pain of
separation between lovers; another lighthearted song on a similar theme is
"Air de la letter" by Reynaldo Hahn, from his MOZART Act 2; another good
one that is quite well known is Tchaikovsky's "Net, tol'ko tot, kto znal
svidan'ja [None but the lonely heart], also set by Schubert as "Nur wer
die Sehnsucht kennt" and "Sehnsucht" in numerous different settings, and
by Beethoven as "Sehnsucht" in 4 different setting; set also by Wolf as
"Mignon II" in his GOETHE-LIEDER, and by Schumman as op. 98a #3, by
Nikolai Medtner as #4 of his 6 GEDICHTE VON GOETHE, op. 18, and by Fanny
Mendelssohn-Hensel as her "Mignon")
Franz Schubert: Die erste Liebe, D.182 (about the feelings of first love)
Franz Schubert: Libesrausch, D.179 (about almost overwhelming
emotions/sensations brought about by being in love;
similar is "Freudvoll und leidvoll" by Beethoven, op. 84 #2, which was
also set by Schubert as "Liebe" D.210 and by Liszt as "Freudvoll und
Leidvoll"; another, from a woman's point of view, is Dargomyzhsky's "Ja
vsjo jeschchjo jego ljublju [I still love him]")
Charles Koechlin: Mon reve familier, op 22 #3 (about a dream-lover)
Robert Schumann: Muttertraum, op 40 #2 (about motherly love - but with a
macabre twist)
Robert Schumann: Der Page, op. 30 #2 (about Courtly Love, a la the
medieval Cours d'amour)
Hugo Wolf: Lied eines Verlibten (from MOERICKE-LIEDER, #3; about a young
man's frustrations with being unable to act as he wants to in response to
being in love)
Franz Schubert: Du liebst mich nicht D.756b, op. 59 #1 (about the miseries
of NOT being loved by the object of one's affection)
Kirke Mechem: Fair Robin I Love (from FROM AN ABSENT LOVE, #3; about two
fickle lovers who seem to quite deserve each other)
Thomas Brewer: On Inconstancy (about a lover who just can't be consistent)
Peter Warlock: The Droll Lover (about loving [and deserving] someone for
their less-than-desirable traits...)
Michael Head: Love not me for comely grace (...or for no reason at all)
Vincenzo Bellini: Ricordanza (from QUATTRO SONETTI; about the night when
their love was first [carnally] requited)
Maude Valerie White: Farewell if... ("breaking up is hard to do", Byron
style; also set by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel as "Farewell")
Rutland Boughton: "The little boy lost", op. 34a (from SIX UNISON SONGS,
#4; about the grim fate of a child who confessed an inability to accept of
Christ's exhortation to 'Love thy neighbour as thyself')
William Lawes (attrib.): Lady Bothwell's Lament (about a young mother
abandoned - at least emotionally - by her errant husband; on a similar
theme - the agony of abandonment by one's lover - Donizetti's "Il mio ben
m'abbandono", #5 from his SEI ARIE)
Hugo Wolf: Rat einer Alten (from Moerike-Lieder #41, the advice of an old
woman to a young one about how to behave with her lover)
Henry Purcell: Man is for the woman made, Z.605 #3 (from DELICIAE MUSICAE
Vol. III; about how men and women suit each other perfectly)
Paolo Tosti: NON T'AMO PIU - a cycle of two songs (about falling out of
love)
An aria possibility:
"Voi lo sapete" from Pietro Mascagni's CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA (about
betrayal by one's lover)
Lots and lots more out there, but I'm frankly getting tired of thinking
this hard.
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
***************************************
Verdi and Wagner delighted the crowds
With their highly original sound.
The pianos they played are still working,
But they're both six feet underground.
- Michael Palin
|
