Notes on Three Dissertation Performances (Two Recitals and an Opera Role)

Abstract

Two recitals and an opera role were performed in lieu of a written dissertation. The following program notes and character analysis represent the craft, research, scholarship, and thoughtful interpretive choices that provided a foundation for the performances. The first recital featured works by twentieth-century composer Rosario Scalero and three of his most famous students: Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, and George Walker. At the center of the concert was the first known performance of Scalero’s Op. 33, Sette canzoni per soprano e quintetto d’archi, since its premiere in 1939. The score for Op. 33 was created especially for this performance from the manuscript parts from the premiere. The second recital featured works by Claude Debussy, Edvard Grieg, Lori Laitman, Joaquin Rodrigo, and James Caldwell, in four languages (French, German, Spanish, and English.) The final piece on the concert was a world premiere setting of two Walt Whitman poems by Caldwell, commissioned expressly for the recital. The character analysis is dedicated to W.A. Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte’s Donna Anna from Don Giovanni. The analysis explores choices directors and interpreters make concerning her initial assault, how one might interpret her denials of Don Ottavio, and an exploration of character attributes as evidenced by the score and libretto.

Recital 1 was performed on October 1, 2023 at the Walgreen Drama Center, Stamps Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Martin Katz, piano; Sarah Thune, piano; Muse Ye, piano; Linnea Geenen and Caleb Frailey, violins; Kimberly LaFranzo, viola; Raymond Tsai and Robbert Paddock, cellos. Recital 2 was performed on December 8, 2023 in the Moore Building, Britton Recital Hall in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Matthew Dardick, alto saxophone; Sarah Thune, piano; Muse Ye, piano. In lieu of a third recital, the role of Donna Anna in W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni was performed on March 24 and 26, 2023 at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Mo Zhou, director; Martin Katz, conductor.