FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WHEN? Saturday,
May 4, 2019 at 7:30 p.m.
WHO? Letitia
Stevens, soprano, with pianist Leonardo Ciampa
WHAT? A
recital entitled, “Queens, Countesses & Waifs”
WHERE? St.
Anne-in-the-Field’s Church (Flint Hall), 147 Concord Rd. (Rt.
126), Lincoln, MA
BY
WHOM? Arts MetroWest, Inc. (Leonardo Ciampa, founding director)
THE
PROGRAM? Arias from Giulio Cesare, Le nozze di
Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, and Die
Fledermaus, and art songs by Donaudy and Duparc
FOR
MORE INFORMATION? Leonardo Ciampa
Arts
MetroWest, Inc. (Leonardo Ciampa, founding director) ends their
2018-2019 season in style, with a recital featuring the dynamic soprano Letitia
Stevens, accompanied by the well-known collaborative musician Leonardo Ciampa.
Formerly
a mezzo-soprano, Letitia has in recent seasons made the switch to
dramatic coloratura soprano. “It is an exciting
transformation,” said Ciampa. “Usually when singers switch voice
types midway through their career, they switch downwards. I
can’t think of any other singer who switched up to
Queen of the Night!” According to Ciampa, however, that is not all
that makes Letitia unique. “Usually singers fall into one of
two categories: ‘opera singers’ who are very attuned to the
acting and the emotions of the characters, but may or may not be
strong musicians or vocalists; and ‘non opera singers,’ who are
very strong musically and intellectually but often lack drama or
vocal excitement. Letitia really is both: a ‘smart singer’
who is such a strong musician and interpreter, and has such an appealing voice, but is also very
dramatic and very comfortable on the stage. In that sense, she
has it all.”
We
asked Letitia Stevens a few questions about her program:
Why
did you want to do this program?
I
wanted to do this program firstly because I wanted to work again with
Leonardo, who loves Italian music, and who loves late Romantic music,
which I also love.
Why
this particular program?
I was
walking along one day, thinking about the difference between soprano
roles and mezzo-soprano roles. Mezzo-sopranos are known for singing
witches, bitches, britches, and whores. And I thought, “What is the
soprano equivalent of that?” It occurred to me that most soprano
roles are either queens, countesses, and other ladies of that ilk, or
they’re waifs, such as the orphan Amina in La sonnambula. So
that was how I got the idea for the title, “Queens, countesses, and
waifs.”
Why
this specific repertoire?
There were things that I very much
wanted to learn – and things that others very much wanted me to
learn! As soon as I started singing soprano, people kept saying to
me, “Oh my God, you have to sing the Donizetti queens.” Hence
Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda. Meanwhile, I had already been singing
Queen of the Night, and there were other Mozart queens and countesses
which I already liked singing. And I also liked singing Cleopatra,
who wasn’t called a “queen,” but she was the dominant ruler of
Egypt.
What else is on the program?
We
didn’t want to do a whole program of only arias, which would have
placed heavy demands on the voice — and on the audience! So we
chose two composers of the most “yummy,” late Romantic art songs,
Donaudy and Duparc.
Tell us about the transition from mezzo-soprano to soprano.
I
always had the high Fs. I always had a high extension, but I
never knew how to integrate it with the rest of the voice. However,
when I switched teachers, I found the confidence to move up to
soprano, and thanks to her I discovered this new, more robust sound
and new, more energized technique. And it was then that I started
singing Donaudy. Because as a mezzo-soprano, I didn’t yet have that
lusher, fuller sound for this late Romantic Italian music. It was the
same with Duparc. I had bought the score years ago in London, because
I loved those songs, and I had always wanted to sing them. However, I
never thought I had a warm enough voice for them. Now, as a soprano,
with this new technique and new sound, I suddenly find that I can
sing them!
What
has been the most rewarding thing about becoming a soprano?
To
sing with the whole voice, not to be afraid to use the whole voice, has
been very exciting. And it has been exciting to find new
repertoire for it, but also to revisit repertoire that I loved for a
long time but never thought that I could sing.
Who We Are
Arts MetroWest Inc. was founded in 2012 by Leonardo Ciampa to promote cultural events throughout the MetroWest region of Massachusetts (Ashland, Framingham, Holliston, Marlborough, Natick, Southborough, Wayland, Wellesley, Weston). Mr. Ciampa has a long and successful track record of organizing exciting events (including the acclaimed American debut of Italian tenor Vittorio Marciano in 1996). From 2009 to 2016, Ciampa was artistic director of organ concerts at MIT, where he brought in some of the finest American and European organists (of the caliber of Vienna’s Peter Planyavsky and England’s David Briggs). From 2012 to 2017, Arts MetroWest sponsored many remarkable concerts with the MetroWest Choral Artists, a 14-member all-professional vocal ensemble of which Ciampa was the founding director. The group performed a wide variety of repertoire from the Renaissance to the current day. Memorable performances included Mascagni's L'amico Fritz (the complete opera in concert form), Poulenc's Gloria, and a concert devoted exclusively to Ciampa's own compositions. However, Arts MetroWest has not limited itself to sponsoring choral programs. On September 28, 2014, Ciampa brought international concert organist Andrea Toschi from Italy to perform an organ recital at St. Andrew’s Church in Wellesley. Ciampa's main goal was and is a very simple one: to present great music with great musicians.
Arts MetroWest, Inc., is a corporation in good standing with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 501(c)(3) status is pending.
Arts MetroWest, Inc., is a corporation in good standing with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 501(c)(3) status is pending.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
GIGLI!
Second enlarged edition of this essential collection of writings on Beniamino Gigli, the greatest Italian tenor after Enrico Caruso. Contributors include such eminent figures in the opera world as Colin Bain, José Carreras, James A. Drake, Andrew Farkas, Tom Kaufman, Magda Olivero, Luigi Ricci, Giorgio Tozzi, Virginia Zeani, and dozens of others. Over 400 pages, with over 80 illustrations, many appearing in print for the first time.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE
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Letitia Stevens, in concert!
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