A New Year and New Repertoire for Nicole

Greetings, dear readers!

The first half of this year holds a few really interesting pieces, including one piece that's new to me, however the text is not.

I'm joining the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in Sioux Falls for the Arvo Pärt Stabat Mater in April, and while I've sung the text of the Stabat Mater countless times, it is the first time that I've sung a Pärt piece solo.

So far I think it will be a new and different experience from any other Stabat Mater I've sung.

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On the same program I'll be singing the Mozart Requiem, which was one of the first pieces I ever sang professionally and you might remember that I when I sang it in Milwaukee, it was televised live on Wisconsin Public Television. That was this performance here.

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In a few weeks I'll be singing my very first Heinrich Schütz duet! Heinrich Schütz was a German composer who wrote a lot of vocal music and the text painting he employed in "Habe deine Lust an den Herren" SWV311 is so perfect it's quite entertaining.

One of the best parts goes like this:

sei nicht neidisch über die Übelthäter  don't be jealous of the evildoers.

denn wie das Gras werden sie bald abgehauen,  because they will be chopped down

und wie das grüne Kraut werden sie verwelken.  and like the green herbs they will wither.

Übeltäter (or Übelthäter, as it apparently used to be written) is simply one of my favorite German words. There is a fair amount of onomatopoeia in German, and that one really sounds like we're talking about evildoers.

On abgehauen the vocal line is sturdy and tough, just like an ax or a cythe chopping down thick grasses.

And on verwelken it's notes that sound like sighing, as if you're watching the green herbs wither in time-lapse.

I love singing fabulous writing like this.

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In other news, I am having some kind of serious technical issue with the media player and I've tried a couple of times to fix it, but it doesn't work yet. I'll keep working on it and I'll post something here when I get it fixed.