SAN FRANSISCO OPERA CENTER

PROGRAM NOTE

Night. It’s a magical time in which so much happens while seemingly so little takes place. On its surface, it’s supposed to be a time of rest. Yet during those hours between the sun dipping below the horizon and when the sun rises again, inhibitions are loosened, imaginations run wild, and we have a chance to explore our shadow-selves and the realms of our unconscious. 

The structure of tonight’s program takes a cue from Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings, one of the British master of song’s great cycles that traces the path from sunset to sunrise. While none of Britten’s songs appear on the program this evening, the recital is inspired by his structural conceit in the Serenade, with each set of songs exploring some aspect of these hours of the dark. 

Many a composer and poet have been inspired by the night and all its mystery, excitement, profundity, and terrors. As a result, it was difficult to choose which songs to bring together for this recital, and many a favorite chestnut of the repertoire was left on the cutting room floor (including Mr. Britten, despite his inspirational influence on tonight’s proceedings). However, there are still plenty of beloved nighttime characters the listener may find familiar, including Debussy’s famously beautiful music about the Moon, Berlioz’s flower-spirit, Mahler’s take on the Midnight hour, and Schubert’s terrifying Doppelgänger.  

Alongside these are songs that might be new to the listener. Many are beautiful gems that have been forgotten as the course of human history has swept along, like the charming bringer-of-dreams described by Nora Holt. The first African American composer to be awarded a Master of Music degree in the United States, The Sandman is her only surviving song. Another of these is Cecil Cohen’s beautiful setting of a poem by Countee Cullen which was a favorite of the trailblazing soprano Dorothy Maynor on her recital tours in the 1940s and 50s. Also among these is the legendary singer Pauline Viardot’s exploration of the rich and exciting nightlife of Madrid, a city where dinner is served no earlier than 11pm, and which is perhaps at its most vibrant once the sun sets. 

Other songs that might be new to the listener are songs by some of our nation’s greatest composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Alongside Debussy’s very French take on the moon, is an ultramodern take on that same nighttime source of light composed by Ruth Crawford Seeger just 11 years after Debussy’s death. Mixed in with these lunar moments is yet another take on the celestial body by one of today’s greatest composers of song, San Francisco’s own Jake Heggie. 

The night is a time for dreams, demons, debauchery, and darkness. We hope you enjoy this musical roller-coaster ride through the hours when the subconscious and the supernatural reign supreme.