Orla Boylan/Phillip Thomas
National Concert Hall
Orla Boylan's recital at the NCH on Thursday, given under the auspices of the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, was an event of considerable musical worth, one in which a well-chosen programme of songs and arias was enhanced by consistently felicitous interaction between the soprano's vocal interpretations and the playing of her pianist partner Phillip Thomas.
That artistic cohesion was particularly evident in their handling of the rhythmic irregularities of Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs, settings of 10 short medieval poems by anonymous Irish monks in English translations by O'Faolain, Kallman, Auden and Mumford Jones.
Soprano and pianist honoured Barber's chiaroscuro demands faithfully and Boylan deftly negotiated the sharp shifts of mood from simple faith to visionary ecstasy, with sudden twinkle-eyed shafts of humour on the side. Both performers were equally adroit in matters of light and shade in Montsalvatge's five Canciones negras, where the soprano added a cutting edge to her voice when required.
Flanking the two mini-cycles were groups of popular songs by Strauss and Sibelius and a sprinkling of operatic arias to round out the evening. Boylan's way with the four dramatically contrastive Sibelius pieces was very much that of a confident opera singer, a mixture of opulent vocalism and skillful storytelling achieved by clear enunciation.
Orla Boylan was born to sing the music of Richard Strauss, a man who had a lifelong love-affair with the sound of the soprano voice. Her soaring delivery of his gentle serenade, a jaunty weather report and songs about bitter-sweet memories and anticipation of a glorious tomorrow was matched only by her rapt performance of the final scene from Arabella. This, and equally impressive versions of arias by Dvorák, Catalani and Puccini, whetted the appetite for her appearance as Blanche DuBois in Opera Ireland's November production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
