Soprano shares the wonders of spring

Music / “Primavera!”, Sarah Mann, soprano; Ella Luhtasaari, piano. At Wesley Music Centre, November 20. Reviewed by LEN POWER.

UNEXPECTEDLY, soprano Sarah Mann was first heard however not seen as she entered from the again of the Wesley Music Centre singing an Amy Seashore music. 

Her hauntingly lovely voice was contemporary, sunny and heat, like the right spring day.

The songs of “Primavera!”, in Artwork Music Canberra’s newest live performance, have been all chosen to evoke the wonders of spring. Works by Joseph Canteloube, Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Roger Quilter, Enrique Granados and Amy Seashore made up this system.

Mann is an achieved performer, trainer and administrator. She has carried out greater than 26 principal soprano roles in opera, operetta and oratorio, in addition to performances with state and nationwide arts organisations. 

She is fondly remembered by Canberrans within the position of Cosette within the early ’90s first manufacturing of Canberra Philharmonic’s “Les Miserables”.

Ella Luhtasaari is a collaborative pianist and trainer based mostly in Canberra. She accomplished bachelor levels in music and psychology on the ANU and accomplished post-graduate research in Austria and the UK. She is a vocal and language coach on the ANU Faculty Of Music.

Three “Songs of the Auvergne” by Canteloube have been an ideal subsequent selection with their sense of the countryside in spring. The second music, “Spring Water” was a teasingly lovely spotlight and was delightfully sung by Mann. The accompaniment for all three songs by Luhtasaari was glorious.

Different highlights included a chic marriage of voice and piano with “Morgan” by Richard Strauss and, within the second half of this system, ‘”Elegia Eterna” (Everlasting Lament) by Granados was dramatic with excessive, sustained notes that appeared extremely troublesome, however Mann sang with obvious ease.

The opposite Granados work on this system, “Gracia Mia” (My Swish One) was jubilantly sung and the joyful Roger Quilter’s “Love’s Philosophy” from a poem by Shelley was so memorable and obtained such a constructive response from the viewers. It was welcomed once more as an encore.

This was a memorable live performance by Mann, who clearly loves what she does, and had the nice fortune to have such an excellent accompanist as Luhtasaari.