Neruda Songs-Lorraine Hunt Lieberson- for Valentines Day

[body2body]

Neruda Songs was written in 2005 by Peter Lieberson. He set five love poems by Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda. It was a commission from The Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony. Lieberson wrote it for his beloved wife. She gave the premiere in L.A. with Salonen conducting. She sang with incredible passion this music that was a love letter from her equally talented husband. She announced soon after the premiere that she had breast cancer, and died a year later. Peter Lieberson followed her five years later. This is the last of the five.

[whipped guy]

She was such a great artist. I heard her live only once in the title role of Handel's Serse (Xerxes) at the old NYC Opera. She could do it all from the baroque to the 21st Century! Here is her (actually his! ) first aria which occurs at the very begining of the opera.

 

[+ g56whiz]

Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!!

 

She was a musician's musician. She was famous around Boston both as a singer and as an instrumentalist (viola I think).

 

I too saw her only once: at the Met as Dido in Les Troyen. Amazing!!

 

She had done only one other role there (in the Great Gatspy) and a benefit or two but such was her stature that The Met had booked her as the star in a new production of Orfeo. Alas it was not to be. What a loss!

[+ honcho]

She was a musician's musician. She was famous around Boston both as a singer and as an instrumentalist (viola I think).

 

Yes, she did play viola. Her father was a music teacher and founded the community orchestra in which I play , originally as a pit orchestra for a musical at a bay area community college. (And she had her arm twisted to play in that orchestra for few years). Before moving to Boston, she was a member of the San Jose symphony.

 

Her mother was also a singer, and a regular with the local Gilbert & Sullivan company, and quite the comedienne. (I saw the mother portray Katisha in Mikado about 30 years ago).

[hedonist4now]

Thanks for the reminder of the Neruda Songs which I heard her perform with the LA Phil--exquisite in every detail.

 

My first Hunt experience was in San Francisco in Handel's Julius Caesar. I will never forget the ovation after "La Giustizia" with Nicholas McGeggan and the Baroque Philharmonia. The added ornamentation in the da capo taught us all what spontaneity and virtuosity can bring to live performance. I was told her embellishments were never the same in any performance.

 

Among the great performers of my lifetime!