a c i s PHOTO CREDIT: DARIO ACOSTA
MODLIN ARTS & UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND D E PA R T M E N T O F M U S I C P R E S E N T
J’NAI BRIDGES November 9, 2023
7:30 PM | Camp Concert Hall
FREE MASTER CLASS Open to public for observation November 10, 11:00 AM | Camp Concert Hall
UN I VE R SI TY of RICHMOND MODLIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Thank You
THIS ENGAGEMENT OF
J’NAI BRIDGES IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF
Dewitt Fund for the Arts Department of Music, University of Richmond H. Gerald Quigg Arts Endowment THANKS TO OUR 2023 -2024 MODLIN ARTS PRESENTS SEASON SPONSORS & COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Louis S. Booth Arts Fund E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation Cultural Affairs Committee A. Dale Mayo Fund Virginia B. Modlin Endowment Clinton Webb Fund Norman and Gay Leahy William and Pamela O’Connor
elcome
WE ARE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE OUR 2023-2024 SEASON! At Modlin Center for the Arts, we are committed to providing the University of Richmond campus and our broader community with the best in diverse, thought-provoking, and captivating performances. Each season is cultivated with our attention to showcasing artists who provide insight into our shared humanity. At the University of Richmond, we pledge to you—our patrons and partners, on campus and in our region—that the arts will provide broad access to rich voices, creative passion, and unforgettable experiences. Modlin is more than our presenting series. We operate as the home for our academic partners within the School of Arts & Sciences, providing spaces for conversation, connection, and collaboration across disciplines. Explore the full range of opportunities from the Department of Music, Department of Theatre & Dance, and University Museums. Don’t miss the extensive calendar of FREE concerts, performances, and exhibits, and make plans to join us. I hope that you will also consider a contribution to the Modlin Center for the Arts. Your backing is a vital endorsement of the value that Modlin contributes to our cultural landscape. We are deeply grateful to have you include Modlin in your cultural investments. Thank you for being a valued member of our community of the arts. I look forward to seeing you at Modlin performances in 2023-24 and to hearing what moves you this year!
Paul Brohan, Executive Director
MODLIN ARTS
AUGUST 2023
2023/24 Calendar
Queer Pioneers: LGBTQ+ History Through the Photographs of Robert Giard On view 28 Aug - 8 Dec
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Making Your Mark: Prints and Drawings from the Hechinger Collection On view 28 Aug - 8 Dec
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Crystals: Minerals from the Collection On view through 4 May
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Therefore I Am: Portraits from the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center On view through 30 Jun
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FALL P Ticketed: Paid F Free: Tickets/Registration Required
Free: No Tickets/Registration Required F
Modlin Arts Presents Department of Theatre and Dance Department of Music University Museums Tucker Boatwright Festival
SEPTEMBER David Esleck Trio Thu 7 Sep 7:30pm
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Marty Stuart Thu 14 Sep 7:30pm
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Volcano Theatre, Book of Life Sat 23 Sep 7:30pm
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We All Break & Leyla McCalla Thu 28 Sep 7:30pm
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Family Weekend Concert Fri 29 Sep 7:30pm
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OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
Rhiannon Giddens & The Legendary Ingramettes Sun 1 Oct 7pm
ShoutHouse Fri 3 Nov 7:30pm
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Jazz & Contemporary Combos Wed 8 Nov 7:30pm
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J’Nai Bridges, Mezzo-Soprano Thu 9 Nov 7:30pm
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Terence Blanchard, Fire Shut Up in My Bones Sun 12 Nov 7:30pm
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Sky Hopinka: Masterclass and Film Screening Mon-Wed 13–15 Nov
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Popular Music Ensemble Tue 14 Nov 7:30pm
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White Pearl Thu-Sat 5-7 Oct 7:30pm Sun 8 Oct 2pm
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Company SBB // Stephanie Batten Bland, Embarqued: Stories of Soil P Fri Oct 6 7:30pm The Acting Company, Odyssey Wed 11 Oct 7:30pm
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Sankai Juku, KŌSA– between two mirrors Thu 19 Oct 7:30pm
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Davison Plays Davison Fri 20 Oct 7:30pm
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13th Annual Celebration of Dance @ UR! Sat 21 Oct 7:30pm
Jazz Ensembles: Little Big Band with Black & White Wed 15 Nov 7:30pm F
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Kiara Vigil: Keynote Lecture Thu 16 Nov 4:30pm
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Fairview Thu-Sat 16-18 Nov 7:30pm Sat 18 - Sun 19 Nov 2pm
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Global Sounds Sun 19 Nov 3pm
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UR Wind Ensemble Mon 20 Nov 7:30pm
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Canadian Brass, Holiday Show Wed 29 Nov 7:30pm
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Family Arts Day: Barefoot Puppet Theatre, New Squid on the Block Sun 22 Oct 1pm-4pm
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Kenny Barron Voyage Trio Wed 25 Oct 7:30pm
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Inon Barnatan, Alisa Weilerstein & James Ehnes, Swan Song, The Schubert Project P Fri 27 Oct 7:30pm Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale Sun 29 Oct 3pm
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DECEMBER 50th Annual Festival of Lessons and Carols Sun 3 Dec 5pm, 8pm
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Chamber Ensembles Mon 4 Dec 7:30pm
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University Symphony Orchestra Wed 6 Dec 7:30pm F
MODLIN ARTS
JANUARY 2024
2023/24 Calendar
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Max Roach Centennial P Thu 25 Jan 7:30pm
SPRING P Ticketed: Paid F Free: Tickets/Registration Required F Free: No Tickets/Registration Required
Modlin Arts Presents Department of Theatre and Dance Department of Music University Museums Tucker Boatwright Festival
Richard Becker Piano Concert Wed 31 Jan 7:30pm
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FEBRUARY Hamid Rahmanian, Song of the North Fri 2 Feb 7:30pm
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Paul Hanson Piano Concert Sun 4 Feb 3pm
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Layale Chaker & Sarafand, with Kinan Azmeh Fri 16 Feb 7:30pm
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Zuill Bailey, Cello Wed 28 Feb 7:30pm
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Yiman Wang: Keynote Lecture Tue 20 Feb 12pm
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Alexa Joubin: Keynote Lecture Thu 22 Feb 12pm
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MARCH
APRIL
MOVING | BODIES BODIES | MOVING University Dancers 39th Annual Concert Fri-Sat 1-2 Mar 7:30pm Sun 3 Mar 2pm
Emanuel Ax, Piano Fri 5 Apr 7:30pm
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UR Wind Ensemble Mon 8 Apr 7:30pm
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UR Jazz & Contemporary Combos Thu 11 Apr 7:30pm
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Doris Wylee-Becker Piano Concert Sun 3 Mar 3pm
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Richmond Piano Trio Mon 4 Mar 7:30pm
Natu Camara Fri 12 Apr 7:30pm
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Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale Sun 14 Apr 3pm
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Popular Music Ensemble Tue 16 Apr 7:30pm
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UR Symphony Orchestra Wed 17 Apr 7:30pm
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Everybody 18-20 Apr 7:30pm 21 Apr 2pm
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Danish String Quartet Sat 20 Apr 7:30pm
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Global Sounds Sun 21 Apr 3pm
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UR Chamber Ensembles Mon 22 Apr 7:30pm
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Cuban Spectacular Thu 25 Apr 7:30pm
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Martha Graham Dance Company Fri 22 Mar 7:30pm Brad Mehldau, Piano Sun 24 Mar 7:30pm Chris Thile, Mandolin Wed 27 Mar 7:30pm
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MODLIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS & UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC present J’NAI BRIDGES, mezzo soprano MARK MARKHAM, piano
PHOTO CREDIT: DARIO ACOSTA
PROGRAM Dein blaues Auges, Op. 59, No. 8 (1870 - 1873) Die Mainacht, Op. 43, No. 2 (1857 - 1864) Von ewiger Liebe, Op. 43, No. 1 (1857)
Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
Shéhérazade (1903) Maurice Ravel Asie (1875 - 1937) La flûte enchantée L’indifférent INTERMISSION Siete canciones populares españolas (1914 - 15) Manuel de Falla El paño moruno (1876 - 1946) Seguidilla murciana Asturiana Jota Nana Canción Polo Cantata for voice and piano (1964) John Carter Prelude (1932 - 1981) Rondo Recitative Air Toccata Tonight’s performance will run approximately 1 hour 17 minutes, including intermission.
Program Notes Selected songs by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Dein blaues Auge (1870–1873) Dein blaues Auge (Your Blue Eyes) is the final song in a set of eight published in the year the composer turned forty. Its text is by the poet Klaus Groth, who is more well-known for his texts in the low German (Plattdeutsch) dialect, though, here, writes without it. Brahms sets the text in two strophes with only slight modal and rhythmic variations. In the first strophe, the poem’s speaker beholds the clear, blue eyes of another person and declares that, in them, “Ich sehe mich gesund” (“I see myself in good health”). The hope projected in these eyes as well as the sea-like coolness the speaker finds in them are contrasted in the second strophe with “ein glühend Paar” (“a glowing pair”) that once burned them. Die Mainacht (1857–1864) Composed around the start of Brahms’ mature period, the lied Die Mainacht (May Night) features a text by the poet Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty; notably, Brahms omits one of Hölty’s stanzas, mapping each of the remaining three into a three-part form. The first two stanzas depict a figure wandering in the wilderness, hearing the calls of nightingales and doves around them. Through modal mixture and remote chromaticism, Brahms makes clear the wanderer’s state of mind as they “[wenden sich], / Suche dunklere Schatten, / Und die einsame Träne rinnt” (“turn away, / Seek darker shadows, / And the lonely tear flows down.”) In the final stanza, Brahms recasts musical material from the first two in a new combination, underscoring with new figuration a question the wanderer poses to the world around them: “Wann, o lächelndes Bild, welches wie Morgenrot / Durch die Seele mir strahlt, find’ ich auf Erden dich?” (“When, O smiling vision, which, like the red of dawn, / Shines through my soul / shall I find you here on earth?”) Von ewiger Liebe (1857) Von ewiger Liebe (Eternal Love) is one of Brahms’ most performed solo songs. Inspired by a Slavic folk text, the poem tells the story of a boy walking his beloved home through the woods. Brahms uses triplet figurations of increasing intensity when the boy implores his beloved to sunder their love should she ever suffer insult or be troubled by it. When the maiden responds, Brahms eases the tempo, calms the meter, and shifts into the major mode, punctuating her reassurance: “Unsere Liebe, sie trennt sich nicht! … / Eisen und Stahl, sie können zergehen, / Unsere Liebe muß ewig bestehen!” (Our love will never never be surrendered! … / Iron and steel, they may melt / Our love shall endure forever!”)
Shéhérazade (1903) by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Maurice Ravel first developed Shéhérazade as an overture to an opera, named for the principal narrator of the Arabian Nights. Though he never completed the opera, Ravel conducted the overture’s 1899 premiere for the Société Nationale in Paris to mixed success: the Spanish pianist and close friend of Ravel, Ricardo Viñes, reported standing alone to applaud the composer at the premiere, while the music critic for Le Temps Pierre Lalo decried the work as less imaginative than its influences, admonishing the composer “not to scorn unity,” an aesthetic he could achieve by “[thinking] more often of Beethoven.” Four years later, Ravel composed the song cycle of the same name. The extent to which the pieces relate to one another is somewhat contested: while Ravel’s pupil Alexis Roland-Manuel claimed that the overture’s primary theme is reworked in the song Asie, French music scholar Roger Nichols suggests that the two share “merely a kinship of atmosphere.” Other musical connections Shéhérazade has are clearer: its text was composed by Tristan Klingsor (nom de plume of Léon LeClère) as an ekphrastic response to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1888 symphonic suite of the same name. Moreover, its music relies on techniques first explored by Debussy. Ravel uses pentatonic and modal pitch collections as a way to model the Western poetic speaker’s orientalist desires: “Je voudrais voir […]” (“I long to see […]”) that which the Eastern world has to offer. Siete canciones populares españolas (1914–15) by Manuel de Falla (1876– 1946) Manuel de Falla began compositional work on his Siete canciones populares españolas after moving to Paris in 1907. There, he connected with composers including Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky— many of whom came to influence Falla’s compositional idiom. Due to the outbreak of World War I, however, Falla was forced to return to Madrid, where in 1915 he premiered this song set with the soprano Luisa Vella. Vella also played the lead role of Salud in his Madrid premiere of the one-act opera La vida breve in the same year. Falla develops his Siete canciones from Spanish folk songs originating from various regions across the country. The Seguidilla murciana is a dance form literally, a diminutive of the Spanish word seguida, meaning sequence— from the Murcia region in the southeast. The more-plaintive Asturiana derives from Asturias in the northwest, and the Jota is widely known for its associations with Aragón in the northeast. Throughout the Siete canciones, Falla blends fragments of folk melodies with extended-tertian and modal sonorities, and plays with metrical space amidst short, repetitive forms.
His approach to sourcing material from folk music and synthesizing it with modern technique reflects a broader trend amongst the world powers in the early twentieth century toward championing national musical styles. Cantata for voice and piano (1964) by John Carter (1932–1981) The Cantata for voice and piano is the sole published work of the St. Louis born composer and pianist John Carter, though at least seven more of his lesser-known compositions have been documented in performance reviews, manuscripts, and oral histories. The popularity of the Cantata may be due in part to its 1959 premiere by the soprano Leontyne Price and pianist David Garvey at the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. Ten years later, the same venue would see the National Symphony Orchestra premiere his Requiem Seditiosam: In Memoriam Medgar Evers while Carter was composer-in-residence with the symphony. Comparable to many other Black composers working in the Western Art Music tradition, Carter used Black spirituals as the basis for the Cantata’s musical material. In the piano prelude, Paul Hume, a critic for The Washington Post who reviewed the premiere, heard a faint suggestion of Were You There? that leads into four settings that “retain the spirit of the spirituals, though they have been concertized, symphonized as it were.” Hume’s estimation seems to be in keeping with the composer’s own, who, in an interview with the Washington Times-Herald, equated the relationship between his 5/4 setting of Ride On, King Jesus and a more conventional arrangement to Manuel de Falla’s use of folk material in the Siete canciones populares españolas. Carter, through comparable techniques to Falla, describes the Cantata as his attempt not only to “preserve the spirit of the original [‘Negro melodies’], … but at the same time bring them into the mainstream of Western music.” Jacob P. Cupps, Ph.D. Candidate in Music Theory, Washington University, St. Louis PHOTO CREDIT: ZACH MAHONE
TEXTS Dein blaues Auges, Op. 59, No. 8 Text by Klaus Groth
Dein blaues Auge hält so still, Ich blicke bis zum Grund. Du fragst mich, was ich sehen will? Ich sehe mich gesund. Es brannte mich ein glühend Paar, Noch schmerzt das Nachgefühl: Das deine ist wie See so klar Und wie ein See so kühl.
Die Mainacht, Op. 43, No. 2 Text by Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty
Wann der silberne Mond durch die Gesträuche blinkt, Und sein schlummerndes Licht über den Rasen streut, Und die Nachtigall flötet, Wandl’ ich traurig von Busch zu Busch. Überhüllet vom Laub, girret ein Taubenpaar Sein Entzücken mir vor; aber ich wende mich, Suche dunklere Schatten, Und die einsame Träne rinnt. Wann, o lächelndes Bild, welches wie Morgenrot Durch die Seele mir strahlt, find’ ich auf Erden dich? Und die einsame Träne Bebt mir heißer die Wang’ herab.
Von ewiger Liebe, Op. 43, No. 1 Text by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben
Dunkel, wie dunkel in Wald und in Feld! Abend schon ist es, nun schweiget die Welt. Nirgend noch Licht und nirgend noch Rauch, Ja, und die Lerche sie schweiget nun auch. Kommt aus dem Dorfe der Bursche heraus,
TRANSLATIONS Your Blue Eyes Your blue eyes stay so still, I look into their depths. You ask me what I seek to see? Myself restored to health. A pair of ardent eyes have burnt me, The pain of it still throbs: Your eyes are limpid as a lake, And like a lake as cool.
May Night When the silvery moon gleams through the bushes, And sheds its slumbering light on the grass, And the nightingale is fluting, I wander sadly from bush to bush. Covered by leaves, a pair of doves Coo to me their ecstasy; but I turn away, Seek darker shadows, And the lonely tear flows down. When, O smiling vision, that shines through my soul Like the red of dawn, shall I find you here on earth? And the lonely tear Quivers more ardently down my cheek
Eternal Love Dark, how dark in forest and field! Evening already, and the world is silent. Nowhere a light and nowhere smoke, And even the lark is silent now too. Out of the village there comes a lad,
Gibt das Geleit der Geliebten nach Haus, Führt sie am Weidengebüsche vorbei, Redet so viel und so mancherlei: „Leidest du Schmach und betrübest du dich, Leidest du Schmach von andern um mich, Werde die Liebe getrennt so geschwind, Schnell wie wir früher vereiniget sind. Scheide mit Regen und scheide mit Wind, Schnell wie wir früher vereiniget sind.“ Spricht das Mägdelein, Mägdelein spricht: „Unsere Liebe sie trennet sich nicht! Fest ist der Stahl und das Eisen gar sehr, Unsere Liebe ist fester noch mehr. Eisen und Stahl, man schmiedet sie um, Unsere Liebe, wer wandelt sie um? Eisen und Stahl, sie können zergehn, Unsere Liebe muß ewig bestehn!“
Shéhérazade Text by Tristan Klingsor
Asie Asie, Asie, Asie, Vieux pays merveilleux des contes de nourrice Où dort la fantaisie comme une impératrice, En sa forêt tout emplie de mystère. Asie, je voudrais m’en aller avec la goëlette Qui se berce ce soir dans le port Mystérieuse et solitaire, Et qui déploie enfin ses voiles violettes Comme un immense oiseau de nuit dans le ciel d’or. Je voudrais m’en aller vers des îles de fleurs, En écoutant chanter la mer perverse Sur un vieux rythme ensorceleur. Je voudrais voir Damas et les villes de Perse Avec les minarets légers dans l’air. Je voudrais voir de beaux turbans de soie
Escorting his sweetheart home, He leads her past the willow-corpse, Talking so much and of so many things: ‘If you suffer sorrow and suffer shame, Shame for what others think of me, Then let our love be severed as swiftly, As swiftly as once we two were plighted. Let us depart in rain and depart in wind, As swiftly as once we two were plighted.’ The girl speaks, the girl says: ‘Our love cannot be severed! Steel is strong, and so is iron, Our love is even stronger still: Iron and steel can both be reforged, But our love, who shall change it? Iron and steel can be melted down, Our love must endure forever!’
Shéhérazade Asia Asia, Asia, Asia, Ancient wonderland of fairy tales, Where fantasy sleeps like an empress In her mystery-filled forest, Asia, I long to set sail with the schooner Which rocks this evening in the harbor, Mysterious and solitary And which spreads at last its violet sails Like a huge night-bird in the golden sky. I long to set sail for isles of flowers As I listen to the song of the wayward sea With its old bewitching rhythm; I long to see Damascus and the cities of Persia With their airy minarets; I long to see beautiful silken turbans
Sur des visages noirs aux dents claires; Je voudrais voir des yeux sombres d’amour Et des prunelles brillantes de joie En des peaux jaunes comme des oranges; Je voudrais voir des vêtements de velours Et des habits à longues franges. Je voudrais voir des calumets entre des bouches Tout entourées de barbe blanche; Je voudrais voir d’âpres marchands aux regards louches, Et des cadis, et des vizirs Qui du seul mouvement de leur doigt qui se penche Accordent vie ou mort au gré de leur désir. Je voudrais voir la Perse, et l’Inde, et puis la Chine, Les mandarins ventrus sous les ombrelles, Et les princesses aux mains fines, Et les lettrés qui se querellent Sur la poésie et sur la beauté; Je voudrais m’attarder au palais enchanté Et comme un voyageur étranger Contempler à loisir des paysages peints Sur des étoffes en des cadres de sapin, Avec un personnage au milieu d’un verger; Je voudrais voir des assassins souriants Du bourreau qui coupe un cou d’innocent Avec son grand sabre courbé d’Orient. Je voudrais voir des pauvres et des reines; Je voudrais voir des roses et du sang; Je voudrais voir mourir d’amour ou bien de haine. Et puis m’en revenir plus tard Narrer mon aventure aux curieux de rêves En élevant comme Sindbad ma vieille tasse arabe De temps en temps jusqu’à mes lèvres Pour interrompre le conte avec art. . . .
La flûte enchantée L’ombre est douce et mon maître dort Coiffé d’un bonnet conique de soie Et son long nez jaune en sa barbe blanche. Mais moi, je suis éveillée encore Et j’écoute au dehors
Above black faces with white teeth; I long to see eyes dark with love And pupils sparkling with joy Sunk in skins as yellow as oranges; I long to see velvet raiments And long-fringed robes; I long to see calumets in mouths Fringed about with white beards; I long to see grasping merchants with shifty looks, And cadis and viziers Who with a single crook of the finger Dispense life or death on a whim. I long to see Persia, and India, and then China, Portly mandarins beneath their sunshades, And princesses with delicate hands, And learned men disputing About poetry and beauty; I long to linger in enchanted places, And like a foreign traveller Gaze at leisure on landscapes painted On fabrics in pinewood frames, With a figure in the midst of an orchard; I long to see assassins smiling, As the executioner cuts off an innocent head With his great curved Oriental scimitar; I long to see beggars and queens; I long to see roses and blood; I long to see death for love or else for hate, And the to return later And recount my adventures to those intrigued by dreams, While raising like Sinbad my old Arabian cup From time to time to my lips, Artfully to interrupt the tale...
The enchanted flute The shade is soft and my master sleeps, A cone-shaped silken cap on his head, And his long yellow nose in his white beard. But I am still awake, Listening to the song
Une chanson de flûte où s’épanche Tour à tour la tristesse ou la joie. Un air tour à tour langoureux ou frivole Que mon amoureux chéri joue, Et quand je m’approche de la croisée Il me semble que chaque note s’envole De la flûte vers ma joue Comme un mystérieux baiser.
L’indifférent Tes yeux sont doux comme ceux d’une fille, Jeune étranger, Et la courbe fine De ton beau visage de duvet ombragé Est plus séduisante encore de ligne. Ta lèvre chante sur le pas de ma porte Une langue inconnue et charmante Comme une musique fausse. . . Entre! Et que mon vin te réconforte . . . Mais non, tu passes Et de mon seuil je te vois t’éloigner Me faisant un dernier geste avec grâce, Et la hanche légèrement ployée Par ta démarche féminine et lasse. . . .
Siete canciones populares españolas El paño moruno Text by Gregorio Martínez Sierra
Al paño fino, en la tienda, una mancha le cayó. Por menos precio se vende, porque perdió su valor. ¡Ay!
Of a flute outside that pours forth Sadness and joy in turn, A tune now languorous now lively, Which my dear lover plays. And when I draw near the casement, Each note seems to fly From the flute to my cheek Like a mysterious kiss.
The indifferent one Your eyes are soft like girl’s, Young stranger, And the delicate curve Of your handsome down-shaded face Is still more attractively shaped. Your lips sing at my door An unknown charming tongue, Like music off-pitch; Enter! And let my wine refresh you... But no, you pass by And I see you leaving my threshold, Gracefully waving farewell, Your hips lightly swaying In your languid feminine way.
The Moorish cloth On the delicate fabric in the shop there fell a stain. It sells for less for it has lost its value Ay!
Seguidilla murciana Anonymous
Cualquiera que el tejado tenga de vidrio, no debe tirar piedras al del vecino. Arrieros semos; ¡puede que en el camino, nos encontremos! Por tu mucha inconstancia, yo te comparo con peseta que corre de mano en mano; Que al fin se borra, y créyendola falsa nadie la toma!
Asturiana Anonymous
Por ver si me consolaba, arrimeme a un pino verde, Por verme llorar, lloraba. Y el pino como era verde, por verme llorar, lloraba!
Jota Anonymous
Dicen que no nos queremos, porque no nos ven hablar. A tu corazón y al mío se lo pueden preguntar. Ya me despido de tí, de tu casa y tu ventana. Y aunque no quiera tu madre. Adiós, niña, hasta mañana.
Seguidilla from Murcia People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones at their neighbour’s. We are drovers; it may be we’ll meet on the road! For your many infidelities I shall compare you to a peseta passing from hand to hand, till finally it’s worn down – and believing it false no one will take it
Asturian Song To see if it might console me I drew near a green pine. To see me weep, it wept. And the pine, since it was green, wept to see me weeping!
Jota They say we’re not in love since they never see us talk; let them ask your heart and mine! I must leave you now, your house and your window, and though your mother disapprove, goodbye, sweet love, till tomorrow.
Nana Anonymous
Duérmete, niño, duerme, duerme, mi alma, duérmete, lucerito, de la mañana. Naninta, nana. duérmete, lucerito de la mañana.
Canción Anonymous
Por traidores, tus ojos, voy a enterrarlos. No sabes lo que cuesta «del aire». Niña, el mirarlos «Madre, a la orilla». Dicen que no me quieres, ya me has querido. Váyase lo ganado, «del aire». Por lo perdido, «Madre, a la orilla».
Polo Anonymous
¡Ay! Guardo una pena en mi pecho que a nadie se la diré. ¡Malhaya el amor, malhaya y quien me lo dió a entender! ¡Ay!
Lullaby Sleep, little one, sleep, sleep, my darling, sleep, my little morning star. Lullaby, lullaby, sleep, my little morning star.
Song Since your eyes are treacherous, I’m going to bury them; you know not what it costs, ‘del aire’, dearest, to gaze into them. ‘Mother, a la orilla.’ They say you do not love me, but you loved me once. Make the best of it ‘from air’, and cut your losses, ‘Mother, a la orilla.’
Polo Ay! I have an ache in my heart of which I can tell no one. A curse on love, and a curse on the one who made me feel it! Ay!
PHOTO CREDIT: STEVE J. SHERMAN
ABOUT THE ARTISTS Two time Grammy® Award-winning American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, known for her “plush-voiced mezzo-soprano” (The New York Times), and “calmly commanding stage presence” (The New Yorker) has been heralded as “a rising star” (Los Angeles Times), gracing the world’s top opera and concert stages. The 2022-23 season will spotlight Ms. Bridges in one of her signature roles as Carmen with debut engagements at the Arena di Verona, Canadian Opera Company, and a return to Dutch National Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. As a native of Tacoma, WA, Bridges eagerly anticipates her Seattle Opera debut in a concert performance of Samson et Delilah as Delilah in January 2023. Additional concert engagements include Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with the Detroit Symphony in November, and a world premiere by Carlos Simon in April 2023 with the National Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Bridges’ recital engagements for the season begin with the performance of a world premiere by Jimmy Lopez at 92NY in December, and continue throughout 2023 at Washington University in St. Louis, Thomasville Center for the Arts, The Cliburn, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, San Francisco Performances, and the Mondavi Center in Davis, California. Ms. Bridges’ 2021-22 season highlights included numerous world premiere engagements as a guest artist in The Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Season. Ms. Bridges’ time in Washington, D.C. also included performances with The National Philharmonic in the world premiere of
Adolphus Hailstork’s A Knee on the Neck, and Mozart’s Requiem, and her first performance of the Verdi Requiem with the Cathedral Choral Society. She also appeared with the Amarillo Symphony as a guest artist in a world premiere piece by Chris Rogerson entitled Sacred Earth, and she gave a solo recital at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton. In June 2022 she performed Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel as part of the Power to the People! festival, followed by her debut with the San Francisco Symphony singing Jocasta in Peter Sellars’ production of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. She concluded her summer season singing a solo recital at Caramoor. In the midst of the worldwide pandemic, she emerged as a leading figure in classical music’s shift toward conversations of inclusion and racial justice in the performing arts. In 2022 she was announced as one of the Kennedy Center’s NEXT50 cultural leaders. Bridges led a highly successful panel on race and inequality in opera with the Los Angeles Opera that drew international acclaim for being a “conversation of striking scope and candor” (The New York Times). In early 2021, Ms. Bridges was featured in the Converse shoe brand’s All Stars Campaign for its Breaking Down Barriers collection. Bridges also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel for two episodes of the digital SOUND/STAGE series, and as part of the Global Citizen movement’s About the Artists Global Goal campaign, a program which also included Coldplay, Shakira, Usher, and more. The pandemic also forced the cancellation of Ms. Bridges’ numerous debuts during the 2020-21 season including the title role of Carmen at The Metropolitan Opera. Ms. Bridges 2019-20 season included her highly acclaimed debut at The Metropolitan Opera as Nefertiti in a sold-out run of Philip Glass’ opera Akhnaten, as well as a house and role debut with Washington National Opera as Dalila in Samson et Dalila. Other recent highlights include the 2022 Grammy® Award-winning Metropolitan Opera production of Akhnaten and 2021 Grammy® Award winning recording of Richard Danielpour’s oratorio The Passion of Yeshua with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, performing at the National Library of Congress to honor legendary fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg as she received the 2022 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award, her sold-out Carnegie Hall Recital debut, her role debut of Kasturbai in Satyagraha at LA Opera, and her debuts at Dutch National Opera and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Ms. Bridges also created the role of Josefa Segovia in the world premiere of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden
West at the San Francisco Opera, and performed in the world premiere of Bel Canto at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, an opera by Jimmy Lopez based on the novel by Ann Patchett. Bridges is a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Award, a 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant, first prize winner at the 2016 Francisco Viñas International Competition, first prize winner at the 2015 Gerda Lissner Competition, a recipient of the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Award, a 2012 Marian Anderson award winner, the recipient of the 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, the recipient of the 2009 Richard F. Gold Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, and the winner of the 2008 Leontyne Price Foundation Competition. J’Nai completed a three-year residency with the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and represented the United States at the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. A native of Tacoma, Washington, she earned her Master of Music degree from Curtis Institute of Music, and her Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Manhattan School of Music. www.jnaibridgesmezzo.com
PHOTO CREDIT: JOSEPH SINNOTT
Pianist Mark Markham is equally at home as a soloist, a collaborator with great singers, a chamber musician, a jazz pianist, or a vocal coach, and his interpretations have been praised by the public and press alike. His international career encompasses performances in North and South
America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, while the artistry of his playing has been described as “brilliant,” “exquisitely detailed,” and “in full service to the music.” This season Mr. Markham gives solo concerts in Lincoln, NE and in Honolulu for the Alliance Française. He will also give performances with tenor Limmie Pulliam in Lincoln, Harrisburg, PA, and Jonesboro, AK, as well a recital at the 92NY in New York City with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges. In the 2021-22 season Markham played a solo recital, “Dances and Improvisations” and a recital with soprano Leah Crocetto for the Lexington Bach Festival. In October he opened Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra’s season with the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 and then headed to Honolulu for a solo recital and a vocal recital for the Alliance Française of Hawaii. In November he gave a special solo performance in Dallas for a gala evening honoring the Chamber of Commerce of the European Union, a benefit concert for his foundation Singing in Sicily and then recitals with Limmie Pulliam in Kingsport, TN and Baltimore, MD. His one live performance in the 2020-21 season was a solo recital in Harrisburg on the Market Square Concert Series. The 2019-20 season was without doubt one of the greatest challenges for performing artists. For Markham the first half of the season was unexpectedly quiet, but how quickly plans can change. At the end of September, his friend and recital partner of twenty years, the great soprano Jessye Norman passed away suddenly. Her family asked him to perform at the funeral in Augusta, GA and then again at her memorial service at the Metropolitan Opera House with soprano Lisa Davidsen and bass-baritone Eric Owens. His next performance was a return engagement in Kansas City for the Lyric Opera in early February. “In the Mood for Love,” a cabaret show created by Markham for the young artist program, was a wonderful success. In mid-February he went out to Oberlin College to play a recital with tenor Limmie Pulliam and give a master class for the vocal students. Mr. Markham began the 2018-19 season with a solo recital at the Lexington Bach Festival - “Bach and the Art of Improvisation,” followed by a recital with mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. At Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall he gave recitals with soprano Leah Crocetto and mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges. Also with Ms. Crocetto he performed at Lafayette College and in Raleigh, NC for the North Carolina Opera. With Ms. Bridges he also performed on the Spire Series in Baltimore. In February he was pianist and music director for a program celebrating the music of Kurt Weill and George Gershwin entitled
“Mack the Knife is the Man I Love” at the Kansas City Opera and in March he returned to New York City for a solo recital—My Songs without Words—on the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series. In May he gave a master class on the Art Song Preservation Society series in New York City and in June gave a solo recital in Honolulu for the Alliance Française of Hawaii. He finished the season with the third edition of his vocal workshop Singing in Sicily. As the recipient of the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award from The Johns Hopkins University, he opened the 2017-18 season with a solo recital at the Peabody Conservatory, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Peabody Hopkins union. Other performances included Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3 with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, a vocal recital with soprano Leah Crocetto, and baritone Zachary Nelson at the Morgan Library in New York City, Ravel’s Concerto in G with the Harrisburg Symphony, plus a solo recital on the Market Square Concert Series in Harrisburg, and a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra. The summer of 2017 marked the first season of his vocal workshop, Singing in Sicily—a non-profit intensive training program for talented young singers from around the world. Born in Pensacola, Florida, Mr. Markham made his debut in 1980 as soloist with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra and in the same year was invited by the renowned Boris Goldovsky to coach opera at the Oglebay Institute. His teachers at the time, Robert and Trudie Sherwood, were supportive of all his musical endeavors from solo repertoire, vocal accompanying, and chamber music, to Broadway and jazz. During the next ten years as a student at the Peabody Conservatory, where he received the BM, MM, and DMA degrees in piano performance, this same support for the diversity of his musical gifts came from Ann Schein, a pupil of Mieczyslaw Munz and the great Artur Rubinstein. While under her tutelage he won several competitions including the Munz Competition and the First Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize at the 1988 Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition in New York City. While still a student at the conservatory, Mr. Markham toured with soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, a collaboration that resulted in critically acclaimed recordings of works by Messiaen, Carter, Dallapiccola, Schuller, and Wuorinen. In addition, he has toured the U.S., Europe, and Asia with countertenor Derek Lee Ragin and has given recitals with Gordon Hawkins, Theodora Hanslowe, Christine Brewer, Isabel Leonard, Vinson Cole, Jennifer O’Loughlin, and Limmie Pulliam. Starting in 1995 for twenty seasons, Mr. Markham was the recital partner of Jessye Norman, giving nearly 300 performances in thirty countries,
including recitals in Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Philharmonie in Berlin, La Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Salzburg Festival, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece, the Baalbek Festival at the Temple of Bacchus in Lebanon, and at the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize presentation to President Jimmy Carter in Oslo. Much appreciated by the public for his improvisational skills, Mr. Markham performed at the Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany, where he collaborated with Sir Peter Ustinov for a live television broadcast throughout the country. His gift for jazz has been recognized in the Sacred Ellington, a program created by Ms. Norman in which he served as pianist and musical director, which toured Europe, the Middle East and finished in 2009 with a performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. His recording with Jessye Norman of Roots: My Life, My Song was nominated for a Grammy Award. Mr. Markham is a former faculty member of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, the Norfolk Festival of Yale University and the Britten-Pears School of the Aldeburgh Festival in England. He has given master classes throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia and has been a guest lecturer for The Johns Hopkins University and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. markmarkhampianist.com
PHOTO CREDIT: JEAN-LUC FIEVET
Modlin Arts Presents
t onds
TERENCE BLANCHARD, FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES Sun 12 Nov, 2023 Camp Concert Hall Based on Charles M. Blow’s memoir, this intimate concert version of the opera offers a rare opportunity to hear the composer performing.
CANADIAN BRASS, HOLIDAY SHOW Wed 29 Nov 2023 Camp Concert Hall Holiday Show is a festive evening with this world-renowned quintet, filled with humor, audience interaction, and virtuosic playing.
JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER WITH WYNTON MARSALIS, MAX ROACH CENTENNIAL Thu 25 Jan 2024 Camp Concert Hall
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a celebration of this pioneering master musician whose music influenced generations.
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