Pianist Kristin Pankonin & Frederica von Stade
Mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade appeared on stage at Sunset Center yesterday afternoon before an enthusiastic audience to present the second event in the Carmel Music Society’s strong 2011-2012 season. The Music Society’s President, Anne Thorp, greeted the audience to inform us that this appearance marked the fourth time Ms. von Stade has performed under the auspices of the Carmel Music Society, the first time being in the 1974-75 season. Thorp also mentioned that von Stade in addition to her musical activities is an active supporter of two charities for young people and would be donating her fee for this afternoon’s concert to St. Joseph’s School in Alameda. This concert today also marks part of her farewell this season to the concert stage, for she is looking forward to spending more time with her family and grandchildren.
Not unlike her most recent appearance in October 2007, today’s program created a wave of nostalgia for von Stade fans as she linked many of the songs on her program to personal and musical events highlighting her long career. We heard bits and pieces from opera, art songs and Broadway, plus a significant chunk of repertoire by living composers. Wearing a concealed lapel mike, von Stade talked to us about memorable events in her life after which she would entertain us with a song that recreated some of the ambiance of the event.
One of the most striking aspects of von Stade’s artistry is her skill as an actress and how she uses her voice to create various personas, so that if your eyes were closed, you could easily imagine you were hearing a different singer. She achieved this effect early in the program as she magically altered the timbre of her voice so that Ned Rorem’s song, “I am a Rose,” projected a sweet, simple naiveté, whereas in the song following, “La Vie en Rose,” she achieved a poignant and nostalgic mood with impressively perfect French diction. In Virgil Thomson’s, “Prayer to St. Catherine,” the text contained in the prayer a brief dialog with Saint Nicholas and Saint Johanna, and once again her voice changed timbres for each saint, and it all seemed totally natural.
There were four songs on the program by composer/pianist Jake Heggie, and these especially impressed us with how well Heggie integrated the text with magical supporting piano parts. Pianist Kristin Pankonin emerged as a powerful personality in her own right, especially in the terrific piano part of Heggie’s “Paper Wings,” the somber sonorities in Massenet’s “Let My Tears Flow,” and the charming playful accompaniment in Mahler’s “Praise from a lofty intellect.”
Von Stade took us on musical journeys to Greece (Heggie) and France (Gugliemi, Poulenc and Barthomieu), and in every song she found some magic to share with us. There was some marvelous humor in such songs as Hall’s “Jenny Rebecca,” Heggie’s “A Route to the Sky,” Ravel’s “Nicolette,” Bolcom’s “Amor” and Copland’s “Why do they shut me out of Heaven?”
We also heard the operatic von Stade in “Me voci dans son boudoir” from Mignon and her first encore, “Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio” (I don’t know anymore what I am, what I’m doing) from Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro.”
Responding to a warm standing ovation, von Stade gave us one last encore, a drinking song from Offenbach’s La Perichole, in which she gave us a humorous and charming impression of a tipsy lady.
End
