Julia Bullock, Soprano - From Young Concert Artists University of Florida Performing Arts - University of ...
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University of Florida Performing Arts
presents
Julia Bullock, Soprano
From Young Concert Artists
Saturday, January 10, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
University Auditorium
Sponsored byJulia Bullock, soprano
Renate Rohlfing, piano
Program
From Chants de terre et de ciel Olivier Messiaen
Résurrection
Dolce cominciamento Luciano Berio
Stabat Mater (Mi lagnerò) Gioacchino Rossini
La donna ideale Luciano Berio
Sorzico (Mi lagnerò) Gioacchino Rossini
Ballo Luciano Berio
Métamorphoses Francis Poulenc
Reine des muettes
C’est ainsi que tu es
Paganini
From Chants de terre et de ciel Olivier Messiaen
Bail avec Mi
From Harawi
Katchikatchi les étoiles
L’amour de Piroutcha
Intermission
Hommage à Joséphine Baker Arrangements by Jeremy Siskind
Mon coeur est un oiseau des îles Vincent Scotto
La conga blicoti Armando Oréfiche
Madiana Mairiotte Almaby
Dis-moi Joséphine Léo Lelièvre
J’ai deux amours Vincent Scotto
Si j’étais blanche Léo Lelièvre
From Cinco canciones negras Xavier Montsalvatge
Punto de Habanera
Chévere
Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito
Brown Baby Oscar Brown, Jr.
Arranged by Jeremy Siskind
I Wish I Knew How It Feels to be Free Billy Taylor
Arranged by Jeremy Siskind
Little David Harry T. Burleigh
Arranged by Jeremy SiskindProgram Notes From Chants de terre et de ciel Résurrection (pour le jour de Pâques) (“For Easter Day”) Olivier Messiaen (Born in Avignon, France, on December 10, 1908; died in Clichy, near Paris, on April 27, 1992) At the core of every note of Messiaen’s remarkable creations lie his deep and abiding faith in God and His divine Son, Jesus. All his life he traveled widely and absorbed deeply, but every influence, it seemed, was filtered through his own religious fervor. The Japanese haiku that influenced his astonishing rhythmic complexities were, he felt, phenomena that rose from Christian modes; the Utah landscapes of Bryce Canyon had their basis for him in the Biblical Garden of Eden; the visually perceived colors he experienced when he heard certain chords—a neurological function of the brain known as synæsthesia—were God’s gift to his compositional process; his youthful love for the fairy-tale element in Shakespeare prefigured his later expressions of Roman Catholic liturgy. When composing, he was not interested in depicting theological matters such as sin; for him the crowning achievement of life was joy, utter joy and the divine love that redemption proved beyond a doubt. The ecstasy that is everywhere present in his finest works is particularly present in the sixth and final song of the cycle, titled ”Résurrection,” which blends an intoxicating pageant of ravishing “alleluias” by the soprano voice, with burnishings of triumphant chords in the fiercely difficult piano part. I have not yet spoken of his second marriage, to Yvonne Loriod, a spectacular pianist and former student of his, after Claire’s death in 1959. It was a union as happy as his first, though without the imminent specter of Claire’s wretched health, and of almost equal duration; Yvonne outlived her husband by eighteen years, dying in 2001. Once again, in Yvonne’s contribution to his works Messiaen beheld the hand of God. About the quantity of dazzlingly difficult piano music that flowed from his pen like freshets of water after a spring thaw, he remarked in an interview that he always had Yvonne’s amazing pianism in mind as he composed: “I am able to allow myself the greatest eccentricities because to Yvonne nothing is impossible.” In sum, Messiaen lived by and for his life-long credo—in his own words, “to be a musician is to be a believer, dazzled by the infinity of God.” From Quattro canzoni popolari Dolce cominciamento La donna ideale Ballo Luciano Berio (Born in Oneglia, now part of Imperia in Italy, on October 24, 1925; died in Rome on May 27, 2003) Berio was always delighted to be working with folksong, or, as he himself said, “I am caught by the thrill of discovery; I keep trying to create a unity between folk music and our own,” this despite the fact that his harmonic language is often “quirkily chaotic,” to use another phrase of his. The three songs, Dolce cominciamento (“Sweet Beginning”), La donna ideale (“The Ideal Woman”), and Ballo (“A Dance”) date from his student days in Milan. Sixteen years later, Mills College, in Oakland, California, commissioned him for a larger work based on folksong, so Berio composed nine additional pieces, and the result was given its premiere under his baton at Mills in 1964, with the gifted American soprano Cathy Beberian, whom he had married in the meantime, (though their union was in its final years—not, obviously, for musical difficulties, since the two continued to perform together with great success.)
All the Berio songs we hear this evening are light-hearted in spite of themselves. In “Sweet Beginning” the two parts, one the soprano, the other the piano, seem to be playing a kind of musical leapfrog with each other until the final measures when each seems to have settled down. In “The Ideal Woman,” a young man is advised to question four things as he searches for a suitable marriage partner: the girl’s family, her manners, her figure, and her fortune. If those are all satisfactory, there’s nothing to worry about! And in “The Ball,” the final song of the three, the singer laments that those who love the most are the looniest, that the greater the love is, the more doomed to idiocy, all the time ornamenting the song with little yelps of “la, la, la” as if to prove his point. From Quattro canzoni popolari Sorzico (“Mi lagnerò tacendo”) (“I complain but in silence”) Stabat Mater Gioacchino Rossini (Born in Pesaro, Italy, on February 29, 1892; died in Paris on November 13, 1868; but his remains were moved to the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy, in 1887, at the request of the Italian government) Everyone knows, surely, how one of the greatest opera composers the world has ever known suddenly stopped writing operas at all. It was 1829, and Rossini was living for the most part in Paris; he was also 39 years old and he had completed 38 operas and felt it was high time for a change, so he cut off all aspects of his former life with the precision, almost, of a skilled surgeon, took up both cooking and eating on a prodigious scale, and remarried after the death of his much-loved first wife, sua prima donna Isabella Colbran, in 1845. It may have been this second wife, also an excellent singer with professional training named Olympe Pélissier, who little by little induced her husband to take up his pen again. In any case he began to compose small pieces, mostly piano solos, but occasionally choral works and some wittily whimsical songs that Olympe would occasionally trot out as entertainment for their musical guests. Most of these pieces were collected into 14 volumes that Rossini called Péchés de vieillesse (“Sins of Old Age”). The “sins” showed, among other things, that Rossini had lost not a scintilla of his ease in composition nor his own pianistic skills—his virtuosity had been praised by Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns, who were themselves among the reigning wonders of that age. These engaging ditties enlivening Rossini’s “Sins” are a group that he collected into a special Album de Château containing among other rarities six completely separate and varied settings of a single text from Pietro Metastasio’s libretto for Siroe, beginning “I shall complain, but in silence,” the lady, remains anything but silent. However, the two miniature variations sung this evening (each one being no longer than twelve measures of music) are not from this Album, but were found only as handwritten transcriptions. This astonishing set of variations on a theme, so to speak, are called Scorzici, a virtually obsolete word meaning approximately “afflictions,” which might necessarily be expected to include a bit of caterwauling, though Rossini’s genius almost makes such vocal complaint sound almost beguiling. The miniature Stabat Mater offers no relation to his larger orchestral/vocal work, but the setting offers a sorrowful and plaintive recitation; contrasted with the more pithy and spirited setting Zorsico, a Basque dane in 5/8 time.
Métamorphoses Reine des muettes C’est ainsi que tu es Paganini Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Parisian Francis Poulenc seemed destined to join the family pharmaceutical manufacturing business. Though he took piano lessons from his mother Jenny, he was forbidden from taking “formal” musical or conservatory training. The untimely death of both of his parents – while Poulenc was still in his teens – changed all that. A family friend became his friend and protector after his parents’ death and introduced him to pianist Ricardo Viñes, who became the young orphan’s music teacher and mentor. Paris was alive with the energy of the avant garde at the time and Poulenc landed in the thick of it. In 1920, Poulenc became a founding member of a group of groundbreaking French composers, Le Six, who held concerts and performances of new music. These concerts were frequented by an audience dedicated to innovation and experimentation, including painter Pablo Picasso, artist-writer-provocateur Jean Cocteau, and ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, among many others It was a heady mix, and helped set the young Poulenc on his lifelong course. The three songs titled Métamorphoses (1943), a setting of poems by Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin (1902-72), are typical of Poulenc’s mature style, approachable, yet whimsical and individual. Reine de mouettes (Queen of the Seagulls) is an homage to the “blushing rose” of youth. C’est ainsi que tu es (It is thus that you are) is both lyrical and melancholy. The tour de force is Paganini, Vilmorin’s love song to the violin and one of its most celebrated virtuosi, Niccolò Paganini. — Program note by Dave Kopplin From Chants de terre et de ciel (“Songs of Earth and Heaven”) Bail avec Mi (pour ma femme) (“Agreement with ‘Mi,’ for my wife”) Olivier Messiaen (Born in Avignon, France, on December 10, 1908; died in Clichy, near Paris, on April 27, 1992) Messiaen met his wife-to-be, Claire-Louise Delbos, when they were both promising students at the Conservatoire in Paris, his intent on becoming a pianist and composer, she hoping to be a concert violinist and also a composer. Claire was the daughter of a famous philosopher, Victor Delbos, who taught at the Sorbonne. The two young people began playing recitals together in the early 1930s, ultimately marrying on June 22, 1932. Messiaen soon began composing music addressed to “Mi,” his affectionate nickname for her, such as Poèmes pour Mi, a song-cycle about the new couple’s happiness, and earlier, in 1933, a Fantaisie for violin and piano which may never have had a public performance in their lifetimes; it was inadvertently mislaid and not published until 2007. Claire had herself been a gifted composer. One of her early works, much praised by her husband, was a cycle of songs to poems by Olivier’s mother, Cécile Sauvage. In many ways Claire’s future looked as bright as her husband’s, but early in her marriage she suffered a series of miscarriages that ultimately proved disastrous, though a healthy son, Pascal, was born in 1937, whereupon Messiaen produced another celebratory song cycle, Chants de terre et de ciel (“Songs from Earth and Heaven”), about the blissful serenity produced by the presence of a baby boy in their close-knit family. But a few years later, about the time World War II ended, Claire underwent corrective surgery, which, alas, resulted in her loss of memory and then gradually declining health, as one bodily organ after another betrayed her. She spent her last years in a sanatorium and died in 1959 at the age of 56. The voice and the piano in this six-part cycle of Earth and Heaven are equal partners, each contributing, in Baudelaire’s well-known phrase, “à la force et à la beauté et, je dois avouer, au courage de l’autre” ([each contributing] “to the energy, the beauty and, let it be said, to the courage of the other”).
From Harawi (Chant d’amour et de la mort) Katchikatchi les étoiles L’amour de Piroutcha Olivier Messiaen Composed in 1945, Harawi is the first part of Messiaen’s ‘Tristan’ Trilogy, preceding the Turangalila Symphony and the Cinq Rechants (both completed in 1948). The song cycle takes its name from the “Harawi,” an ultra-romantic genre of Andean music which often ends with the death of two lovers, thus providing a vehicle for the composer’s exploration of the theme of love and death central to the myth of Tristan and Isolde, explicitly stated in Messiaen’s subtitle, “Chant d’amour et de mort” (Song of love and death). The idea of love and death obviously had a more personal significance to him than for Wagner; Claire had begun to suffer illness in the years just preceding Harawi. Though the work bears no explicit dedication to her, it is hardly possible that her condition would not have been at the forefront of her husband’s mind while composing the songs. The texts of Harawi are once again Messiaen’s own—almost all the poems of his songs follow the example of Richard Wagner, who wrote the librettos for each of his late operas. Messiaen’s texts are highly symbolic, and in addition to French words he occasionally uses vocabulary from the Peruvian tribe Quechua, not as much for its semantic meaning as for its timbral qualities; i.e., the onomatopoeic sounds that represent the ankle bells worn by Peruvian-Indian dancers. Hommage à Joséphine Baker Arrangements by Jeremy Siskind (1986– ) When the African-American singer and dancer Josephine Baker sashayed out onto the stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on the evening of October 2, 1925, the curtains parted on the highly touted La Revue Nègre, with a shiny new star destined to become one of the most brilliant performers in the history of entertainment, Miss Josephine Baker. In a year or two she had achieved the highest salary of any singer in France, had her picture taken more often than even Gloria Swanson or Mary Pickford, and had accumulated a zoo of exotic pets including a diamond-collared cheetah named Chiquita who often appeared with her (and whose unplanned fall into the orchestra pit one evening created a major sensation . . . and further swelled box office receipts for weeks to come); a reputation for exuberant sexuality and revealing costumes that scandalized even Paris. (Miss Baker saw her notoriety slightly differently: she told a reporter, “I wasn’t really naked. I simply didn’t have any clothes on.” She felt somewhat the same way about her much-alluded-to physical beauty, saying to the same reporter, “It’s all in the luck of the draw. I was born with good legs. As for the rest . . . beautiful? No. Amusing, yes.”) She was given to wearing “barely-there” costumes, among them her famous “banana” skirt, comprising in its entirety 16 artificial bananas. And there was another fashioned entirely of white feathers. Not to mention her “no-holds-barred” dance routines, about which she said, “I was always crazed by the music. Even my teeth and eyes burned with fever. Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky, and when I regained earth it seemed to be mine alone.” A bit later, she remarked to another reporter who questioned her about her dedication to her craft, “Is that what they to call a ‘vocation,’ what you do with joy, as if you had fire in your heart and the devil in your body?” About her singing there was never a question. To the reigning British chanteuse Shirley Bassey, Baker went from “une petite danseuse,” with a decent voice, to “la grande diva magnifique,” adding, “In all my life I have never seen, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer.” Ernest Hemingway called her “the most sensational woman anyone has ever seen,”
and with advance praise like that she had no trouble attracting a cadre of admirers that included persons of such glittering repute as Langston Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior, not to mention a passionate group of perhaps 1500 gentlemen who individually proposed marriage, about at least one of whom—Joe Alex, a fine baritone—she rhapsodized, “He was my cream, and I was his coffee. And when you poured us together, it was something.” She did of course marry several of the “gentlemen,” such as the “cute” American Willie Baker, whose surname she adopted professionally when her career had reached its height, and French-Jewish Jean Lion, thus achieving French citizenship for herself, and, finally, Jo Bouillon, who helped her rear the dozen or so children whom she chose to form into a family so as to illustrate that differing ethnicities could live together in simpatico amity. Finally there was Robert Brady, with whom she sneaked into a wayside chapel in Acapulco in September of 1973 to exchange marriage vows—which rite, because no clergy was present, could not be a binding sacrament and had to remain pretty much a secret forever, though Josephine was steadfastly devoted to Brady for the all-too brief remainder of her life. She had been born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in Saint Louis, Missouri— coincidentally the birthplace of Julia Bullock as well—where Freda, always on the fringes of poverty in her youth, cleaned houses and baby-sat for wealthy white women who warned her, “Be sure you don’t kiss the baby.” Such were the perils in those days. One can imagine how eager she was, despite small successes in America, to embark for faraway Paris. “One day I realized,” she wrote later, “that I was living in a country where I was afraid to be black. It was a country only for white people. Not black people. So I left. I felt I had been suffocated in the United States. Now, in Paris, I felt liberated.” And thus began one of the most magical success stories in the realm of entertainment history. It is a story that has long fascinated Julia Bullock, “I had been dreaming about a set of Josephine Baker songs for at least six years, when I went to a concert a couple of months ago played by Jeremy Siskind at the Cornelia Café in New York’s West Village, and I thought to myself, ‘This, this is the guy, exactly the right person to make arrangements of the Baker songs for me, with all that brilliant jazz pianism of his, and that ingenious musical sensitivity . . . not to mention that I had known him from my time at Eastman.” When Jeremy agreed, Julia’s dream was on its way to becoming reality . . . Mon coeur est un oiseau des îles (My heart is an island bird) Vincent Scotto (Born in Marseilles on April 21, 1874; died in Paris on November 15, 1952) La conga blicoti Armando Oréfiche (Born in Havana on April 1, 1911; died on Las Palmas, Canary Islands in 2000) Madiana Mairiotte Almaby Dis-moi, Joséphine Léo Lelièvre (Born on April 1,1872 in Rheims; died in Paris on March 31, 1956) J’ai deux amours Vincent Scotto Si j’étais blanche (If I Were White) Lép Lelièvre
Vincent Scotto started his career in his native Marseilles as early as 1906 but soon moved to Paris, where he met and became friends with novelist-playwright-cinematographer Marcel Pagnol, whose many, many films include the two-part Manon of the Spring in 1952. Scotto wrote music for several of these Pagnol achievements, as well as for other film- makers, sometimes acting in them as well. His “Mon cœur est un oiseau des îles was a Baker favorite and she recorded it several times, the most recent of which was chosen for a 2011 album of songs ranging from 1930 to 1957. “La conga blicotí” is by Armando Oréfiche, a Cuban composer and pianist. He recorded this song with Josephine Baker, a recording that was used in a brilliantly nostalgic scene of Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. Another Scotto song, J’ai deux amours, in a performance by Baker herself, was used in a film by Alain Resnais, On Conaîtt la Chanson, released in1997. From Cinco canciónes negras (Five Black Songs) Punto de Habanera, Siglo XIII Chévere Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito Xavier Montsalvatge (Born in Girona, Spain on March 22, 1912; died in Barcelona on May 7, 2002) Montsalvatge was born in the Spanish town of Girona but spent most of his life in nearby Barcelona, becoming one of its most influential citizens. Montsalvatge studied violin and composition at the Barcelona Conservatorio but joined the army at the time of the Spanish Civil War, after which he took a job as music critic for a local newspaper, Destino, eventually being offered the editorship, while continuing to write his own superb though infrequently heard music. His most significant works came about after he discovered the West Indian music of the Antilles, which he described as “originally Spanish, exported overseas, and then re- imported to our country as a evocative kind of musical lyricism.” Such a work is the Cinco canciónes negras, five settings of Catalan poets, among them Néstor Luján, Nicolás Gouillén and Idefonso Pereda Valdés. Punto de Habanera was inspired by the humor of the West Indies, over which Montsalvatge drapes only the gauziest veil of Spanish musical style. In Luján’s light-hearted poem about a “ripe” young maiden “adrift” in a billowing white hoop skirt being ogled by sailors, Montsalvatge adds deft little dissonances in the piano, gently and playfully, with all the seriousness of a puff of smoke. Guillén’s Chévere concerns a young black worker who “wields a flashing knife” and becomes himself “a blade,” perhaps borrowing a metaphor from his countryman Federico García Lorca’s tango poems, slicing at shadows and moonlight, attempting unsuccessfully to sing, before going “straight after his woman.” Montsalvatge’s music does not mirror the violent youngster of the poem, but it is dark and moody, perhaps suggesting an unpleasant evening for the girl. The mother who is attempting to sing her little boy to sleep in Valdés’ poem also suggests slighty sinister overtones: if her baby will just go to sleep, he will no longer be a slave forever; if he gets enough rest, his master may make him a groom and buy him a fancy uniform. The music is a bit unsettling, a polytonal reminder that this mother is not singing a conventional lullaby, all innocence and maternal sweetness. Brown Baby Oscar Brown, Jr. (Born in Chicago on October 10, 1926; died there on May 29, 2005) Arranged by Jeremy Siskind Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Brown’s father (Oscar Brown, Sr.) expected his son to follow in his footsteps and become a successful and wealthy lawyer. Eventually
success did come to young Oscar, but first he had to serve his apprenticeship in alternative careers like advertising and the army. But when Mahalia Jackson recorded one of his songs, he was able at last to focus on a career in music. His first album, Sin and Soul, was released in 1960, and on its cover were rave reviews (already!) by jazz celebrities such as Nat Hentoff, Steve Allen, Dorothy Kilgallen, Max Roach and Nina Simone, the last-named of whom was later to record a sensational performance of Brown’s newest song, Brown Baby. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free Billy Taylor (Born in Greenville, North Carolina, on July 24, 1921; died in New York City on December 28, 2010); arranged by Jeremy Siskind British-born jazz critic Leonard Feather, author of several encyclopedic books on Billy Taylor, gave him the indisputable title of “the world’s foremost spokesman for jazz.” Ben Ratliff, in The New York Times, called him “a living refutation of the stereotype of jazz musicians as unschooled, unsophisticated and inarticulate, an image that was prevalent when he began his career in the 1940s, and that he did as much as any other musician to erase.” A pianist with an impeccable technique and an elegant style, Dr. Taylor worked with some of the most celebrated names in jazz, among them Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Herbie Mann. As a boy, he made his first public performance on the piano at age 13, and was paid one dollar. He moved to New York, where he fell under the salutary influence of Art Tatum, who remained his mentor for many years. In 1952, Taylor composed I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, which reached new popularity with the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and Nina Simone’s recording on her 1967 album, Silk and Soul. In 1994, he was named the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; before that he had started The Jazz Foundation to save the homes and lives of elderly jazz and blues musicians. Little David (Play on Your Harp) Harry T. Burleigh (Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1866; died in New York City on September 12, 1949); arranged by Jeremy Siskind Frances MacDowell, mother of the famous American composer Edwin MacDowell, helped get a scholarship for the young Henry Burleigh (now referred to as “Harry Burleigh”) to New York’s National Conservatory, where he played double bass in the school orchestra and assisted the renowned Antonin Dvorák, who had recently been appointed director of the institution. Not only did Dvorák introduce Harry to Czech music, but equally importantly, Harry introduced Dvorák to American music, specifically Black-American music. Burleigh had been doing odd jobs for Mrs. MacDowell, and was sweeping the conservatory’s floors, too, and Dvorák often heard him singing spirituals as he worked, so he asked the boy to sing for him, too. This may have been the way the pseudo-spiritual “Deep River” found its way into Dvorák’s “New World” Symphony (which was premiered in Carnegie Hall in 1893, to wild cheering). Race reared its ugly head in Burleigh’s life. With his splendid baritone voice, he was encouraged to apply for a job as soloist in the choir of St. George’s Episcopal Church. Members of this all-white congregation were appalled. But J.P. Morgan cast the deciding vote to hire him, and he spent a long career in the choir loft, making many friends. In the late 1890s, he began to publish his own songs and his arrangements of Negro spirituals. Soon they were being sung in concert by such internationally renowned artists
as John MacCormack. So popular did Burleigh’s arrangements become that few vocal
artists gave recitals without several of them on their program. The prestigious firm of G.
Ricordi, publisher of Giacomo Puccini’s operas, engaged Burleigh as an editor in 1910.
Little David, Play on Your Harp, based on the Biblical story of David strumming before
King Saul, is not, of course, an original Burleigh composition, having existed as a Sunday
School favorite since the mid-1860s, but it was Burleigh’s musical arrangement that made
it especially popular.
— Program annotations, save for those concerning Mr. Hertzberg’s music, written by Clair W. Van
Ausdall and affectionately dedicated to Susan Wadsworth and Young Concert Artists, Inc.
Text and Translations
From Chants de terre et de ciel (1938) From Songs of earth and heaven
Résurrection (pour le jour de Pâques) Resurrection (for Easter Day)
Olivier Messiaen
Alleluia, alleulia. Alleluia, alleluia.
Il est le premier, le Seigneur Jésus, He is the first, the Lord Jesus,
Des morts il est le premierné. Of the dead, he is the first-born.
Sept étoiles d’amour au transpercé, revêtez Seven stars of love to the transfixed, vest in
votre habit de clarté. “Je suis ressuscité, je your habit* of clarity. “I am risen, I am risen.
suis ressuscité. I sing: for you, my Father, for you, my God,
Je chante: pour toi, mon Père, pour toi, mon alleluia.
Dieu, alleluia. From death to life I pass.”
De mort à vie je passe.” An angel. On the stone he is posed.
Un ange. Sur la pierre il s’est posé. Perfume, portal, pearl, unleavened bread of
Parfum, porte, perle, azymes de la Vérité. the Truth.
Alleluia, alleluia. Alleluia, alleluia.
Nous l’avons touché, nous l’avons vu. We have touched him, we have seen him.
De nos mains nous l’avons touché. From our hands we have touched him.
Un seul fleuve de vie dans son côté, revêtez A single river of life in his side, vest in your
votre habit de clarté. “Je suis ressuscité, je habit* of clarity. “I am risen, I am risen.
suis ressuscité. I climb: towards you, my Father, towards you,
Je monte: vers toi, mon Père, vers toi, mon my God, alleluia. From earth of heaven I
Dieu, alleluia. pass.”
De terre à ciel je passe.” Of the bread. He breaks it and their eyes are
Du pain. Il le rompt et leurs yeux sont opened.
dessillés. Perfume, portal, pearl, wash yourselves in the
Parfum, porte, perle, lavez-vous de la Vérité. Truth.
* habit — a garment; as opposed to/or maybe in
addition to: a ritualized practice, in this context
From Quattro canzoni popolari
Dolce cominciamento Sweet beginning
Luciano Berio
Dolce cominciamento canto Sweet beginning, I sing
per la più fina for the finest one
che sia al mio parimento who in my opinion, may be
d’Argni’infino a Messina the most gorgeous
cio è la più avvenente. from Argni until Messina.
Oh stella rilucente Oh shining star,
che levi a la maitina that rises in the morning,
quando m’appare avante when she appears in front of me,
li suoi dolzi sembianti her sweet countenance,
m’incendon la corina. inflames my heart.Stabat Mater/Mi lagnerò
Gioacchino Rossini
Text: Pietro Metastasio
Mi lagnerò tacendo In silence I will complain
della mia sorte amara; of my bitter fate;
ma ch’io non t’ami, o cara, but for me not to love you, oh dear one,
non lo sperar da me. do not expect that from me.
Crudel’... no... Cruel one... no...
From Quattro canzoni popolari
La donna ideale The Ideal Woman
Luciano Berio
L’ómo chi mojer vor piar If a man wants a woman,
de quatro cosse de spiar there are four things to ask
la primiera è com’ èl è na the first is if she’s well-bred
l’altra è se l’è ben accostuma another is if she’s well-mannered
l’altra è como el è forma another is if she’s well-shaped
la quarta è de quanto el è dota the fourth is if she has a good dowry
se queste cosse ghe comprendi if comprehensively she’s got it all
a lo nome de Dio la prendi. in God’s name take her.
Sorzico/Mi lagnerò tacendo
Gioacchino Rossini
Text: Pietro Metastasio
Mi lagnerò tacendo In silence I will complain
della mia sorte amara; of my bitter fate;
ma ch’io non t’ami, o cara, but for me not to love you, oh dear one,
non lo sperar da me. do not expect that from me.
Crudel’... no... Cruel one... no...
From Quattro canzoni popolari
Ballo Dance
Luciano Berio
La ra la ra la ra li... La ra la ra la ra li...
Amor fa disciare li più saggi Love drives out reason from the most wise
e chi più l’ama meno ha in sè misura And he who loves most has the least
più folle è quello che più s’innamora judgment
La ra la ra la ra li... The most foolish is the one who’s most in
Amor non cura di fare suoi dannaggi love.
co li suoi raggi mette tal calura La ra la ra la ra li...
che non puo raffreddare per freddura. Love doesn’t care about the harm he does,
His rays generate such a fever
that not even the cold can cool it.From Métamorphoses
Reine des muettes
C’est ainsi que tu es
Paganini
Francis Poulenc
Text: Louise de Vilmorin
Reine des mouettes Queen of the Seagulls
Reine des mouettes, mon orpheline, Queen of seagulls, my little orphan,
Je t’ai vue rose, je m’en souviens, I saw you pink, I recall,
Sous les brumes mousselines Beneath the muslin mists
De ton deuil ancien. Of your ancient sorrow.
Rose d’aimer le baiser qui chagrine Pink from loving the kiss which provokes
Tu te laissais accorder à mes mains You surrendered to my hands
Sous les brumes mousselines Under the muslin mists
Voile de nos liens. Veil of our bond.
Rougis, rougis, mon baiser te devine Blush, blush, my kiss finds you out
Mouette prise aux nœuds des grands Seagull caught where great paths meet.
chemins.
Reine des mouettes, mon orpheline, Queen of seagulls, my little orphan,
Tu étais rose accordée à mes mains You were pink, surrendered to my hands,
Rose sous les mousselines Pink under the muslin
Et je m’en souviens. And I recall the moment.
C’est ainsi que tu es That is how you are
Ta chair, d’âme mêlée, Your flesh, mingled with soul,
Chevelure emmêlée, Your tangled hair,
Ton pied courant le temps, Your feet pursuing time,
Ton ombre qui s’étend Your shadow which stretches
Et murmure à ma tempe. And murmurs at my temple.
Voilà, c’est ton portrait, There, that is your portrait,
C’est ainsi que tu es, That is how you are,
Et je veux te l’écrire And I want to write it down for you,
Pour que la nuit venue, So that when night comes,
Tu puisses croire et dire, You may believe and say,
Que je t’ai bien connue. That I knew you well.
Paganini Paganini
Violon hippocampe et sirène Violin sea-horse and siren,
Berceau des cœurs cœur et berceau Cradle of hearts heart and cradle
Larmes de Marie Madeleine Tears of Mary Magdalene
Soupire d’une Reine Sigh of a queen
Écho Echo
Violon orgueil des mains légères Violin pride of delicate hands
Départ à cheval sur les eaux Departure on horseback over the waters
Amour chevauchant le mystère Love astride the mystery
Voleur en priére Thief in prayer
Oiseux Birds
Violon femme morganatique Violin morganatic* wife
Chat botté courant la forêt Puss-in-Boots ranging the forest
Puits des vérités lunatiques Well of lunatic truths
Confession publique Public confession
Corset CorsetViolon alcool de l’âme en peine Violin alcohol of the pained soul
Préférence muscle du soir Preference muscle of the evening
Épaules des saisons soudaines Shoulders of sudden seasons
Feuille de chêne Leaf of oak
Miroir Mirror
Violon chevalier du silence Violin knight of silence
Jouet évadé du bonheur Toy evaded from happiness
Pointrine des mille présences Breast of a thousand presences
Bateau de plaisance Boat of pleasure
Chasseur. Hunter.
* morganatic: denoting a marriage in which neither
the spouse of lower rank nor any children have
any claim to the possessions or title of the spouse
of higher rank
From Chants de terre et de ciel (1938) From Songs of earth and heaven
Bail avec Mi (pour ma femme) Bond* with Mi** (for my wife)
Olivier Messiaen
Ton œil de terre, mon œil de terre, nos mains Your earthly eye, my earthly eye, our earthly
de terre, hands,
Pour tisser l’atmostphère, la montagne de To weave the atmosphere, the mountain of
l’atmosphère. the atmosphere.
Étoile de silence à mon cœur de terre, à mes
lèvres de terre. Star of silence at my earthly heart, at my
earthly lips.
Petite boule de soleil complémentaire à ma
terre. Little ball of sun complimentary to my earth.
Le bail, doux compagnon de mon épaule The bond, sweet companion of my bitter
amère. shoulder.
*The prosaic word bail means ‘lease’ and refers, in
a very material and earthly way, to a temporary
contract. With marriage seen as something
provisional and impermanent, I offer in my
translation, ‘bond’
**Mi is the nickname Messiaen gave to his first wife,
Claire Delbos
From Harawi, chants d’amour et de From Harawi, Songs of love and death
mort (1946)*
Katchikatchi les étoiles
L’amour de Piroutcha
Olivier Messiaen
Katchikatchi les étoiles Katchikatchi the stars
Katchikatchi les étoiles, Katchikatchi the stars,
faites-les sauter, make them leap,
Katchikatchi les étoiles, Katchikatchi the stars,
faites-les danser. make them dance.
Katchikatchi les atomes, Katchikatchi the atoms,
faites-les sauter, make them leap,
Katchikatchi les atomes, Katchikatchi the atoms,
faites-les danser. make them dance.Les nébuleuses spirales, The spiral nebulae,
mains de mes cheveux. hands of my hair.
Les électrons, fourmis, flèches, Electrons, ants, arrows,
le silence en deux. silence in two.
Alpha du Centaure, Bételgeuse, Aldébaran, Alpha Centuare, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran,*
Dilatez l’espace arc-en-ciel Dilate the rainbow space
tapageur du temps, raucous in time,
Rire ionisé, fureur d’horloge Ionized laughter, clock’s fury
au meurtre absent, to absent murder.
Coupez ma tête, Chop off my head,
son chiffre roule dans le sang! its figure rolls in blood!
Tou, ahi! mané, mani, Tou, ahi! mané, man,
Tou, ahi! mané, mani. Tou, ahi! mané, mani.
O Oh
Roule dans le sang, roule dans le sang, Roll in the blood, roll in the blood,
roule dans le sang, roule dans le sang! roll in the blood, roll in the blood!
Ahi! Ahi!
* Harawi: Quechua is the indigenous Indian language * Alpha Centaur: the brightest star in the southern
of Peru. The name, Harawi, is a Quechua word constellation of Centaurus; brighter and more
referring to a genus of love song, which ends with luminous that our Sun. Yellow in color.
the death of the lovers. Like many great love stories Betelgeuse: the 8th brightest star in the night sky,
of the past, it is intensely tragic, notwithstanding 2nd brightest in Orion’s Belt. Red in color.
the mythological symbolism of sacrificial death as Aldebaran: one of the brightest stars in the night
the fulfillment of love. sky.
Orange in color.
L’amour de Piroutcha The love of Piroutcha
LA JEUNE FILLE THE YOUNG GIRL
«Toungou, ahi, toungou, berce, toi, “Toungou, ah, toungou, cradle, you,
Ma cendre des lumieres, My cinder of luminaries,
berce ta petite en tes bras verts. Cradle your little girl in your green arms.
Piroutcha, ta petite cendre, pour toi.» Piroutcha, your little cinder, for you.”
LA JEUNE HOMME THE YOUNG MAN
«Ton œil tous les ciels, doundou tchil. “Your eye all the heavens, doundou tchil.
Coupe-moi la tête, doundou, tchil. Chop off my head, doundou, tchil.
Nos souffles, nos souffles, bleu et or. Our breath, our breath, blue and gold.
Ahi! Ahi! Ah! Ah!
Chaînes rouges, noires, mauves, Chains of red, black, mauve,
amour, la mort.» love, death.”“Art is an elastic sort of love.”
— Josephine Baker —
Mon cœur est un oiseau des îles My heart is an island bird
Text: Henri Varna
Vincent Scotto
Mon cœur est un oiseau des îles My heart is an island bird
Qui ne chante que pour l’amour; Who sings only for love;
Dans tes bras il trouve l’asile, In your arms it finds asylum,
Le nid fragile des plus beaux jours. The fragile nest of the happiest days.
Car tout m’enivre quand je t’aperçois For all intoxicates me when I see you
Ma joie de vivre, chéri, c’est toi My joy in life, darling, is you;
Mon cœur est un oiseau des îles My heart is an island bird
Qui ne chante que pour l’amour Who sings only for love.
Tu m’as souri gentiment au réveil You smiled at me gently while waking up
C’est mon soleil This is my sunshine
Tu m’as donné de la joie, de l’espoir You gave me joy, hope,
Jusqu’au soir. Until the evening.
Car tout m’enivre quand je t’aperçois For all intoxicates me when I see you
Ma joie de vivre, chéri, c’est toi My joy of life, darling, is you;
Mon cœur est un oiseau des îles My heart is an island bird
Qui ne chante que pour l’amour. Who sings only for love.
La conga blicoti The Blicoti Conga
Text: André de Badet
Armando Oréfiche
Ye! Ye!
Ye blicoti, holy moly, Ye blicoti, holy moly
Y’a plaisir, sì joli! There’s pleasure, so nice!
Quand la conga, ye blicoti, When the conga, ye blicoti,
Pour danser, retenti Resounded for dancing.
Ye la conga, ye la conga blicoti Ye, the conga, ye the conga blicoti
C’est la conga, ye blicoti, It’s the conga, ye blicoti,
Y avait mort, lui parti. There was death, he left.
Ye blicoti, coty moly, Ye blicoti, coty moly,
Y’a plaisir, sì joli! There’s pleasure, so nice!
C’est ainsi la nuit, sous un ciel de feu, Thus in the night, under the sky of fire,
Loin d’ici comment de ces chants joyeux, Far away from these songs of joy,
Dans les cœurs, l’amour fait sa loi vainquer, In hearts, love makes its law the victor,
Les temps sont fi-nuls ne dort, These times aren’t for sleeping - no!
déjà c’est un l’astre d’or. already there’s a star of gold.
Mais bientôt la conga devra finir, But soon the conga will have to end,
Les coteaux verront le soleil venir, The hills will see the sun approaching,
Puis le jour au monde dira bonjour, Then the day will say hello to the world,
C’est au soir la danse à grande brise It is at night that the dance
Reprends toujour pour la nuit. Always resumes in the high winds!
Ye! Ye!
C’est la conga, ye blicoti, It’s the conga, ye blicoti,
Il avait mort, lui parti There was death, he left.
Ye blicoti, coty moly, Ye blicoti, coty moly,
y’a plaisir , sì joli. There’s pleasure, so nice!Madiana Mairiotte Almaby Madiana, petit bijou des îles Madiana, little island gem, Madiana, aux lèvres de corail Madiana, with coral lips Ta bouche est une fleur fragile Your mouth is a fragile flower De chair palpitante et d’émail. Of quivering flesh and enamel. Madiana, ton nom que je murmure, Madiana, you name that I whisper, Sur le ciel de mon pays charmeur Across the sky of my charming country, Est comme un chant dans la ramure Is like a song in the branches, Berçant tes rêves enchanteurs. Cradling your enchanting dreams. C’est l’heure où la fougère endort, This is the time when the fern sleeps, Et comme tu seras mon abeille And since you will be my bee Où là toutes roses, tout blanc Where all roses, all white Grisent les amoureux de la terre. Intoxicate the lovers of the earth. C’est l’heure où je veux, dans tes bras, Is it the hour where I want, in your arms, Gouter de charmes de tes pareils. To taste your charms. Mon tendre dire sans cesse... Madiana My tender constant words... Madiana. Madiana, petit bijou des îles Madiana, little island gem, Madiana aux lèvres de corail Madiana, with coral lips Ta bouche est une fleur fragile Your mouth is a fragile flower De chair palpitante et d’émail Of quivering flesh and enamel. Madiana, ton nom que je murmure Madiana, your name that I whisper, Sur tout le ciel de ton pays charmeur Across the sky of your charming country, Est comme un chant dans la ramure Is like a song in the branches Berçant mes rêves enchanteurs. Cradling my enchanting dreams. Dis-moi Joséphine Tell me Joséphine Text: Henri Varna Léo Lelièvre Dites-nous, Joséphine Tell us Josephine Puisqu’on te revoit, Now that you’re reflecting, Charmante et divine, Charming and divine, Dites-nous, Joséphine Tell us Josephine Quel est cet émoi What is this emotion Qu’en toi je devine ? in you that I’m sensing? « Quelle joie pour moi de revenir “What a joy for me to return Et de retrouver mes souvenirs. » And retrieve my memories.” Dites-nous, Joséphine Tell us Josephine Oui, dites-nous pourquoi Yes, tell us why Ton cœur s’illumine Your heart is lit up; Dites-nous, Joséphine Tell us Josephine Si comme autrefois Is it just as before Paris te fascine that Paris fascinates you. «Vous le voyez bien par mon retour “You can see very well by my return, La France toujours That France, always, Idéal séjour, aura mon amour. » ideal sojourn, will have my love.”
J’ai deux amour I have two loves
Text: Géo Koeger and Henri Varna
Vincent Scotto
On dit qu’au-delà des mers, It is said that beyond the seas,
Là-bas sous le ciel clair, There, under the clear sky,
Il existe une cité, au séjour enchanté. There exists a city of an enchanted stay.
Et sous les grands arbres noirs, And under the big black trees,
Chaque soir, vers elle s’en va tout mon espoir. Every night, all my hope goes towards her.
J’ai deux amours, I have two loves,
Mon pays et Paris. My country and Paris.
Par eux toujours, By them always,
Mon coeur est ravi. My heart is always delighted.
Manhattan est belle, Manhattan is beautiful,
Mais à quoi bon le nier: But to what end:
Ce qui m’ensorcelle c’est Paris, What enchants me is Paris,
Paris tout entier. Paris completely.
Le voir un jour, To see it one day
C’est mon rêve joli. Is my lovely dream.
J’ai deux amours, I have two loves,
Mon pays et Paris. My country and Paris.
Texts transcribed and translated by Ilana Zarankin and Julia Bullock.
Si j’étais blanche If I were white
Text: Henri Varna
Léo Lelièvre
Je voudrais être blanche, I would like to be white,
Pour moi quel bonheur For me what pleasure
Si mes seins et mes hanches If my breasts and my hips
Changent de couleur changed color.
Les Parisiens à Juan-les-Pins The Parisians from Juan-les-Pins*
Se faisaient droit Thought it smart
Au soleil d’exposer To expose to the sun
Leur amour, un peu noir. Their love, a little black.
Moi, pour être blanche, Me, in order to be white,
J’allais me roulant I go rolling
Parmi les avalanches Between the avalanches
En haut du Mont Blanc In the heights of Mont Blanc.*
Ce stratagème This stratagem,
Donne un petit rigole Makes us laugh a little,
J’avais l’air dans la crème In the cream, I looked like
D’un petit pruneau. A little prune.
Étant petite, avec chagrin When I was young, with grief
J’admirais dans les magasins I admired in the stores
La teinte pâle de poupées blanches. The pale complexion of the white dolls.
J’aurais voulu leur ressembler I would have liked to resemble them,
Et je disais à l’air, accablé, And I said to the air, dejected,
Me croyant toute seule brune au monde Believing myself to be the only brown one in
Au soleil, c’est par l’extérieur the world.
Que l’on se dore, In the sun, we make ourselves
Moi, c’est la flamme de mon cœur gold on the outside,
Qui me colore But it is the flame of my heart
Which colors me.Faut-il que je sois blanche Must I be white,
Pour vous plaire mieux? To please you better?
Texts transcribed and translated by Ilana Zarankin and Julia Bullock.
From Cinco canciones negras
Punto de Habanera (Siglo XVIII)
Chévere
Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito
Text: Néstor Luján
Xavier Montsalvatge
Punto de Habanera (Siglo XVIII) Habanera Point (18th Century)
La niña criolla pasa The creole girl passes by
con su miriña que blanco. in her white crinoline. *
Qué blanco! How white!
Hola, crespón de tu es puma. Hey, the crepe of you is like a puma.
Marineros, contempladla! Sailors, examine her!
Va mojadita de lunas She walks wet from the moon droplets
que le hacen su piel mulata. that are on her dark skin.
Niña, no te quejes, Little girl, do not worry,
tan solo por esta tarde. all alone this evening.
Quisierra mandar al agua I would like to order water
que no se escape not to escape
de pronto de la cárcel de tu falda. too soon from the prison of your skirt.
Tu cuerpo encierra esta tarde, Your body encloses, this evening,
rumor de abrir se de dalia. the murmur of the dahlia** opening.
Niña, no te quejes, Little girl, do not fret,
Tu cuerpo de fruta está Your body is fruit
dormido en fresco brocade. asleep in the embroidered breeze.
Tu cintura vibra fina Your waist quivers finely
con la nobleza de un látigo. with the nobility of a whip.
Toda tu piel huele alegre All your skin smells joyfully
a limonal y a naranjo. of lemon and orange.
Los marineros te miran The sailors look at you
y se te quedan mirando. and they keep looking at you.
La niña criolla pasa The creole girl goes by
con su miriña que blanco in her white crinoline
que blanco! how white!
** a hollow stemmed flower, nicknamed a “water
* a bustle; a stiffened or hooped petticoat pipe” in Spain
Chévere Cavalier
Text: Nicolás Guillén
Chévere del navajazo Cavalier of the slashing knife,
se vuelve él mismo navaja. turns himself into a knife,
Pica tajadas de luna, He cuts the moon up in slices,
más la luna se le acaba; but he runs out of moon;
pica tajadas de sombra, he cuts shadows up in slices,
más la sombra se le acaba; but he runs out of shadows;
pica tajadas de canto, he cuts songs up in slices,
más la canto se le acaba, but he runs out of songs,
y entonces, pica que pica, and then, slash by slash,
carne de su negra mala. he cuts up the flesh of his bad black woman.
carne de su negra mala! he cuts up the flesh of his bad black woman!Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito Cradle Song for a Little Black Boy
Text: Ildefonso Pereda Valdés
Ninghe, tan chiquitito Ninghe, little tiny one
el negrito que no quiere dormer. little black child who does not want to sleep.
Cabeza de coco, grano de café Coconut head, coffee bean
con lindas motitas, with pretty freckles
con ojos grandotes with big eyes
como dos ventanas que miran al mar. like two windows overlooking the sea.
Cierra los ojitos, negrito asustado; Close your little eyes, frightened boy;
el mandinga blanco te puede comer. the white boogey-man is going to eat you.
Ya no eres esclavo! You are not a slave anymore!
y si duermes mucho el señor de casa and if you sleep a lot the master of the house
promete comprar traje con botones promises to buy you a suit with buttons
para ser un “groom.” so you can be a groom.
Ninghe, duérmete, negrito, Ninghe, sleep little black boy,
Cabeza de coco, grano de café. Coconut head, coffee bean.
Brown Baby
Oscar Brown, Jr.
Brown baby, So lie away sleepin’
As you grow up Lie away singin’
I want you to drink from the plenty cup Lie away sleepin’
I want you to stand up tall and proud Lie away safe in my arms
And I want you to speak up clear and loud It makes me glad
Brown baby. You gonna have things that I never had
As years go by Brown baby.
I want you to go with your head up high
I want you to live by the justice code
And I want you to walk down freedom’s road
You little brown baby.
I wish I knew how it would feel to be free
Lyrics by Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas*
Billy Taylor
I wish I knew how I wish I could be
It would feel to be free Like a bird in the sky
I wish I could break How sweet it would be
All these chains holding me If I found I could fly
I wish I could say Oh I’d soar to the sun
All the things I should say And look down at the sea
Say ’em loud say ’em clear Then I’d sing ’cause I’d know
For the whole world to hear How it feels to be free.
I wish I could share * “I Wish I Knew ...” was recorded by Nina Simone
All the love in my heart on her Silk & Soul album released in 1967:
Remove all the bars
That keep us apart “What’s free to me? ... I’ve had a couple times
I wish you could know onstage when I really felt free; and that’s
What it means to be me somethin’ else. That’s really something else! I’ll
Then you’d see and agree tell you what freedom is to me: no fear! I mean
Every man should be free really... no fear! Lots of children have no fear,
and that’s the closest — that’s the only way I can
describe it ... that’s not all of it, but it’s something
to really, really feel. Like a new way of singing.
Like a new way of seeing something.”
— Nina SimoneLittle David (Play on Your Harp) Text: Anonymous Harry T. Burleigh Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu Down in de valley, O Lord! Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu. I didn’t go to stay; O Lord! God told Moses, O Lord! My soul got happy, O Lord! To go down into Egypt, O Lord! An’ I stay’d all day, Tell ole Pharo; O Lord! O Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu Loose my people, Little David, play on your harp Hallelu. O Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu, Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu. Julia Bullock, soprano Winner of the 2014 Naumburg International Vocal Competition, soprano Julia Bullock has been hailed as an “impressive, fast-rising soprano … poised for a significant career” (The New York Times). Her busy 2014-2015 season begins with a performance of Delage’s Quatres poèmes hindous with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and a recital at Napa’s Festival del Sole. She performs recitals and educational outreach programs at the University of Florida Performing Arts, Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, the Levine School of Music, and Music for Youth, as well as recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, San Francisco Performances, Rockefeller University, the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, and Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts. She will also be featured in the New York Festival of Song’s At Harlem’s Height program on tour and at Merkin Concert Hall, as well as in the Mondavi Center’s Rising Stars of Opera. She reprises the title role in Henry Purcell’s The Indian Queen, directed by Peter Sellars at the Perm Opera House, and at English National Opera later this season. She was acclaimed for her performance of the role last season in Perm and at the Teatro Real in Madrid; a DVD of the Madrid production will be available this season. Ms. Bullock has performed the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon with the Juilliard Opera, as well as Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, both to rave reviews. Opera News wrote of the latter, “Julia Bullock as the titular vixen led the way in terms of clarity of delivery and beauty of sound. Her broad range of expression allowed her to be impetuous and demonstrative … then opulent and glorious.” Ms. Bullock has toured South America as Pamina in Peter Brook’s award-winning A Magic Flute; and toured China, singing with the Bard Music Festival Orchestra. Other opera roles include Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Monica in The Medium, and the title role in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut last season in West Side Story in Concert, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; an album of the concert was released on the orchestra’s label in June 2014. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “The evening’s most remarkable showstopper, Julia Bullock, appeared out of nowhere to deliver a full-voiced stunningly paced account of Somewhere—for just a moment, it seemed as though nothing Bernstein ever wrote was quite as magical as that one song.”
Ms. Bullock has performed contemporary works at the Ojai Music Festival and the MUSIC ALIVE! series, curated by composer Joan Tower and pianist Blair McMillen; collaborated with early music ensembles, including the Clarion Music Society; and explored lesser-known repertoire with the American Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Delage’s Quartre poèmes hindous. She has also appeared with the New York Festival of Song at Caramoor, with the Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society at the Kimmel Center. She enjoys the collaborative process with both established and up-and-coming composers. In 2011, she attended SongFest in California as a Stern Fellow, where she worked with pianist Roger Vignoles and composers John Musto and Libby Larsen. Ms. Bullock has sung in master classes with bass-baritone Eric Owens at Juilliard, soprano Jessye Norman at Zankel Hall, and José van Dam at Opera Bastille in Paris. She also performed in the Dawn Upshaw/Donnacha Dennehy Workshop at Carnegie Hall, premiering pieces written for her by young Chinese composer Shen Yiwen. Winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Ms. Bullock made her recital debuts at Merkin Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center to critical acclaim. At the Auditions, she was also the recipient of five special prizes: the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize, concerts at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany, the University of Florida Performing Arts, and with the Albany Symphony and the Sinfonia Gulf Coast. She holds the Lindemann Vocal Chair of Young Concert Artists. Her management is also supported by the Barbara Forester Austin Fund for Art Song. From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Bullock participated in the Artists-in-Training program with the Opera Theater of St. Louis, and graduated with the prestigious Marielle Hubner Award. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, and her master’s degree at Bard College’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, where she was the first recipient of the Mimi Levitt Scholarship, and won Bard College’s 2010 Concerto Competition. She is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School, working with Edith Bers. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Ms. Bullock integrates her musical life with community activism. She has organized benefit concerts for the Shropshire Music Foundation and International Playground, two non-profits that serve war-affected children and adolescents through music education and performance programs in Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Uganda, and St. Louis. She also participated in the Music and Medicine Benefit Concert for New York’s Weill Medical Center. Renate Rohlfing, piano Renate Rohlfing is rapidly garnering a name as one of her generation’s most versatile and accomplished collaborative pianists. Equally active in instrumental and vocal music, Ms. Rohlfing’s 13/14 season included recitals with soprano Julia Bullock in New York, Washington, D.C., and Illinois, soprano Kathryn Guthrie in Pennsylvania, soprano Sarah Wolfson in South Carolina, and performances with her piano trio, LONGLEASH, in Ohio, San Francisco, and Graz, Austria. She recently completed a residency at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., performing as chamber musician, orchestral pianist, and opera repetiteur. This is Ms. Rohlfing’s fourth residency at Ravinia; last summer, she was featured in Britten’s Phaedra under the baton of James Conlon. Upcoming highlights include recitals in Boston, New York, and Florida with soprano Julia Bullock, an appearance at Carnegie Hall for Marilyn Horne’s The Song Continues Gala, as well as trio performances at the Trøndheim Chamber Music Festival in Norway, Kentucky, and throughout the New York area. Ms. Rohlfing is a winner of numerous honors, including the New Orleans International Concerto Competition, the Presser Scholarship and the Avenir Foundation Research Grant. She is an alumna of the Juilliard School and a native of Honolulu, Hawaii.
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