Leeds Lieder Festival: Evening Recital: ‘If Fiordiligi and Dorabella had been Lieder singers’

Soraya Mafi (soprano)
Anna Huntley (mezzo-soprano)
William Thomas (bass)
Graham Johnson (piano)

Prologue

Mozart - Overture to Così fan tutte (excerpt)
Cole Porter - Where is the life that late I led

Sisters in Love

Mozart - ‘Ah guarda, sorella’ from Così fan tutte
Irving Berlin - Sisters
Brahms - Die Schwestern

‘Bella Vita Militar’

Wolf - Mir ward gesagt, du reisest in die Ferne | Ihr jungen Leute, die ihr zieht ins Feld | Sie blasen zum Abmarsch
George W Meyer - If he can fight like he can love
Hermann E Darewski - Sister Susie

Constancy

Brahms - Weg der Liebe I and II
Kurt Weill - That’s him
Gounod - Trust her not
Wolf - Trau’ nicht der Liebe

Weakening

Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Lowe - Where are all the simple joys of maidenhood?
Wolf - Herz, verzage nicht geschwind
Britten - Mother Comfort | Underneath the abject willow

Capitulation and Abandon

Purcell - No, resistance is but vain | What can we poor females do?
Saint-Saëns - El desdichado
Fauré - Tarentelle

Reconciliation

William Gray - We’re more to be pitied than censured
Reginald Tabbush - How can a little girl be good?
Wolf - Nun lass uns Frieden schliessen | Wir haben beide lange Zeit geschwiegen
Mozart - ‘Soave sia il vento’ from Così fan tutte

The indefatigable Graham Johnson revolutionised the Lied recital with his Songmakers’ Almanac. A typically wide-ranging programme, tonight’s recital is based on the plot of Così fan tutte (and containing numerous Mozartian echoes), Johnson has devised a programme of Lieder, English songs and duets where the interactions between the Neapolitan sisters, and the manipulative Don Alfonso, progress along Da Ponte’s lines: Sisters in love – ‘Bella vita militar’ – Constancy – Weakening – Capitulation and Abandon – Reconciliation.

...young Soraya Mafi lights up the stage and pricks up the ears

Thomas has a ‘real’ bass voice: full of ringing right at the bottom; layers of colour that blend smoothly and thickly; sonorous roundness without heaviness

That peerless song accompanist

6:45pm - Pre–Concert Talk with Richard Stokes

Richard Stokes, Professor of Lieder at the Royal Academy of Music, is enormously popular with Leeds Lieder audiences. This pre-concert talk will illuminate Graham Johnson’s re-imagining of the tradition song recital.

Tickets: Free (please book in advance)
Lecture Theatre 1