Here's the situation: Competition season is coming 'round again, including
those stupid competitions that make you sing repertoire that never
otherwise in 100 years would you perform. For me, that repertoire is art
song.
I'm one of those singers who has little/no interest in performing art
song (or, to be totally honest, even in listening to it). Thus, my
repertoire of same is pretty limited - mainly I've learned a handful of
art songs that I loved too much not to have learned. Trouble is, they are
all in English, Italian, or French except for:
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder - which may not, must not, cannot be excerpted
(Mahler was VERY explicit about this - no excerpting, no changing the
order of the songs within the cycle - and I frankly think it would be both
arrogant and ignorant of me to ignore his instructions in this regard).
Brahms: Op. 91 - which require viola or cello along with piano, so are
"out" in terms of competitions.
Grieg: Jeg elsker dig - possibly the shortest art song ever written,
although gorgeous and expressive.
So given the Mahler is out and the Brahms is out, and I am
constitutionally unprepared to spend any time learning a new Lied for this
competition (I did actually start working on Schubert's "Der Tod und
Maedchen" until I realised that, other than the low D at the end, this
song has very little to recommend it, and is a fine example of what I
dislike about singing in German), would the Grieg be an acceptable
alternative. It's Danish - which is not French, Italian, or English.
I know it's very short - but frankly my other pieces are rather ambitious
- "Give him this orchid" from Britten's RAPE OF LUCRETIA, "O don fatale"
from Verdi's DON CARLO, "D'amour l'ardente flamme" from Berlioz's LA
DAMNATION DE FAUST, and either "Iris hence away" from Handel's SEMELE, or
"But who may abide the day of His coming" from MESSIAH (I thought long and
hard about doing one of the Bach MAGNIFICAT arias, which would make my
fourth language Latin, but I'm honest enough to recognise that these are
not ideal pieces for me vocally).
On the other hand, if I were to take on a new piece at this point, I'd
much rather it be an oratorio aria that I might actually use some day -
and I have been learning the alto arias from the B MINOR MASS and from
Verdi's REQUIEM. But the latter is "out" for competition purposes because
- I didn't mention this - I also must have a piece from the Baroque, and
as much as I love it, "Cara sposa" from RINALDO is nine minutes long and I
cannot bring myself to start it in the middle, or cut the da capo - I just
HATE the very idea; it's one thing to excerpt the best 16 bars of a
musical theatre song for an audition; it's quite another to butcher the
most exquisite aria Handel ever wrote. (Do I feel too strongly about the
music I perform?)
So my inclination is to go with the Grieg - short and sweet as it is -
because I'll be showing off 10 ways from Sunday in my other pieces; the
very simplicity of the Grieg in contrast with my other selections may,
indeed, be the strongest argument for including in my competition package.
Plus it's a song I could sing after running the marathon - which I may
well be doing the vocal equivalent of if they ask for the Verdi, Britten,
AND Berlioz in succession.
The only other possibility I thought of was Tchaikovsky's "None but the
lonely heart", but frankly I think it will take me too long to get the
Russian diction together compared with the four lines of Danish I need for
the one-verse Grieg song.
Thoughts?
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
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