Talya Lieberman, Edward Nelson and Allen Perriello Set for Schwabacher Debut Recitals, 5/3

Soprano Talya Lieberman and baritone Edward Nelson, joined on piano by former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow Allen Perriello end the 32nd season of the Schwabacher Debut Recitals on Sunday, May 3 at Temple Emanu-El's Martin Meyer Sanctuary. The Merola Opera Program alumni will present an eclectic program showcasing works by Nico Muhly, Francis Poulenc, Henry Purcell, Franz Schubert and Kurt Weill. Also on the program, will be works of popular German lieder as well as poems by noted American female poets set to music by American composers.

Edward Nelson's performance of Nico Muhly's Four Traditional Songs marks the first performance of the composer's transpositions for baritone and the West Coast premiere of the piece. Muhly says of the work: "I selected these four songs after spending many hours obsessing over Alfred Deller's Vanguard recording of English folksongs. One in particular struck me as heartbreakingly poignant: his unaccompanied rendition of 'The Bitter Withy.' I tried to imagine what a highly stylized but understated accompaniment might sound like, and that forms the fourth song in this collection. 'The Cruel Mother' about a woman who kills her children and is then visited by their ghosts, is a particularly gruesome murder ballad, and works over a large vocal range. 'Searching for Lambs' has a wonderfully irregular footprint, which required very little interference from me, and 'A Brisk Young Lad' is one of the most unforgivingly sad ballads in the catalogue." The folksongs have received two performances by the countertenor Iestyn Davies, for whom they were written, at Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall.

Talya Lieberman is featured in settings of poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Adrienne Rich by composers Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Ben Moore and Ned Rorem. The program also includes works by Henry Purcell ("Let the dreadful engines of eternal will") and Franz Schubert (six settings of Heinrich Heine from Schwanengesang) composed during the last year of each composer's life, sung by Nelson; Poulenc's Fiançailles pour rire, one of the composer's most popular song cycles for soprano, and a selection of German lieder featuring Lieberman; and songs by Kurt Weill performed by Lieberman and Nelson.

Since 1983, the Schwabacher Debut Recitals have introduced the artistry of many acclaimed international singers including Anna Netrebko, Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Brian Asawa and Thomas Hampson. The annual series showcases exemplary artists who have participated in the prestigious training programs of the San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program, whose residencies offer intensive individual coaching and performance opportunities to young professional international artists. The recitals allow Bay Area audiences to experience exciting young talent perform a wide-ranging and eclectic repertoire of song literature in the intimate setting of the Martin Meyer Sanctuary.

The Schwabacher Debut Recitals are endowed in perpetuity by the generosity of the late James Schwabacher and sponsored by the Jack H. Lund Charitable Trust. A celebrated Bay Area singer, recitalist, scholar and teacher, James Schwabacher was a co-founder of the Merola Opera Program.

Schwabacher Debut Recitals take place at Temple Emanu-El's Martin Meyer Sanctuary (Two Lake Street, at Arguello, in San Francisco). Tickets are $30 and may be purchased at the San Francisco Opera Box Office in person or by phone at (415) 864-3330 or online at sfopera.com. Student Rush tickets are available for $15 at Temple Emanu-El 30 minutes prior to each recital (limit of two tickets per person; valid ID is required; subject to availability). Casting, programs, schedules and ticket prices are subject to change.