Larsen’s Timeless ‘Letters’ Sung With Emotion

Libby Larsen’s bracing “Songs From Letters: Calamity Jane to her Daughter Janey (1880-1902)” is, 160 years later, the natural and long-awaited successor to Robert Schumann’s hopelessly dated, worn-out song cycle, “Frauenliebe und-leben.”

As sung on a most invigorating recital by American soprano Judith Kellock in Chapman University’s Salmon Hall on Saturday night, this recent set of five songs is both admirably timeless and perfectly contemporary.

The subjects in this gripping set include issues of family, personal identification, love relationships, loneliness and pride. Larsen has set these touching words clearly, in a dramatic unity--at the end, there is a tangible accumulation of deep feeling in the listener--and without redundancy.

In her short but distinguished career (Larsen was born in 1950, not in 1938, as the printed program stated), this potent, astute and emotional work is surely one of her high points.

Kellock’s engaging performance, which also included songs by Puerto Rican Roberto Sierra, North Americans John Harbison, Martin Amlin and Dan Welcher, and the cosmopolitan Igor Stravinsky, was the second of six public performances in SongFest 2001, the sixth season of a training and performance program that began at UCLA and is now in residence at Chapman University in Orange.

Soprano Kellock, a singer of extensive experience who teaches at Cornell University, brought out the salient qualities in each group, particularly in Sierra’s two violently emotional sets, “Conjuros” and “Rimas.” The latter uses the dramatic poetry of Gustavo Becquer skillfully; in “Conjuros,” Sierra invents a non-language of syllables, then allows the singer to give them the power of meaning through thought and dynamics.

Kellock cunningly spread these seven songs over the course of the recital; they served as both glue and seasoning. Into the mix she placed Martin Amlin’s cool but powerful cycle, “A Lasting Spring” and more cerebral, abstract songs by Harbison and Welcher.

Throughout, Kellock delivered this kaleidoscope of words, meaning, thoughts and climaxes with clarity and variety and no discernible strain. Her voice has size and beauty but no stridency, and she gives her audience a complete experience of sense, feeling and musicality. She was assisted joyously by two expert (alternating) pianists, Rosemary Hyler Ritter and Lisa Sylvester.

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SongFest 2001 continues on the Chapman University campus in Orange, through July 22, with performances scheduled Friday (“The Americas”) at 7 p.m.; July 8 (recital by baritone Brandon Velarde and pianist Graham Johnson) at 3 p.m.; July 10 (“A Tour of France”) at 7 p.m., and July 22 (“The Rhythm of Life”) at 4 p.m. (714) 997-6871.