Recital: Samantha Fox '21 BM, Mezzo-Soprano
NEC's students meet one-on-one each week with a faculty artist to perfect their craft. As each one leaves NEC to make their mark in the performance world, they present a full, professional recital that is free and open to the public. It's your first look at the artists of tomorrow.
Samantha Fox '21 BM studies Voice with Michael Meraw.
- Samantha Fox '21 BM, mezzo-soprano
- Miles Fellenberg, piano
- Natalie Boberg and Grant Houston, violin
- Anabel Tejeda, viola
- Robbie Bui, cello
- Michael Meraw, studio instructor
Francis Poulenc | Chanson d'Orkenise
Text
Chanson d’Orkenise
Par les portes d’Orkenise
Veut entrer un charretier.
Par les portes d’Orkenise
Veut sortir un va-nu-pieds.
Et les gardes de la ville
Courant sus au va-nu-pieds:
‘Qu’ emportes-tu de la ville?’
‘J’y laisse mon coeur entier.’
Et les gardes de la ville
Courant sus au charretier:
Qu’apportes-tu dans la ville?’
‘Mon coeur pour me marier!’
Que de coeurs, dans Orkenise!
Les gardes riaient, riaient.
Va-nu-pieds la route est grise,
L’amour grise, ô charretier.
Les beaux gardes de la ville
Tricotaient superbement;
Puis les portes de la ville
Se fermèrent lentement.
Guillaume ApollinaireSong of Orkenise
Through the gates of Orkenise
A waggoner wants to enter.
Through the gates of Orkenise
A vagabond wants to leave.
And the sentries guarding the town
Rush up to the vagabond:
'What are you taking from the town?'
'I'm leaving my whole heart behind.'
And the sentries guarding the town
Rush up to the waggoner:
'What are you carrying into the town?'
'My heart in order to marry.'
So many hearts in Orkenise!
The sentries laughed and laughed:
Vagabond, the road's not merry,
Love makes you merry, O waggoner!
The handsome sentries guarding the town
Knitted vaingloriously;
The gates of the town then
Slowly closed.
Translation © Richard Stokes, from A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000) provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder-www.oxfordlieder.co.ukArthur Honegger | Cécile
Text
Cécile
Le grand Chinois de Lancastre
Vous attire avec des fleurs...
Puis vous inonde d'odeurs...
Bientôt sa pipe est votre astre!
Du lys au pavot, Cécile,
La route, hélas! est docile.
Jean GiraudouxCécile
The great Chinese man of Lancaster
Attracts you with flowers...
Then smothers you with fragrances...
Soon his pipe's your guiding star!
From lilies to poppies, Cécile,
The path, alas, is an easy one
Translation © Richard Stokes, from A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000) provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder-www.oxfordlieder.co.ukFrancis Poulenc | Fagnes de Wallonie
Text
Fagnes de Wallonie
Tant de tristesses plénières
Prirent mon coeur aux fagnes désolées
Quand las j’ai reposé dans les sapinières
Le poids des kilomètres pendant que râlait
le vent d’ouest
J’avais quitté le joli bois
Les écureuils y sont restés
Ma pipe essayait de faire des nuages
Au ciel
Qui restait pur obstinément
Je n’ai confié aucun secret sinon une chanson énigmatique
Aux tourbières humides
Les bruyères fleurant le miel
Attiraient les abeilles
Et mes pieds endoloris
Foulaient les myrtilles et les airelles
Tendrement mariée
Nord
Nord
La vie s’y tord
En arbres forts
Et tors
La vie y mord
La mort
À belles dents
Quand bruit le vent
Guillaume ApollinaireWalloon Moorlands
So much utter sadness
Seized my heart in the desolate upland moss-hags
When weary I set down in the fir plantation
The weight of kilometers to the roar
Of the west wind
I had left the pretty wood
The squirrels stayed there
My pipe tried to make clouds
In the sky
Which stubbornly stayed clear
I confided no secret but an enigmatic song
To the dank peat-bogs
The honey-fragrant heather
Attracted the bees
And my sore feet
Crushed bilberries and whortleberries
Tenderly united
North
North
Life is gnarled there
In strong trees
And twisted
Life there bites
Death
Voraciously
When the wind howls
Translation © Richard Stokes, from A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000) provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder-www.oxfordlieder.co.ukArthur Honegger | Rosemonde
Text
Rosemonde
Qu'as-tu vu dans ton exil?
Disait à Spencer sa femme,
à Rome, à Vienne,
à Pergame, à Calcutta? Rien!... fit-il...
Veux-tu découvrir le monde
Ferme tes yeux, Rosemonde.
Jean GiraudouxRosemonde
What did you see in exile?
His wife would ask Spencer,
In Rome, in Vienna,
in Pergamum, in Calcutta? - Nothing!... he would say
If you wish to discover the world
Close your eyes, Rosemonde.
Translation © Richard Stokes, from A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000) provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder-www.oxfordlieder.co.ukFrancis Poulenc | Sanglots
Text
Sanglots
Notre amour est réglé par les calmes étoiles
Or nous savons qu’en nous beaucoup d’hommes respirent
Qui vinrent de très loin et sont un sous nos fronts
C’est la chanson des rêveurs
Qui s’étaient arraché le coeur
Et le portaient dans la main droite
Souviens-t’en cher orgueil de tous ces souvenirs
Des marins qui chantaient comme des conquérants
Des gouffres de Thulé des tendres cieux d’Ophir
Des malades maudits de ceux qui fuient leur ombre
Et du retour joyeux des heureux émigrants
De ce coeur il coulait du sang
Et le rêveur allait pensant
A sa blessure délicate
Tu ne briseras pas la chaîne de ces causes
Et douloureuse et nous disait
Qui sont les effets d’autres causes
Mon pauvre coeur mon coeur brisé
Pareil au coeur de tous les hommes
Voici voici nos mains que la vie fit esclaves
Est mort d’amour ou c’est tout comme
Est mort d’amour et le voici
Ainsi vont toutes choses,
Arrachez donc le vôtre aussi
Et rien ne sera libre jusqu’à la fin des temps
Laissons tout aux morts
Et cachons nos sanglots
Guillaume ApollinaireSobs
Our love is governed by the calm stars
Now we know that in us many men have their
being
Who came from afar and are one beneath our brows
It is the song of the dreamers
Who tore out their hearts
And carried them in their right hands
Remember dear pride all these memories
The sailors who sang like conquerors
The chasms of Thule the gentle Ophir skies
The accursed sick those who flee their shadows
And the joyous return of happy emigrants
This heart ran with blood
And the dreamer kept thinking
Of his delicate wound
You shall not break the chain of these causes
Of his painful wound and said to us
Which are the effects of other causes
My poor heart my broken heart
Like the hearts of all men
Here here are our hands that life enslaved
Has died of love or so it seems.
Has died of love and here it is
Such is the fate of all things
So tear out yours too
And nothing will be free till the end of time
Let us leave all to the dead
And conceal our sobs
Translation © Richard Stokes, from A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000) provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder-www.oxfordlieder.co.ukAlma Mahler | Laue Sommermacht from Fünf Lieder
Text
Laue Sommernacht
Laue Sommernacht: am Himmel
Stand kein Stern, im weiten Walde
Suchten wir uns tief im Dunkel,
Und wir fanden uns.
Fanden uns im weiten Walde
In der Nacht, der sternenlosen,
Hielten staunend uns im Arme
In der dunklen Nacht.
War nicht unser ganzes Leben
So ein Tappen, so ein Suchen?
Da: In seine Finsternisse
Liebe, fiel Dein Licht.
Otto Julius Bierbaum
Mild Summer Night
Mild summer night: in the sky
Not a star, in the deep forest
We sought each other in the dark
And found one another.
Found one another in the deep wood
In the night, the starless night,
And amazed, we embraced
In the dark night.
Our entire life – was it not
Such a tentative quest?
There: into its darkness,
O Love, fell your light.
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder, published by Faber, provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder-www.oxfordlieder.co.ukJohannes Brahms | Spanisches Lied
Text
Spanisches Lied
Anonymous, Translated by Paul Heyse
In dem Schatten meiner Locken
Schlief mir mein Geliebter ein.
Weck’ ich ihn nun auf? – Ach nein!
Sorglich strählt’ ich meine krausen
Locken täglich in der Frühe,
Doch umsonst ist meine Mühe,
Weil die Winde sie zerzausen.
Lockenschatten, Windessausen
Schläferten den Liebsten ein.
Weck’ ich ihn nun auf? – Ach nein!
Hören muß ich, wie ihn gräme,
Daß er schmachtet schon so lange,
Daß ihm Leben geb’ und nehme
Diese meine braune Wange,
Und er nennt mich eine Schlange,
Und doch schlief er bei mir ein.
Weck’ ich ihn nun auf? – Ach nein!
Spanish Song
In the shadow of my tresses
My lover has fallen asleep.
Shall I wake him now? – Ah no!
Carefully, I combed my curly
Tresses early each morning,
But my efforts are in vain,
For the winds tousle them.
Shade-giving tresses, sighing breezes
Have lulled my lover to sleep.
Shall I wake him now? – Ah no!
I shall have to hear how he grieves,
How he has languished so long,
How his whole life depends
On these my dusky cheeks.
And he calls me his serpent,
And yet he fell asleep at my side,
Shall I wake him now? – Ah no!
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder, published by Faber, provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder-www.oxfordlieder.co.ukJohannes Brahms | Liebestreu from Sechs Gesänge
Text
Liebestreu
„O versenk, o versenk dein Leid, mein Kind,
In die See, in die tiefe See!“ –
Ein Stein wohl bleibt auf des Meeres Grund,
Mein Leid kommt stets in die Höh’. –
„Und die Lieb’, die du im Herzen trägst,
Brich sie ab, brich sie ab, mein Kind!“ –
Ob die Blum’ auch stirbt, wenn man sie bricht:
Treue Lieb’ nicht so geschwind. –
„Und die Treu’, und die Treu’, ’s war nur ein Wort,
In den Wind damit hinaus!“–
O Mutter und splittert der Fels auch im Wind,
Meine Treue, die hält ihn aus. –
Robert ReinickTrue love
‘Oh drown, oh drown your grief, my child,
In the sea, the fathomless sea!’ –
A stone may stay on the ocean bed,
My grief will always surface. –
‘And the love you bear in your heart,
Pluck it out, pluck it out, my child!’ –
Though a flower will die when it is plucked: Faithful love will not fade so fast. –
‘Faithful, faithful – is but a word,
Away with it to the winds!’ –
Though a rock, O mother, will split in the wind,
My faithful love will withstand it. –
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder, published by Faber, provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder-www.oxfordlieder.co.ukClara Schumann | Am Strade
Text
Am Strande
Traurig schau ich von der Klippe
Auf die Flut, die uns getrennt,
Und mit Inbrunst fleht die Lippe,
Schone seiner, Element!
Furcht ist meiner Seele Meister,
Ach, und Hoffnung schwindet schier;
Nur im Traume bringen Geister
Vom Geliebten Kunde mir.
Die ihr, fröhliche Genossen
Gold’ner Tag’ in Lust und Schmerz,
Kummertränen nie vergossen,
Ach, ihr kennt nicht meinen Schmerz!
Sei mir mild, o nächt’ge Stunde,
Auf das Auge senke Ruh,
Holde Geister, flüstert Kunde
Vom Geliebten dann mir zu.
Wilhelm GerhardOn The Shore
Musing on the roaring ocean
Which divides my love and me;
Wearying heaven in warm devotion,
For his weal where’er he be;
Hope and fear’s alternate billow
Yielding late to nature’s law;
Whispering spirits ‘round my pillow
Talk of him that’s far awa’.
Ye whom sorrow never wounded,
Ye who never shed a tear,
Care-untroubled, joy-surrounded,
Gaudy day to you is dear.
Gentle night, do thou befriend me;
Downy sleep, the curtain draw;
Spirits kind, again attend me,
Talk of him that’s far awa’!
Robert Burns---intermission
Rebecca Clarke | Songs
Greeting
Eight O'Clock
Shy OneTexts
Greeting
Over the wave-patterned sea-floor
Over the long sunburnt ridge of the world,
I bid the winds seek you.
I bid them cry to you
Night and morning
A name you loved once;
I bid them bring to you
Dreams, and strange imaginings, and sleep.
Ella Young
Eight o'Clock
He stood, and heard the steeple
Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town.
One, two, three, four, to market-place and people
It tossed them down.
Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour,
He stood and counted them and cursed his luck;
And then the clock collected in the tower
Its strength, and struck.
Alfred Edward Housman
Shy One
Shy one, shy one,
Shy one of my heart,
She moves in the firelight
Pensively apart.
She carries in the dishes,
And lays them in a row.
To an isle in the water
With her would I go.
She carries in the candles,
And lights the curtained room,
Shy in the doorway
And shy in the gloom;
And shy as a rabbit,
Helpful and shy.
To an isle in the water,
With her would I fly.
William Butler YeatsGeorge Crumb | Three Early Songs
Night
Let It Be Forgotten
Wind Elegy (W.E.W.)Texts
Night
How beautiful is night!
A dewy freshness fills the silent air;
No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain
Breaks the serene of heaven:
In full-orbed glory yonder Moon divine
Rolls through the dark-blue depths.
Beneath her steady ray
The desert-circle spreads,
Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night!
Robert Southey, from Thalaba the Destroyer
Let it be forgotten
Let it be forgotten as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was burning gold.
Let it be forgotten forever and ever.
Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.
If anyone asks, say it was forgotten,
Long and long ago.
As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed foot-fall
In a long forgotten snow.
Sara Teasdale, from Flame and Shadow
Wind Elegy (W.E.W.)
Only the wind knows he is gone,
Only the wind grieves,
The sun shines, the fields are sown,
Sparrows mate in the eaves;
But I heard the wind in the pines he planted
And the hemlocks overhead,
"His acres wake, for the year turns,
But he is asleep," it said.
Sara Teasdale
Barbara Strozzi | Amante loquace
Text
Amante Loquace
Chi brama in amore
Far paghi i desiri,
Nel centro del core
Non chiuda i martiri.
Con note sonore,
Con voci che strida
All'empia homicida,
Sue pene distingua.
Pietà non manca ad amator ch'ha lingua.
S'aviene ch'un dardo
Il core t'impiaghe,
Non copra le piaghe
Silentio codardo.
Discopra non tardo
Le fresche ferite
Chi brama guarite
Le pene del core.
Per amante ch'è muto è sordo amore.
AnonymousTalkative Lover
One who wants to
satisfy his desires in love,
must not keep his suffering
inside his heart.
With resounding words,
with a strident voice
he must make his pains
known to the deadly charmer.
Sympathy is not wanting for the lover who speaks up.
If an arrow should happen
to wound your heart,
don't hide the wounds
in cowardly silence.
One who wants to heal
the pains of the heart
must reveal the fresh wound
without waiting.
To the mute lover, love is deaf.
Translation by Richard KolbArtists- Miles Fellenberg, harpsichord
Antonio Vivaldi | Gelido in ogni vena from Farnace
Text
Gelido in ogni vena
Gelido in ogni vena
Scorrer mi sento il sangue.
L'ombra del figlio esangue
M' ingombra di terror.
E per maggior mia pena
Vedo che fui crudele
A un'anima fedele,
A un innocente cor.
Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi
(Metastasio)Like Ice in Every Vein
Like ice in every vein,
I feel my blood flow,
the shade of my lifeless son falls over me;
I’m terrorized.
And worse than that pain,
I see that I was cruel
to an innocent soul,
to the heart of my heart.
Translation © Laura Prichard. Reprinted with permission from the LiederNet Archive (www.lieder.net)Artists- Natalie Boberg and Grant Houston, violin
- Anabel Tejeda, viola
- Robbie Bui, cello
- Miles Fellenberg, harpsichord
I would like to sincerely thank my family, friends, mentors, significant other,
and everyone who has been a part of my artistic journey thus far,
and those who have made my time at NEC so special.
I would like to especially thank my studio teacher Michael Meraw
for his dedicated guidance and unending kindness
and my parents for their constant support and love,
and for always encouraging me to follow my dreams.
I am beyond thankful for everyone who has helped me become
the person and artist that I am today,
and this recital truly would not be possible without all of you!