Amy Johnson (soprano)
Portrait of an Artist
MAV Symphony Orchestra/Steven Mercurio
rec. 2009, Hungaroton Studios, Budapest, Hungary
Sung texts enclosed.
MSR CLASSICS MS1711 [69:39]
Most operatic recitals tend to present a dozen or so of mostly standard arias that have been recorded umpteen times since the beginning of the previous century. It is easy to understand why. Most singers usually get only one chance to make such a recording and naturally want to preserve for posterity excerpts from his/her stage repertoire, and that repertoire more often than not is built of standard arias. But there are exceptions, and here is one. Iowa born soprano Amy Johnson has amassed a repertoire of more than 30 roles that has been seen and heard across the US and Mexico and also in Europe, China and South Africa. Signature roles like Tosca and Salome have rubbed shoulders with Donna Anna and Leonora (Il trovatore). But she has also striven to add roles off the beaten track, not least from the last few decades and she has not been
averse to taking on world premieres. On the present disc she has, triggered by conductor John Fiore, chosen excerpts from nine operas by eight composers, and apart from a couple of items the majority is not frequently heard and even downright rarities. The general opera enthusiast will recognize Wagner, Richard Strauss and Jules Massenet but the rest can appear to be rather or totally obscure. Several of the operas are from fairly recent times and that raises the question: is this difficult atonal music? If so, I’m not interested! No, it isn’t difficult music but it is different, and you need to adjust your way of listening and be open-minded. All the characters here are women with strong feelings of a kind you will understand once you’ve got under the skin of them and appreciate them as believable human beings.
Let’s start from the beginning. Sieglinde in the first act of Wagner’s Die Walküre is a young woman who was forced into a marriage with a man she doesn’t love. She is longing for real love and freedom and when a young man fleeing from his enemies seeks shelter in her dwelling he evokes warm feelings in her. He turns out to be her twin brother and in this ‘aria’, which is part of a lengthy duet, she expresses her feelings: ‘You are the spring for which I longed in the frosty winter time.’ This is one of the great declarations of love in the opera literature and Amy Johnson sings it with such power and intensity. Her tone is slightly hard but it radiates immense feeling and is irresistible.
This opera was premiered in 1870. The next track brings us almost 140 years forward time-wise. Stephen Schwartz has been a well-known Broadway composer ever since Godspell (1971) but Séance on a Wet Afternoon was his first opera, commissioned by Opera Santa Barbara where it was premiered on 26 September 2009. Amy Johnson got permission to record One Little Lie in advance of the premiere. The plot is a psychological thriller about a medium, Myra Foster, who
believes she has never got the recognition she deserves. She and her husband Bill plan to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy industrialist and keep her hidden until Myra has a vision that can trace the girl and save her – and Myra will become famous. In this scene Myra and Bill defend their planned crime. The music is nicely melodious with more than a whiff of Broadway. The expressivity of Amy Johnson is spellbinding and she is well partnered by Vernon Hartman, who is also executive producer of this recording.
In Leoš Janáček’s Ká’ta Kabanová, Katĕrina is living with her mother-in-law, who is a dominant character. Kát’a complains to the family’s foster daughter how happy and free she was as a child and now she is only lonely and longing for freedom from this dreary life. This is a truly moving scene.
The same goes for Luigia’s Prayer from Sacco and Vanzetti. The opera was composed in 2001 by Anton Coppola, uncle of film director Francis Ford Coppola. Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrant anarchists who were convicted of murdering two people
during an armed robbery in 1920. They were sentenced to death but a supposed lack of reliable evidence led to worldwide protests. In spite of that, they were electrocuted in 1927, but even today it remains uncertain whether they really committed the murders. In the opera Luigia, sister of Vanzetti, travels to the US to try to prevent the execution. Here she prays that she might die to save her brother’s soul. The scene is touching and beautiful. It is worth noting that the composer died in March 2020 at the age of 102 years and that he most likely was the last survivor of those involved in the Metropolitan premiere of Turandot, where he sang in the Children’s Chorus, aged nine.
Richard Strauss, married to a soprano, had a lifelong love-affair with the soprano voice. Remember the heavenly music for the female voices in Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos and Capriccio but also his Four Last Songs. Arabella from 1933 is probably less well-known,
but the sisters Arabella and Zdenka blend their voices in wonderful duets
and also in solo scenes. In this scene Arabella is worried about which of her many suitors she will marry. Is it Elemer, who has come to escort her to the ball? But the thought disturbs her, as if walking over
a grave. The scene is forever etched into my memory by Lisa Della Casa’s recording – and to some extent by Kiri Te Kanawa’s. Amy Johnson hasn’t got the creamy voice of either, but she is still wonderfully responsive to the mixed feelings of the scene.
Theo Musgrave’s Simón Bolivar naturally evokes special feelings for Amy since she premiered the role of Manuela in 1995. Bolivar was instrumental in the striving for several South American countries to become independent from the Spanish Empire. In the opera Manuela, wife of an English diplomat, has taken Bolivar as her lover. She gets a letter from him asking her to come to his deathbed. Now she has to decide whether she should leave her husband definitely for a short reunion with Bolivar and know that she will be helpless after his death – another insoluble conflict.
The title character in Thaďs, a courtesan and priestess – a weird combination it would seem – wrestles with another eternal problem: ageing. She pleads to her mirror: Tell me that I am beautiful, and will forever be! The answer is merciless: Thaďs, you will grow old! And one day you will no longer be Thaďs … Another heart-rending and deeply moving scene, sung with great feeling.
Salome’s passion to get Jochanaan’s head on a silver platter is of course perverse and disgusting, but passions, irrespective of subject, can often be expressed
in unrealistic ways. In this opera the main character fights for her goal: to kiss Jochanaan’s lips – and wins, but also dies as a punishment. The singer also fights – against Richard Strauss’s enormous orchestra, which for more than a quarter of an hour threatens to drown her. That fight can
sometimes also be a losing battle, but Amy Johnson triumphs with flying colours in a thrilling combat.
The concluding scene also deals with passion, in this case religious passion. Sharon Falconer in Elmer Gantry is an evangelist who preaches with such
radiance that Elmer, who by chance visits a revival meeting, is smitten and finds salvation. Amy Johnson’s reading is also filled with
radiant passion as is Patricia Risley’s on the complete recording issued in 2012.
Anyone with an interest in some operatic byways, primarily from the last one hundred years, and/or dramatic singing of the highest order, should lend an ear to this recital. It is indeed perspective building.
Göran Forsling
Contents
Richard WAGNER (1813 – 1883)
Die Walküre (1870):
1. Du bist der Lenz [2:13]
Stephen SCHWARTZ (b. 1948)
Séance of a Wet Afternoon (2009):
2. One Little Lie [5:44]
Leoš JANÁČEK (1854 – 1928)
Kát’a Kabanová (1921):
3. Scene, Act I [10:19]
Anton COPPOLA (1917 – 2020)
Sacco and Vanzetti (2001):
4. Luigia’s Prayer [4:26]
Richard STRAUSS (1864 – 1949)
Arabella (1933):
5. Mein Elemer [9:01]
Thea MUSGRAVE (b. 1928)
Simón Bolívar(1995):
6. Nada Dura [8:46]
Jules MASSENET (1842 – 1912)
Thaďs (1894):
7. Dis-moi que je suis belle [7:23]
Richard STRAUSS
Salome (1905):
8. Final Scene [17:08]
Robert Livingston ALDRIDGE (b. 1954)
Elmer Gantry (1992; 2007):
9. Sharon’s Entrance [7:23]
Other performers
Vernon Hartman as Billy (tr. 2), Emily Langford Johnson as Varvara (tr. 3), Melissa Primavera as Zdenka (tr. 5)
