Sitting between soprano and alto, the mezzo-soprano is traditionally known for its warm, rich vocal color with the dramatic mezzo-soprano eliciting a strong, dark tone that has been used as an operatic temptress, trickster, and femme fatale — the witch in Hänsel and Gretel, Dalila in Samson et Dalila, the sorceress Ortrud in Lohengrin. In this program, the mezzo-soprano, Jennifer Johnson Cano takes on roles both light and ghoulish. In Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder love poems of German poet and linguist, Friedrich Rückert, are set among beautiful contrasts in harmony and melody.
Highlighting the spookier side of the mezzo-soprano, Gregg Kallor sets Edgar Allen Poe’s infamous, “Tell-Tale Heart” poem into an aural representation of guilt as the incessant heartbeat of our protagonists’ victim thumps away through the percussive repetition of the piano.
