Ravinia 2022, Issue 5

visceral vivacity, lustrous lyricism Emily D’AngElo sings enargeia in mAny forms By Wynne Delacoma “ I T W A S T H E S I L V E R L I N I N G O F T H E P A N D E M I C . ” We’ve all searched for silver linings since March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic completely upended everyday life around the world. The precious slice for Canadian-born mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo found was time. ¶ By early 2020, the young singer’s career was in high gear. She had won important international competitions, was an alumna of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and was named a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist. ¶ Suddenly facing a calendar of canceled and postponed performances, D’Angelo instead saw that she finally had time to focus on her debut CD. Titled enargeia , the album was released to critical acclaim last October on the Deutsche Grammophon label. With tracks stretching from arrangements of plainchant by the 12th century composer Hildegard von Bingen to compositions by contemporary Americans Missy Mazzoli and Sarah Kirkland Snider, enargeia made National Public Radio’s list of 50 best albums of 2021. D’Angelo will perform selections from the album on August 17 in the Martin Theatre. Accompanied by pia- nist Kevin Murphy, director of the Ra- vinia Steans Music Institute Program for Singers, her recital program offers an even wider range of composers. The lineup includes songs by Arnold Schoenberg, Florence Price, Aaron Copland and a cantata, Giovanna d’arco , by Rossini. (D’Angelo has just completed two performances as Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Chicago Symphony conducted by James Conlon on the same stage, August 12 and 14.) “It took a lot of time to come up with the concept and select repertoire [for the album], to really solidify something that was cohesive,” said D’Angelo in a mid-July Facetime call from Paris where she was wrapping up performances of Gounod’s Faust at the Paris Opera. “There was the ability to have the time to think about that.” The impetus for the album, she said, was Hildegard. Born in 1098, the abbess of a community of German Benedictine nuns and renowned in her day as a gifted composer, philoso- pher, mystic, and scientist, Hildegard was rediscovered by feminist scholars in recent years. The Catholic Church canonized her as St. Hildegard von Bingen in 2012. “I was always interested in creating a project that revolved around her,” said D’Angelo. “She was a modern, modern figure, so multifaceted and interdisciplinary in so many ways. She was a thinker, a creator, a scientist in her own way, and a leader whom other people turned to for guidance in more ways than one. When I was in a children’s chorus—that was a big part of my musical upbringing—we performed plainchant by Hildegard von Bingen. I was totally mesmerized. It stuck with me, and I thought, this needs to be revisited.” Figuring out how to structure an album inspired by Hildegard’s haunting plainchant was not easy, said D’Angelo. Based in Berlin during the pandemic, she started discussing the idea with colleagues, including sound engineer Jonas Niederstadt. He connected her with Jarkko Riihimäki, an arranger, composer, and pianist with experience ranging from classical to pop music and electronics. “Ev- eryone involved with this album was multidisciplinary in some way,” she said, “starting with Hildegard and all the way through the sound engineer. It was very collaborative.” D’Angelo wanted to find a “sound world” that reflected her response to Hildegard’s intensely contemplative music. The 12-track album includes RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 28, 2022 12