FRANCES LUCEY (soprano) brought a rare charm and a dazzling sense of style to her recital in the Royal Hospital last Tuesday. It was her first recital in Dublin for 10 years and in that time she has matured as an artist in the most enviable way, mastering the art that conceals art.
In a selection of songs by Purcell, Schubert, Strauss and a handful of French composers, she moved effortlessly from language to language and from mood to mood, showing both in voice and gesture an unusual empathy with the subject matter of the songs.
Seldom can Purcell's I attempt from love's sickness to fly have been sung so seductively or Schubert's Der blinde knabe (The blind boy) have blended quiet resignation with anguish in such a convincing manner. Many singers falter when they move from German to French, but Lucey's interpretation of songs by Faure, Bizet, Hahn and Gounod surpassed even her German selection. Her accompanist, Donald Sulzen, showed an equal refinement in the transition from one culture to another and his Faure, in particular, was a delight.
Reynaldo Hahn was a minor composer, but some of his settings of Verlaine have a deserved place in the repertoire, and the performers combined profundity and simplicity in D'un prison, that lament for misspent youth.
I am doubtful of the wisdom of singing traditional songs - the likes of Carrickfergus and Off to Philadelphia in such a recital; but Lucey has such an engaging personality and such a range of dramatic inflection that the folk songs did not seem too out of place. Far more moving was the negro spiritual, Sweet little Jesus boy, sung unaccompanied.
A lovely voice which never sounded forced or strained and the ability to make natural and unexaggerated use of bodily gesture and expression made the recital a feast for ear and eye.