Here, with small cuts restored, is my Wednesday May 12 Chicago Sun-Times review of Frederica von Stade's Monday May 10, 2010, Chicago farewell recital with pianist/composer Jake Heggie presented by Chicago Opera Theater
.
photo by Liz Lauren
Von Stade puts dignity in finale
Mezzo shows taste, elegance, and joy at Harris farewell recital
BY ANDREW PATNER
Frederica von Stade gave her recital farewell to Chicago Monday at the Harris Theater and she did so as the singer of taste, elegance, joy, and warmth that audiences have loved and admired since she made her professional debut 40 years ago at age 25.
Chicago Opera Theater is presenting von Stade in Jake Heggie's chamber opera Three Decembers through Sunday. And just two days after the opening of that work, they offered von Stade and Heggie in the singer-pianist partnership that they were truly made for.
With the program she has been touring internationally as a part of her retirement seasons, von Stade had a large crowd justly eating out of her hand from start to finish. Always one to make good artistic choices and supremely well-organized, too, the two halves of her program, built around her narration of a musical autobiography, each held 10 songs and lasted exactly 30 minutes.
The American mezzo knows what she can do -- and her technique would probably allow her to go on doing so for many years.
But the classy lady also knows when to say goodbye. In the first half were Ned Rorem's two greatest achievements, "I Am Rose" and "Early in the Morning"; Copland's "Why do they shut me out of Heaven?"; Lee Hoiby's "The Serpent," and Virgil Thomson's hilarious and touching "Prayer to St. Catherine." She displayed her exquisite French pronunciation, phrasing, and style in songs of Ravel and Poulenc and witty portraits of two Parisian gardens by the much too-little-known Marc Berthomieu (1906-91), whose works von Stade has been reviving. And, why not, Piaf and Louiguy's "La vie en rose"?
In round two came excerpts from her operatic roles in Massenet's Werther and Thomas's Mignon. From the concert stage, Mahler's "In Praise of High Intellect" from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Plus, Carol Hall's "Jenny Rebecca," after which von Stade named her elder daughter, and a song by Heggie, with the singer's lyrics, which was a gift to her younger daughter. Morsels, too, from Ravel, Bolcom, Sondheim ("Send in the Clowns," another why not?) and Heggie with words of Sister Helen Prejean. Encores were from Bernstein ("Greeting," dedicated to COT's Roosevelt University young artists program,) Oklahoma!, and Offenbach. Happiness, really, all the way around.
Throughout, Heggie showed himself a consummate collaborator and one who lives in the music before him. At one point von Stade even had to point out that he was practically jumping up and down at the Steinway.
The only complaint? The lyricists went unnamed in the program. Never a good thing, the anonymity is even sadder when you have a singer and pianist who truly know the value of words. In order, the neglected ones were Gertrude Stein, Edith Piaf, M.D. Calvocoressi, Kenneth Koch, Emily Dickinson, Theodore Roethke, Apollinaire, Robert Hillyer, Daniel Schmitt, Ravel himself, and Arnold Weinstein.
Comments