NINETEENTH-& TWENTIETH-CENTURY LYRIC SONG: REPERTOIRE FOR THE SOPRANO VOICE

Abstract

The nineteenth and twentieth century produced a vast and varied amount of beautiful vocal music including songs, chamber music and of course opera written specifically for the Lyric soprano voice. This dissertation performance project explores the broad variety of these compositions through three programs highlighting the different musical styles, languages, and vocal techniques needed to sing them. The first program was presented on May 13, 2002 in Ulrich Recital Hall at the University of Maryland. This recital included nineteenth- and twentieth-century art songs by Wolf-Ferrari, Hector Berlioz, Fernando Obradors, Alban Berg, and Benjamin Britten. This presentation utilized three different collaborative pianists and in the way different musical styles, techniques, and even the power of individual interpretations were highlighted.

The second project program presented songs and chamber music by Claude Debussy, Chales Griffes, Franz Schubert, Manuel de Falla, and Serge Rachmaninoff. This concert was given in the Gildenhorn Recital Hall in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on October 28, 2002. The third program was performance of selections from La Boheme and Madama Butteifly. One cannot explore the romantic vocal music of the last two centuries without embracing opera and especially the operatic compositions of Puccini. His operas display beautiful and lyric warmth and lovely melodic lines that still influence composers of the present day. This final program was presented on December 13, 2002 in Ulrich Recital Hall at the University of Maryland. These three programs are meant to represent in a very broad way, the vast variety of delightful repertoire that is found in the lyric writing of the nineteenth and twentieth century. All of three of these performances are available on CD in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Library in the University of Maryland.