Kelley O'Connor sings Neruda Songs on Atlanta CD

By -

Mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor - the California native who won international attention as Lorca in Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (and who stars on the Grammy-winning Deutsche Grammophon recording) - was the first to sing Peter Lieberson's multiple prize-winning Neruda Songs after the 2006 death of the late composer's wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. O'Connor has since performed the song cycle more than a dozen times on both sides of the Atlantic, and now her interpretation of the Neruda Songs will appear on a recording by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano, to be released June 28 on the orchestra's own label.

O'Connor was inspired by Hunt Lieberson's own disc of the Neruda Songs, of which she has said, "It's the most beautiful music I've ever heard. I have to sing this. I had an immediate connection." Since then, the Chicago Tribune has praised the young mezzo for bringing "a luster, sensitivity and grace of her own" to the Neruda Songs, while New York magazine extolled her for having "the visceral glimmer, excellent Spanish, and technique and tone to draw out the songs' surreal languor."

O'Connor was in Scotland performing the Neruda Songs when the composer passed away in April. She had worked closely with him before she first sang the songs, an experience she says was "life-changing." Read her blog tribute, All About Peter. Just before the release of her Neruda Songs CD, O'Connor will be at Lincoln Center in Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen with the New York Philharmonic in her first collaboration with Alan Gilbert (June 22-25).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more