A Soprano’s Complete Package
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They’re trying to make Danielle de Niese a star — and they have a lot to work with. This soprano is talented, personable — and looks like Miss World, in an exceptionally good year. I think of a famous story about another soprano, the late Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. She walks out onstage, and a man gasps to his friend, “And she sings, too?”
Ms. de Niese was born in Australia in 1980; she is of Dutch and Sri Lankan heritage. Though Aussie-born, she grew up in Los Angeles. She was something of a child and teenage star. And she has now made an album of Handel arias, for the Decca label.
The album has 12 tracks, including some Handel favorites — such as “Piangerò” — and some less familiar pieces — such as “Ah, spietato,” from “Amadigi di Gaula.” Collaborating with Ms. de Niese is a well-known French “period” group: Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie.
In her arias, Ms. de Niese is poised, clean, and appealing. She has a good lightish voice, with a quick vibrato. She handles her passagework well, and her ornamentation is tasteful. The top of her voice is free and sometimes exciting; the bottom of it is serviceable — and not much called on here.
Now and then, you could ask for more lushness in Ms. de Niese’s voice, or more body. This is particularly true in the slower, more soulful arias. But your voice is your voice. As the soprano Diana Damrau remarked in an interview last summer, you can’t take your voice back to the store and ask for another one.
Just as there is a vibrancy in Ms. de Niese’s voice, there is a vibrancy in her musical expression. She stays within Baroque bounds, but she plays at will within them. Some individual decisions are questionable — for instance, I find her “Lascia ch’io pianga” draggy. But this is a satisfying Handel collection.
As for Les Arts Florissants, they are exactly what you would expect: crisp, bouncy, emphatic — “period”-like. And they do their work admirably.
Of some interest is the work of the Decca engineers. They have chosen to capture Ms. de Niese in a reverberant and slightly hollow way. The soprano seems to be in a bathroom or rotunda or something. And this is not true of the orchestra. Indeed, soloist and orchestra seem to inhabit different aural spheres. But one argues with Decca engineers — who have a fabled history — only reluctantly.
Ms. de Niese’s stardom seems all but assured. And I ask a rude question: Is she more ballyhooed than she would be, absent those Miss World looks? Probably. The fleshly element of opera threatens to become ever more important. But probably it was never unimportant. Geraldine Ferrar was a great soprano star of the second decade of the 20th century. And she was so beautiful, they put her in silent films. But she could sing, too. And so, of course, can Danielle de Niese.
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Virgil Moorefield is an American composer born in 1956. His new album is “Things You Must Do to Get to Heaven” (on the Innova label). This is also the title of the opening and predominant work.
In four movements — any of which can be a stand-alone piece, too — “‘Things’ as a whole explores psychological space.” That’s the composer talking, in his liner notes. The work is “a meditation on mortality from the standpoint of individual consciousness.” And “attempts at transcendence are made, with varying degrees of success.”
I’m afraid I don’t really understand Mr. Moorefield in these sentences. Later, he uses the word “comprovisational.” I don’t understand that, either. Maybe his students at the University of Michigan do. Frankly, it may help to be stoned, which should not be a problem in Ann Arbor. (I speak as a native.)
“Things You Must Do” is written for a small ensemble, including percussion (of course — lots of it), guitar, and bass clarinet. It is minimalist, mathematical, clever; simple, playful, mysterious; funky, psychedelic, groovy. Lie back and see the colors, man. Also, the piece just occasionally gets twangy, country.
This title work is followed by “Subliminal,” which is a short piece for percussion (surprise) and thoroughly New Age. It seems well titled.
Finally, we have “Arrival of the Crows,” made possible by the Bang on a Can People’s Commissioning Fund. Thank you, commissar! “Arrival” is creepy, and suspenseful, and alarming. Hitchcock might have appreciated it for a soundtrack. Also, Mr. Moorefield includes some jazz noodling. I liked this work. And I liked the album as a whole (my ribbing aside). The composer may be a victim of some clichés — of the orthodoxy of his time — but he’s got skill.