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- Nathaniel Stookey
Into the Bright Lights (2009)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
- 1.1.1.1/2.0.0.0/hp/str
- Mezzo-soprano; pf
- Mezzo Soprano
- 12 min
- Frederica von Stade
- English
Programme Note
Premiere:
September 18 2009
Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra
Edwin Outwater, conductor
Centre In The Square, Kitchener, ON, Canada
Text:
Frederica von Stade
Movements:
I. S’io
II.The Golden Thread
III. Into the Bright Lights
Into the Bright Lights is a setting of three texts by Frederica von Stade on the subject of retirement and old age. The songs were commissioned by Nicola Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson for the singer’s farewell and first performed by Frederica von Stade and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony under Edwin Outwater.
"S'Io" juxtaposes Mozart's "Voi che Sapete" with von Stade's own words as she imagines herself as an old woman who, unwilling to abandon the stage, sings her most iconic role (Cherubino) one more time. The song encompasses the fragile nostalgia of von Stade’s little white haired lady of the future, her experience of the role as a singer in her prime, and Cherubino’s own youthful mid-18th century perspective, expressed in his own words through the filter of Mozart’s librettist Da Ponte (as translated by Stookey): I have a feeling, so full of desire, that’s at once a delight and a torture by turns. I freeze, then feel that my soul catches fire, and then, in a moment, I’m freezing, I’m freezing. In the second song, von Stade contemplates “The Golden Thread” of my life—her beloved daughters. “Into the Bright Lights” concludes the set by recounting a singer’s day, from arising in the morning to that evening’s performance. I hear the music, she exults, and I’m still lucky enough to be a part of it.
Into the Bright Lights was a collaborative process, the work taking shape over a long correspondence between composer and singer. “Most of my pieces are focused on a particular performer,” Stookey explains, “because I feel like the best way for my work to speak is to be sure that it speaks through the person who is going to premiere it.”
Adapted from Scott Foglesong’s note for the U.S. premiere
September 18 2009
Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra
Edwin Outwater, conductor
Centre In The Square, Kitchener, ON, Canada
Text:
Frederica von Stade
Movements:
I. S’io
II.The Golden Thread
III. Into the Bright Lights
Into the Bright Lights is a setting of three texts by Frederica von Stade on the subject of retirement and old age. The songs were commissioned by Nicola Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson for the singer’s farewell and first performed by Frederica von Stade and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony under Edwin Outwater.
"S'Io" juxtaposes Mozart's "Voi che Sapete" with von Stade's own words as she imagines herself as an old woman who, unwilling to abandon the stage, sings her most iconic role (Cherubino) one more time. The song encompasses the fragile nostalgia of von Stade’s little white haired lady of the future, her experience of the role as a singer in her prime, and Cherubino’s own youthful mid-18th century perspective, expressed in his own words through the filter of Mozart’s librettist Da Ponte (as translated by Stookey): I have a feeling, so full of desire, that’s at once a delight and a torture by turns. I freeze, then feel that my soul catches fire, and then, in a moment, I’m freezing, I’m freezing. In the second song, von Stade contemplates “The Golden Thread” of my life—her beloved daughters. “Into the Bright Lights” concludes the set by recounting a singer’s day, from arising in the morning to that evening’s performance. I hear the music, she exults, and I’m still lucky enough to be a part of it.
Into the Bright Lights was a collaborative process, the work taking shape over a long correspondence between composer and singer. “Most of my pieces are focused on a particular performer,” Stookey explains, “because I feel like the best way for my work to speak is to be sure that it speaks through the person who is going to premiere it.”
Adapted from Scott Foglesong’s note for the U.S. premiere
Scores
Reviews
The evening’s raison d’être was the U.S. premiere of PBO choral alumnus Nathaniel Stookey’s Into the Bright Lights (2009), a setting of three autobiographical poems by von Stade. Although no one is better suited to sing these settings than the author herself, Cao again brought an extra, unintended resonance to the text.
The first song, “S’io,” is von Stade’s reflection on her inevitable departure from the operatic stage. “Oh please let me go on until I’m ninety,” she writes, fantasizing the ludicrous prospect of a little white-haired lady, a walker by her side, singing Cherubino one more time.
With Cao standing solidly in Flicka’s place, adorned in a dress as red and youthfully bright as the wrap that the unforgettable Bette Davis wore on her final miraculous, post-stroke appearance on The Tonight Show, the song’s opening line, “The time has come, I tell myself,” could be taken multiple ways. Even more poignant was the section, “If I still have a breath left in my lungs … then I’ll go on singing and singing!” Which is exactly what Cao is doing. Tell it like it is, girl.
The other songs reflect on aging and the perils of performing. Cao was marvelous in both. As for Stookey’s music, I know of no finer compliment than to report that every note supported the meaning of the text. In the wrong hands, Flicka’s poems could have taken on a note of unintended, maudlin self-pity. Nothing of the sort here, with music as fresh, lovely, and emotionally open as the great von Stade herself.
The first song, “S’io,” is von Stade’s reflection on her inevitable departure from the operatic stage. “Oh please let me go on until I’m ninety,” she writes, fantasizing the ludicrous prospect of a little white-haired lady, a walker by her side, singing Cherubino one more time.
With Cao standing solidly in Flicka’s place, adorned in a dress as red and youthfully bright as the wrap that the unforgettable Bette Davis wore on her final miraculous, post-stroke appearance on The Tonight Show, the song’s opening line, “The time has come, I tell myself,” could be taken multiple ways. Even more poignant was the section, “If I still have a breath left in my lungs … then I’ll go on singing and singing!” Which is exactly what Cao is doing. Tell it like it is, girl.
The other songs reflect on aging and the perils of performing. Cao was marvelous in both. As for Stookey’s music, I know of no finer compliment than to report that every note supported the meaning of the text. In the wrong hands, Flicka’s poems could have taken on a note of unintended, maudlin self-pity. Nothing of the sort here, with music as fresh, lovely, and emotionally open as the great von Stade herself.
5th March 2011
But the surprise hit of the evening was Into the Bright Lights, a cycle of three songs by U.S. composer Nathaniel Stookey, to lyrics by von Stade, in which the singer reflects with gentle, often wry honesty on singing and aging. It was a touching farewell, and I loved both music and text. In the first song, "S'io," Stookey deftly fused baroque and waltz elements, and added a dash of Phillip Glass. "The Golden Thread" poignantly turns to the things that truly matter in life — in this case, von Stade's love for her daughter. The cycle closes with a light-hearted, musically lurching look at a day in an opera singer's life.
22nd September 2009