Ravinia 2022, Issue 5

PREVIOUS PAGE: MARK PILLAI THIS PAGE: RICHARD TERMINE (MET OPERA); CLIVE BARDA (COVENT GARDEN) Before her Ravinia performance, Emily D’Angelo starred in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in radically different settings and roles. At the Metropolitan Opera in 2019 (left) she appeared in a period production as Annio, the lover of Servilia, while last year at Covent Garden (right) she made her role debut as Sesto (who she portrayed August 12 and 14), the brother of Servilia, in a contemporary setting. two chants by Hildegard: one ar- ranged for voice and solo cello by Mazzoli, the other for string quartet and voice by Snider. “The question was, will you have her pieces arranged [for instruments as well as voice]?” said D’Angelo. “Will you perform them in their original form? What do you juxtapose that with? I was really thrilled that our modern composers were so open to exploring her music with me by cre- ating these arrangements. In the end we decided it would be a combination of new repertoire and the oldest of Western music.” Enargeia also includes four songs by Mazzoli, four by Snider, and two by contemporary Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. Like Hildegard’s plainchant, the contemporary works have strongly etched melodic lines supported by a deeply rich emotional undercurrent. D’Angelo hit upon the album’s title while doing preliminary research on Hildegard. A word from ancient Greek rhetoric, enargeia is roughly equivalent to “extreme vivid- ness, radiance, or presence.” “Nothing could be random or out of left field,” said D’Angelo. “The pieces all had to be connected on many different levels for there to be a cohesive product. It’s an experience; it’s a listening experience that needed to be an album. That’s a big ask these days, when it’s all streaming services and playlists and short, catchy hits.” Of course, creating an effective album is not the same as shaping a memorable recital for a live audience, which is why D’Angelo’s Ravinia pro- gram is so varied. “It’s not dissimilar to creating an album,” she conceded, “in that you’re looking for an arc, a unified experience. But it’s a totally different medium. It’s live. You have to consider vocal pacing, dramatic pacing.” She has performed recitals built around the album several times during the past year. “I have a core recital, but it’s con- stantly in flux. It changes depending on the acoustics, the time of year, the location, certainly the country. We’ve performed this in Stockholm; we recorded it in Berlin in the dark of winter. Ravinia is a summer festival, so Kevin and I have given a sort of summer festival twist on a rather moody recital.” Down by the Salley Gardens , a folk-flavored ballad from 1919 by British American composer Rebecca Clarke, is one of the sun- kissed additions. Since the pandemic has eased, D’Angelo has returned to the opera stage, singing leading roles at Covent Garden in London, La Scala, and the Berlin and Bavarian state opera houses. But recitals were always her first love. Her solo recital and Mozart opera performances mark her Martin Theatre debut, but she is no stranger to Ravinia. A fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute in 2015 and 2016, she has fond memories of hearing concerts in the intimate Arts and Crafts theater. “Steans had a huge impact,” D’An- gelo said. “I was 19 or 20; I met my teacher there [Steans faculty member mezzo-soprano Patricia McCaffrey], and Kevin has stayed in my life since then. The amount of time you could really dedicate to recital repertoire is something I feel so lucky to have had. Most of my study was actually not in opera; it was in concert and recital repertoire. To be able to continue working with pianists and coaches and singers on that repertoire was so exciting and really pivotal for me.” Wynne Delacoma was classical music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1991 to 2006 and has been an adjunct journalism faculty member at Northwestern University. She is a freelance music critic, writer, and lecturer. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 28, 2022 14