Hera Hyesang Park: Breathe
Deutsche Grammophon

One word repeatedly comes to mind as I listen to Hera Hyesang Park's Breathe: intoxicating. Following this rising star's well-received debut I am Hera, the soprano's second album for Deutsche Grammophon casts an intense spell, and one comes away from the project captivated. On the hour-long release, she couples pieces by Delibes, Humperdinck, Massenet, Orff, Rossini, Verdi, and others with recently created material by Luke Howard, Cecilia Livingston, Hyowon Woo, and Bernat Vivancos. The soprano receives sensitive support from the Orchestra Del Teatro Carlo Felice under Jochen Rieder's direction and is joined on a number of selections by mezzo-soprano Emily D'Angelo. Interspersed are a few orchestra-only selections, and Park's also augmented by the Teatro's choir in a couple of places.

While she's in the early stage of her career, Park has already accomplished much. She's sung in productions of La bohème, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Cosi fan tutte and is an enthusiastic supporter of contemporary composers too, her appearance in Marina Abramovic's opera The 7 Deaths of Maria Callas testifying to that. A graduate of both Seoul National University and The Juilliard School of Music, Park's profile rose considerably in 2015 after she won a prize at Plácido Domingo's Operalia Competition and joined the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Roles in a number of Met productions followed, as did appearances with other opera companies in the US and Europe.

Breathe emerged from Park's pandemic experience as a response to the fear, uncertainty, and loneliness that she and others struggled with during that tumultuous time. Such feelings guided her in fashioning a set-list that emphasizes resilience, perseverance, gratitude, courage, and hope. To illustrate, excerpts from Górecki's Symphony No. 3 were included, not only for their stirring beauty but for one of the things that inspired its creation, a prayer etched on a Gestapo prison wall by an eighteen-year-old Polish woman arrested by the Nazis during WWII. Many of the selections are sorrowful laments and thus reinforce the generally poignant tone of the album. Park ultimately wants the listener to, like her, not despair over the harsh reality of death but instead fervently embrace life in all its fleeting and precious glory.

Rapture sets in immediately with Howard's “While You Live,” which she elevates with a controlled performance that showcases her pure voice. The elegiac tone of the piece induces chills, and the gorgeous coupling of voice and strings makes for an incredible opening. Howard's piece dovetails neatly with two selections from Górecki's third symphony that reflect Park's deep emotional connection to the material. Her refreshingly histrionics-free voice ascends with resonant supplications until it leaps into the upper stratosphere in the second of two haunting settings.

Her lustrous vocal beauty is effectively captured in her essaying of “In trutina” and “Evening Prayer” from Orff's Carmina Burana and Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, respectively, with the incandescent latter further distinguished by D'Angelo's presence. Selections from Rossini's Otello grant Park a wonderful opportunity to showcase her impeccable technique, the admirable control of her delivery, and a vibrato that's just right. She expresses the requisite anguish in “Padre! Ho pregato” from Licinio Refice's Cecilia, and four Massenet pieces also leave a mark, with two from Le Cid augmenting the soprano with the chorus and Ave Maria sur la Méditation de Thaïs capturing Park (and violinist Giovanni Battista Fabris) lending voice to its beloved melody. Speaking of which, Breathe also features Park and D'Angelo warbling through an entrancing rendition of the “Flower Duet” from Delibes' Lakmé.

Written for Park by Canadian composer Cecilia Livingston, “Paula Modersohn-Becker,” the plaintive central movement of Breath Alone, is another high point and is also memorable for an arrangement that sees two sopranos entwining against a delicate chamber backdrop (as D'Angelo isn't credited on the piece, it's presumed Park recorded both parts). Catalan composer Bernat Vivancos drew for inspiration from Michelangelo's Pietà for his two-part Vocal Ice, which backs Park with a cello octet and uses a single vowel, “ah,” as the springboard for the moving lament “Calme, tendre.” A different kind of instrumentation distinguishes the excerpt from Requiem aeternam by South Korean composer Hyowon Woo when it juxtaposes the purity of her voice and the groan of the ajaeng, a traditional Korean string instrument.

The release booklet includes an interview with Park whose sincerity and open-heartedness make her all the more endearing, but conspicuous by its absence are texts and translations for the songs; not having lyrics at hand is an even greater issue when she made selections in accordance with the album theme. Park delivers strong performances throughout, be it renditions of contemporary material or repertory classics. Her versions of the latter hold up well alongside those by other singers (see her nuanced handling of “Ave Maria, piena di grazia” from Verdi's Otello, for instance), and the beauty of her lyric coloratura delivery illuminates Breathe, regardless of the composer or period presented.

March 2024