“Soprano” says the cover of this CD and Danielle Talamantes certainly
sings soprano roles but her vocal timbre, as heard in this programme, is
rather a dark mezzo. Many of the great interpreters of this repertoire have
also been mezzos, Conchita Supervia and Teresa Berganza to name but two. She
opens with
The Maiden and the Nightingale from the opera
Goyescas, originally a suite for piano inspired by the paintings of
Goya, but later reworked to an opera. You notice at once the delicious piano
playing and the deeply involved singing, slow with heavy rubato, almost
improvisatory. The fairly short opera has never been established in the
standard repertoire but is occasionally performed. It was premiered at the
Metropolitan Opera on 28 January 1916 in a double bill alongside
Leoncavallo’s
Pagliacci, with Giovanni Martinelli and Giuseppe De
Luca in the cast. The premiere was so successful that the composer was
invited by President Woodrow Wilson to give a piano recital at the White
House, which indirectly caused Granados’s death. He had to postpone his
voyage home to Europe and the ship he and his wife later chose was torpedoed
by a German submarine in the English Channel on 26 March.
Canciones amatorias (Love Songs) from 1915 are mostly settings of
anonymous poems but there are also some known poets from the early
17
th century, one of them being Lope de Vega (tr. 8).
Mira
que soy niña (Look, I’m just a little girl) is sung with fine dynamic
shading,
Mañanica era (It was daybreak) is slow and atmospheric
with hypnotic accompaniment.
Serranas de Cuenca (Mountain girls of
Cuenca) is lively and dancing.
Gracia mia (My graceful one) has
very clear Spanish flavour.
Lloraba la niña (The girl wept) is sad
and the listener doesn’t miss that, even without knowing the text “The girl
wept, and with reason”. The Lope de Vega setting also deals with weeping – a
very intense song.
Manuel de Falla’s
Seven Spanish Folk Songs is well-known
territory and I have to admit that Danielle Talamantes’ readings are
competitive, even against the really great names. Her beautiful inward
Asturiana is something to return to, as is the wild
Jota
and the caressing
Nana.
Joaquín Turina’s
Tres arias were composed in 1923. The first is a
long “frontier ballad”, where the central character is a Moor, who has just
defeated the Christians at Toledo. The second is a fisherman singing to his
beloved, while Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s
Rima is a poem where the
poet is caught by the eyes of some unknown creature.
I feel myself led
by your eyes / But where they lead me, I do not know. The latter is a
strong piece impressively sung. It actually haunted me for quite some time
after my listening session. Talamantes certainly has that hard-to-define
capacity to communicate with the listener. The support Henry Dehlinger
provides at the piano further enhances this in no unimportant way. A disc to
savour.
Göran Forsling
Track listing
Granados1.
La maja y el
ruiseñor from Goyescas [6:32]
2.
Mira que soy niña
[2:54]
3.
Mañanica era [3:07]
4.
Serranas de Cuenca [1:57]
5.
Gracia mía [2:31]
6.
Descúbrase el pensamiento [3:46]
7.
Lloraba la niña [2:31]
8.
No lloréis, ojuelos [1:29]
Falla9.
El paño moruno [1:15]
10.
Seguidilla murciana [1:22]
11.
Asturiana [2:31]
12.
Jota [3:11]
13.
Nana [1:42]
14.
Canción [1:22]
15.
Polo [1:39]
Turina16.
Romance [6:29]
17.
El Pescador [4:48]
18.
Rima [2:03]
