A Modern Frauen Lieben und Leben: an exploration of women in song where cabaret and art song recital meet!
This recital is the culmination of 40 plus years of performing and living and pondering my place in the art world and in the world itself. The first act, which explores atypical feminine tropes in song, begins with a song from Robert Schumann’s famous song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben or A Woman’s Love and Life. Schumann and the poet, Adelbert von Chamisso, portray a woman’s life and love as revolving merely around marriage and having children. Obviously, women’s lives have ALWAYS and will always hold so much more than this. Even Robert’s own wife behaved nothing like the idealized portrayal of women in art and history. She was one of the most famous pianists of her time.
Clara was a virtuoso who stole Robert’s heart through her intelligence and mastery of the piano. In fact, Clara was so extraordinary that she was the first pianist to memorize all of her music for her recitals. Not to be outdone, all the men followed suit. She is the reason that memorizing piano concert music persists to this day! This is an example of the fun ride through song that we will take in this recital.
The First Act includes music by:
Robert Schumann: Du Ring an meinem Finger
Barbara Strozzi: Sete pur fastidioso
A Henry Purcell “Mad Song”: From Rosy Bow’rs
Manuel de Falla: from Siete canciones populares españolas
Libby Larsen’s Calamity Jane Cycle: Songs from Letters
The Second Act focuses on song that speaks to the woman I am and want to be. It is broken into sections that define my womanhood:
Woman as Descendant: explores Choctaw Roots and Lakota song by the Father of Native American Classical Music, Louis Ballard
Woman as Friend: music by Oklahoman Composer Kaelyn Neal
Woman as Lover: songs by Harold Arlen, Jake Heggie, Loesser, Strouse and Adams, Benjamin Britten, and Will Reynolds
Woman as Teacher and Mother: At Long Last from Bright Star by Martin and Brickell and You’ll Never Walk Alone by Rogers and Hammerstein
