Liz Delillo
Staff Writer
Chautauqua Opera Company Studio Artists mezzo-soprano Lindsey Weissman, soprano Kathiana Dargenson and baritone Joel Clemens will perform for the Opera Company’s first Afternoon of Song today at 3:15 p.m. in the Athenaeum Hotel Parlor.
An Afternoon of Song is a recital featuring a few of the Opera Company’s Studio Artists. In contrast to the Sing-In, which featured all 16 Apprentice and Studio Artists, Afternoons of Song will have all eight singers perform once over the course of their six-week season, with later recitals occurring on July 29 and Aug. 7.
“These (afternoons) are meaningful to me because people get to know the individual as well as enjoy the music that they’re singing,” said Music Administrator and Chorus Master Carol Rausch.
Chautauqua Opera faculty members and pianists Rausch, Rick Hoffenberg and Allison Voth will join the singers this afternoon.
While the Studio Artists will perform numerous arias and even a couple trios, they each highlighted a favorite piece from the recital’s repertoire. One of Weissman’s favorites is a selection from Jake Heggie’s Of Gods and Cats.
“They might be (what) I’m most excited to perform, because … (this is) my first time performing them,” Weissman said. “… They both have really strong jazz influence in harmony and rhythms and even the vocal technique, I would say. The style is very free and has a lot of contemporary influence.”
Dargenson shared about her relationship to the song cycle “Stargazing,” which she will be performing.
“ ‘Stargazing’ was (is) a song cycle commissioned at Indiana University by the Wylie House, which is a house of the first President of the University,” Dargenson said. “… They commissioned Dr. Raymond Wise, who was my teacher and supervisor.”
With themes ranging from identity and connection, to darkness and outer space, the song cycle appeals to Dargenson for the story it tells.
“He wrote this song cycle about Lizzie Breckinridge. She served the first family — so she was their servant, their maid — and they discovered in the house that she owned books about astronomy,” Dargenson said. “ … She really enjoyed stargazing, and they essentially wrote around that story.”
Like Dargenson, Clemens underscored the historical stories conveyed. He will perform two excerpts from a song-cycle based on the life of Manfred Lewin, a victim of the Holocaust.
“It’s very reflective of how all those great moments can be taken away so fast, so it’s very heavy, very dark, but then it also leaves in the stars this glimmer of hope for the future,” Clemens said. “It’s going to be quite a dichotomy between the two (excerpts), but I think it’ll be really poignant.”
Beyond the individual pieces, Chautauquans can expect an array of music woven together by a chorus of friends.
“The group that we’re working with is so pleasant and so amazing to be around,” Clemens said. “All of our pianists and administrators are super on top of everything and very supportive and always there to offer extra rehearsals, coachings, words of wisdom whenever we need, and then my fellow singers are just some of the best people I’ve ever met.”
