Masters Thesis

Graduate vocal recital

The culmination of my Masters of Music degree program specializing in Vocal Performance will consist of a ninety-minute vocal recital exploring a wide range of repertoire for mezzo-soprano. The first half will feature Robert Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben song cycle, written in 1840, for voice and piano. Translating to Woman's Love and Life, the cycle is based on eight poems written in 1830 by Adelbert von Chamisso. Throughout the eight songs, the audience is transported through the various stages of a great love from the female perspective. The text displays the emotional journey of a woman experiencing her first love, from the thrill of commitment and marriage, to pregnancy and childbirth, to the devastation of her great love's death. Please refer to Appendix B for the complete translation of Chamisso's text. Other works featured in the first half of the program are two arias from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro ("Non so pi cosa son, cosa faccio" and "Voi che sapete che cosa amor"), both written for the role of Cherubino, and "Ombre pallide io so mi udite" from Handel's Alcina, sung by Alcina. The second half features American composer Jake Heggie's song cycle, The Deepest Desire: Four Meditations of Love, written in 2002 for mezzo-soprano, flute, and piano. Sister Helen Prejean's text is set by Heggie in four songs and challenges the traditional meaning of spirituality by exposing the protagonist's inner thoughts about the expected norms and traditions of Catholic religious propriety and custom. When questioned by Heggie about her personal meaning of spirituality, Sister Helen replied that "at one point in her life she'd had to throw away all the 'stuff' she'd been told she needs, the 'stuff' she'd been told she must have, must pursue, must obtain. She went to the deepest waters of her being, and it was there she found the core of her spirituality: the deepest desire of her heart." Heggie's contemporary setting pushes tonal and rhythmic boundaries by drifting in and out of tonal centers and meters, and the relationship between the flute and the voice creates a dialogue resembling that of an inner and outer protagonist voice. Other pieces in the second half include "Faites-lui mes aveux" from Gounod's Faust, and art songs by American composers Samuel Barber and Ricky Ian Gordon.

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