Michelle Areyzaga and Dana Brown: Were I With Thee
4Tay

One could be excused for presuming Were I With Thee to be an Emily Dickinson homage. After all, a number of its song are based on her poems, the album title is a line from “Wild Nights – Wild Nights,” and the charming cover art was created by her living relative Kandice Dickinson. Yet while the poet is a dominant presence, this splendid art song collection by soprano Michelle Areyzaga and pianist Dana Brown casts a wider net, as its general focus is on women authors from a variety of English- and Spanish-speaking countries. All of the songs' texts are by women, and a number of the American composers are female too.

Art song composers often turn to the writings of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Dorothy Parker, and Dickinson, but texts by Gabriela Mistral (Chile), Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg also appear on this release. Interestingly, the composer who set the late Justice's words is her daughter-in-law Patrice Michaels, who's joined on the album by fellow composers Gwyneth Walker, Richard Pearson Thomas, Lee Hoiby, Wayland Rogers, John Duke, Edouard Lippé, and Leonard Bernstein. Adding to the project's appeal, the album includes world premiere recordings of Walker's song cycle Emily! (from New England), Rogers' Tres Poemas de Gabriela Mistral, Walker's “La Luz” (from La Ternura), and Duke's art song “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed.” That the material is brought vividly to life by Areyzaga's stirring soprano, which veritably soars throughout the recording, and Brown's sensitive accompaniment makes the recording all the more special.

Certainly the performers are well-qualified for the project. Though she is US-born, Areyzaga's mother was born in Bolivia and her grandfather was a Methodist preacher in Mexico City before starting a church in Chicago when her father was a boy. She acquired her degree in vocal performance from the city's Roosevelt University, where she now teaches; has performed with the New York City Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México; has appeared on multiple recordings; and is recognized as a formidable interpreter of vocal art song and chamber music. Brown likewise has performed widely, has established himself as an esteemed vocal coach, and has musically directed more than fifty operas at Roosevelt University.

No one will come away from Were I With Thee feeling shortchanged when the seventy-four-minute album presents twelve works and twenty-six tracks. An additional point of interest lies in the fact that “Wild Nights – Wild Nights” receives treatments from three composers, Thomas, Hoiby, and Walker (the latter's appearing under the song title “Passion”), which makes for a fascinating comparison. Speaking of wild, Bernstein's “A Julia de Burgos” (from Songfest) stands out as one of the album's liveliest and its words (by Julia de Burgos) ultra-defiant (“You are a domestic lady, resigned, submissive, tied to the prejudices of men; Not I; for I am Rocinante running wild sniffing out horizons of God's justice”).

The first Dickinson treatment comes from Thomas, whose At Last, To Be Identified! is represented by the splendour of “I Never Saw a Moor” and yearning of “At Last, To Be Identified!” Hoiby's The Shining Place features five songs set to the poet's words, from the resplendent “The Shining Place” to the tempestuous “There Came a Wind Like a Bugle.” Highlights of Walker's album-closing Emily! (from New England) include the plaintive “My Letter to the World,” the nature-inspired tone poem “The Moon and the Sea,” and rapturous “All I Have to Bring.”

In contrast to songs that are unabashedly romantic and sincere in tone, Hoiby's “The Waltz” pairs his inspired rendering to conversational text by Parker that's predictably acerbic (“It's the loveliest waltz, isn't it? / I suppose I ought to be glad that one of us is having such a good time / After all, the poor boy's doing the best he can”). Michaels is represented by two selections from The Long View: A Portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Nine Songs, with the theatrical flamboyance of “Anita's Story” set to words by Anita Escudero and “Epilogue—The Long View, Questions Answered” based on Ginsburg's own writing (“What qualities should a President seek / In a Supreme Court Justice?…”).

On a collection that covers broad ground, arguably the most memorable songs are the rhapsodic and lyrical settings, prime examples “How Do I Love Thee,” which pairs Browning's expressive outpouring of devotion with Edouard Lippé's suitably glorious music, and “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” an equally resonant treatment by Rogers set to text by Anne Bradstreet. He also stirs with three touching songs from Tres Poemas de Gabriela Mistral, the gorgeous “Apegado a mi” a representative example.

Whether singing at a hush or declaiming ecstatically at full volume, Areyzaga makes a powerful impression, and Brown shows himself to be an ever-empathetic and supportive partner. The two invested themselves fully into these performances and the project as a whole. It's a celebration of women's words, yes, but also a very clear confirmation of the performers' artistry and commitment.

February 2022