Evening Concert Series
2023 – 2024 Season
Sara M. Snell Music Theater Tuesday, March 5th at 7:30 PM
Steven Groth, baritone
Risa Okina, piano
Come un’ape ne’giorni d’aprile
La Cenerentola
Selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
DesAntonius von Padua Fischpredigt
Lob des hohen Verstandes
Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?
Three VerdiArt Songs
Non t’accostare all’urna
La seduzione
L’esule
La Nuit
I. Paisible et solitaire nuit
II. Lugubre courrier du destin
Intermission
III. Tous ces vents qui soufflaient si fort
Gioachino Rossini (1792 – 1868)
Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911)
Giusseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Jacques Leguerney (1906 – 1997)
Five Mystical Songs
1. Easter
2. I Got Me Flowers
3. Love Bade Me Welcome
4. The Call
5.Antiphon
Ralph Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958)
Choir
Soprano: Camila Arias, Alyssa Bonfardeci, Kenzie Caccamo, Sarah Faragon
Mezzo-Soprano: Sarah Westcott, Rebecca Gatto, Antoinette Parisi, Nicolette Filiberto
Tenor: John Calandra, Eddie Hayes, Ian Porteus
Bass: Daniel Emmons, Jimmy Quagliaroli, Kameron Karim, Liam Van Buren, Jacob Frenyea
The Impossible Dream Man of La Mancha
Program Notes and Translations :
Mitch Leigh (1928-2014)
Come un’ape ne’ giorni d’aprile – Rossini’s 1817 retelling of the classic Cinderella fairy-tale features many of the characters beloved from Charles Perrault’s classic fairytale. In La Cenerentola, the besmirched and often overlooked Angelina (Cinderella) rises from her servitude to marry Prince Ramiro and extols the virtues of kindness, goodness, and forgiveness towards her step-father and step-sisters. In this aria, the servant Dandini has assumed the image of Prince Ramiro to introduce himself to the run-down house of Don Magnifico and his two eligible daughters, Clorinda and Thisbe. Dandini, a life-long servant to Prince Ramiro, takes full advantage of this opportunity to be as ostentatiously aristocratic as possible throughout this piece. Never to be outdone, however, the stepsisters try out their “charms” to impress the newly-arrived prince, leading Dandini to seek ways to keep them at arms-length. The aria ends with Dandini telling the audience, “But at the end of this comedy, a tragedy will be born,” foreshadowing the unpleasant reality that shall befall the obnoxious stepsisters and the joyous ending for the heroine, Cenerentola.
Translation:
Like a bee that in April days flies lightly and joyful runs to the lily, then jumps to the rose looking for a sweet flower I stay in the beauty and I look and i've seen so many but i can't make a decision, nor find a person who's an exquisite prey for my taste.
Please, those cast down eyes make me lose my reason and trapped in the shots of a double cannon I feel that I'm giving in.
Charming! Pretty! They're just like their dad!*
But at the end of our comedy, what a tragedy will be born!
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
The creation of Des Knaben Wunderhorn was the brainchild of romantic era poets Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano who devised a three-volume book of completely fabricated “old German folk-songs.” Mahler chose to orchestrate fourteen of these texts over a decade-long period. Mahler’s approach to text setting deviated massively from his contemporaries, as he regularly rewrote entire passages, exchanged words, and re-ordered stanzas to suit his will. He described these new compositions as “Humoresques for the voice, with orchestral accompaniment.” Regardless of pianistic or orchestral accompaniment, Mahler saw these works as chamber pieces; fantastical folk poems brought to life through music and a communicative performance of the fantastical texts
St. Anthony’s Sermon to the Fishes
Saint Anthony arrives for his sermon
Good eels and sturgeons and finds the church deserted. The distinguished feast He goes to the rivers make themselves comfortable
To preach to the fish.
They flick their tails
Glistening in the sunshine.
The carp with roe
To hear the sermon
Also crabs and turtles
Usually so slow
Rise from the bottom
To hear this voice. have come here to the shoals, with mouths all open,
No sermon has ever listening in wonder.
Pleased the crabs so.
No sermon has ever
Big fish and little fish, pleased the fish, so.
And the pike, so sharp-mouthed
Noble fish and common fish
All raise their heads
like intelligent creatures that always are fighting
Have arrived, swimming hurriedly
To hear the holy man’s reading
Also each fantastic creature,
Always fasting -
The stockfish, I mean -
At God’s behest
they listen to the sermon
The sermon has ended
Each that attended turns around
The pikes stay thieves arrived for the sermon;
No sermon has ever
Pleased the pike so.
The eels, great lovers.
The crabs walk backwards, the stockfish stay round
The carps still stuff themselves, the sermon is forgotten!
The sermon has pleased them, But they remain the same as before.
Lob des hohen Verstands – In praise of higher understanding
Once in a deep valley,
The cuckoo and the nightingale had a contest:
To sing the Masterpiece.
To win by art or to win by luck, fame would the victor gain.
The cuckoo said: "If it pleases you, I will nominate the judge."
And he named the donkey right away.
"Since he has two huge ears, He can hear so much better And will know what is correct."
They soon flew before the judge
And when the issue was explained to him, he told them they should sing.
The nightingale sang out sweetly!
The donkey said: You make me cringe! You make me cringe! Eee-yah! I can't get it into my head!
The cuckoo then quickly started his song through thirds and fourths and fifths; The donkey found it pleasing, and only said “Wait! Wait! Wait! I will pronounce judgement now. Well have you sung, Nightingale!
But, Cuckoo, you sing a good chorale!’
And you keep the rhythm finely and internally!
Thus I say according to my sublime understanding, And, although it may cost an entire land, I will let you win!”
Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? – Who thought up this little song?
Up there on the mountain, in a high-up house, a lovely, darling girl looks out of the window. It is not her home up there: she is the daughter of the innkeeper, and she lives in the green meadow.
"My heart is sore! Come, my treasure, make it well again! Your dark brown eyes have wounded me.
Your rosy mouth makes hearts healthy. It makes youth wise, brings the dead to life, gives health to the ill."
Who has thought up this pretty little song then?
It was brought over the water by three geesetwo grey and one whiteand if you cannot sing the little song, they will whistle it for you!
Three Verdi Art Songs
Giuseppe Verdi, widely known for his operatic masterpieces, began his compositional career with the publication of six art songs from Sei Romanze. Verdi’s flair for the dramatic and romantic stylings are on full display in the introductions and interludes of these early art songs, as is his tendency to highlight the voice through simple harmonic accompaniments. The voice is solely responsible for delivering the text and emotional content of the singers. Verdi’s command of multi-sectional song forms is on full display in each of the works on tonight’s recital, “L’esule” representing a full scene and aria. Each of these works, created in the first three years of Verdi’s compositional output, foreshadows many of the harmonic and dramatic musical devices that are later found in his operatic compositions.
Non t’accostare all’urna – Do Not Approach the Urn
Do not approach the urn
Which contains my bones;
This compassionate earth
Is sacred to my sorrow
I refuse your flowers,
I do not want your weeping;
What use to the dead
Cruel one! You should have come
To help me
When my life was ebbing away
In slight and suffering.
With what futile weeping
do you assail the woods?
Respect a sad shade, Are a few tears and a few flowers? And let it sleep.
La seduzione – The Seduction
She was as beautiful as an angel in heaven
Doomed to shade and scorn, And as innocent as a budding flower. She groaned for nine months When the cruel one aroused
Then consumed by grief, The first stirrings of love in her heart. She begged pardon for her disloyal lover and died.
Inexperienced and trusting,
She was seduced and betrayed
And the fruit of the vile betrayal
Was laid in the grave soon after And pleaded in vain
But there no cross or cypress stood, For a wedding ring.
No stone bearing her name.
Look! The white moon shines on the hills
The night breeze flows lightly to ruffle
Now what is left for me? Take away from my life
The force that makes me suffer.
The charming womb of the peaceful lake. Oh come, come death, I invite you
Why, why in this hour so tranquil and sweet And my soul will return to its original delight!
Am I alone, mute, and thoughtful?
Here all is joy; The sky, the earth,
All nature smiles at the enchantment.
Only the exile is condemned to weep.
And within my native air I also
Throbbed with hidden joy.
Oh the memory of those happy times
Lives again in my ardent thoughts
I race through grasslands, deserts, forests, I observe scenes fragrant with flowers; I wander through the dances and festivals
But pain was always my companion.
La Nuit – Jacques Leguerney
Oh, then my native shore
Will not be barred to me!
In that air, on those waves my bared soul will fly!
I will kiss the beloved cheek
Of my dear parents
And my sad tears
Will be wiped away.
Twentieth-century French composer Jacques Leguerney is most known for his mélodies and is often seen as the last composer to significantly add to that genre. A contemporary and friend of Nadia Boulanger and Francis Poulenc, Leguerney’s works were often performed by Gérard Souzay, Geneviève Touraine and Pierre Bernac. After his ballet, La Vénus noire, failed to be produced by Opera Paris, Leguerney ceased composing until his passing in 1997. These texts, written by Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant in the seventeenth century, describe the vivid experience of a dark and atmospheric night. These three excerpts chosen by Leguerney were chosen from a longer poetic work of the same name. Wishing to be enveloped by the darkness and the mystical and supernatural elements of the night, the narrator embraces the darkness to avoid the oppressive influences of the light.
I: Paisible et solitaire nuit – Peaceful and Solitary Night
Peaceful and Solitary Night
Without moon and without stars
Contain the day that obscures me
And in your most somber veil
Hasten your steps, goddess, fulfill my desires
I love a brunette, just like you.
II: Lugubre courrier du destin – Gloomy message of Destiny
Gloomy message of destiny
Dread of loose souls,
That so often, each morning and night,
Wake me and anger me,
Go do this somewhere else, mob of the demon Your vain and tragic sermon.
III: Tous ces vents qui soufflaient si fort – All these winds that blow so strongly
All these winds that blow so strongly
Retain their heat;
It no longer rains, the lightning sleeps
Who sees only the fountains
And the sweet sound of some charming lutes
The speak instead of the lovers.
Five Mystical Songs – Ralph Vaughan Williams
Despite being a professed Atheist, Vaughan Williams was attracted to the Anglican poetry of seventeenth century poet and priest George Herbert, premiering the work in 1911. Vaughan Williams took the liberty of liberally rearranging the Herbert’s religious texts to suit his purposes. He chose to re-order these texts with two larger-form communal texts surrounding three more reflective and personal verses. These texts revolve around the idea of the Trinity found both in Christianity and music: the three tones that form a triad, three verses in each of the more-reflective songs, three iterations of the final “My God and King” in the final chorus, Antiphon, and the scoring of the piece being for three members: baritone, choir, and piano/organ. It is my great pleasure to feature students from my studio and the studios of my colleagues in our performance of Five Mystical Songs this evening.