Thursday Noon at Met recital was given by baritone James Coole-Stevenson accompanied by Vlad Soloviev. The first part of the recital was all Canadian art song. Jocelyn Mortlock’s Involuntary Love Songs; which are varied in mood and quite lyrical, Ian Cusson’s “You Held Out the Light” from Breakfast for Barbarians which is short and very Ian Cusson., with a shimmering piano part and finally James Rolfe’s Moths. This is a very complex cycle about light and dreaming and very varied from the boomy “night is a river” to the delicate “The river of dreams” and much more. It was all sung with great attention to text backed up by impeccable diction and sharp characterisation. As is usually the case with contemporary song the pianist has a lot to do and Vlad did it really well. It’s good to see someone programme so much contemporary Canadian song.
Wednesday’s lunchtime recital in the RBA featured Simone Osborne; currently appearing as Norina in Don Pasquale, and pianist Rachael Kerr. It was a well curated selection of songs apparently, at least partially, inspired by sleep deprivation singer and pianist both have small children!). There were three sets of four songs. One in each set was by a Canadian composer backed up by two others that were thematically related.
operaramblings 