Purposefully Peripatetic
VoxAmaDeus’ Prima Donna
Andrea Lauren Brown
In Conversation with Richard
A. Shapp
A
native of Wilmington, Delaware, and a great favorite with the audiences of
VoxAmaDeus, coloratura soprano Andrea Lauren Brown paid a visit to Philadelphia
last mid-October. Once again she
captivated her loyal fans during a thrilling performance of Mozart’s Grand Mass
in c minor in the Kimmel Center with the Ama Deus Ensemble conducted by
Valentin Radu. Then it was back to Europe for a whirlwind of performances. And
now she returns home for what will surely prove to be her signature interpretation
of Handel’s Messiah with the Ama Deus
Ensemble. Then Andrea will fly off again to perform concert after concert in
Europe. Such is the busy life of this renowned vocal artist.
Andrea
and I caught up with each other before the Mozart Mass in c minor last October.
With time being limited I asked Andrea to capsulize what she had performed
since her last visit home, and what lies ahead in her busy artistic schedule.
ALB:
To begin with, I am based in Bremen, Germany. Over the past several months I
sang, as usual, a wide variety of concerts and operas. And I am fortunate to appear
very often with some of the most famous specialists in historical performance
practice in Europe. One highlight for me in 2013 was my appearing again with a
famous orchestra of period instruments that, in artistic outlook, resembles
VoxAmaDeus. It is called Anima Eterna (“Eternal Soul”) and its conductor is Jos
van Immerseel. Anima Eterna is dedicated
to recreating mostly seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century music on
historically appropriate instruments.
Last
May I sang with Anima Eterna on an extensive concert tour with performances in
Belgium, France and Poland. Our last stop was in the fascinating Warsaw
Philharmonic Hall that has a stage that looks like a three-tiered wedding cake.
I had to make an entrance over an incredibly long walk, going down all three
tiers, wearing my long dress, while the audience stomped madly to a beat and with
happy fervor. (They certainly have esprit in Poland!).
RAS:
What did you sing with Anima Eterna??
ALB:
It was a Mozart tour de force program. I sang five Mozart concert arias, which
were Chi sà, chi sà qual sia, K. 582 (1789); Per pietà,
bell’ idol mio, K. 78 (1766); Bella
mia fiamma, addio, K. 528 (1787); Ah,
lo previdi, K. 272 (1777); and Nehmt
meinen Dank, K. 383 (1782). The fabulous divas for whom these concert arias
were written included Mozart’s wife, Constanze Weber (1762-1842), and Josepha Duschek
(1754-1824). The soprano solo part in the Grand Mass in c minor, which I just
sang with Valentin, was written for Constanze. And about the aria written for Madame
Duschek, Bella mia fiamma, addio (“Light of my life, farewell”), hangs
quite an amazing story! Musically it is a particularly challenging work, one
written with what are called tri-tones, ungainly
leaps and skips that test the singer’s musicianship and ability to sing a very
awkward vocal line.
[Generally, a “concert aria” is an extended, stand-alone solo
vocal composition that is very demanding both vocally and dramatically. Also,
it is not from an opera or other larger composition. The concert aria in
question, Bella mia fiamma, addio!
(“Light of my life, farewell”), K. 528, was composed on November 3, 1787. Bella mia fiamma, addio! was written in
Prague for the famed soprano and friend of Mozart, Josepha Duschek (Josefína Dušková). At that
time, Mozart was composing Don Giovanni
for its premiere in Prague, and he went to stay with his close Czech
friends Mr. and Mrs. Duschek. By the way, Mr. Duschek was none other than the
famed composer, pianist and voice teacher Franz Xaver Duschek (1731-1799); he
also taught the piano to Mozart’s son Karl Thomas (1784-1858).
It was Mozart’s son who related this interesting story: One day
during the visit, Josepha provided the senior Mozart with paper and pen. She
then slyly locked the composer into a guest house, saying she would not let him
out until he wrote, as promised, a new aria for her to the text of “Bella mia
fiamma.” Mozart accepted the challenge; but, to avenge himself for this trick, he
stipulated that he would destroy the written manuscript if Madame Duschek could
not flawlessly sing the new aria at first sight! Thus it was that Bella mia fiamma, addio! was composed,
not only with the highly challenging tri-tone melodic skips but with a very
wide range and every vocal trick in Mozart’s book! Additionally, tremendous dramatic-acting demands were placed
upon the singer. But since we have the music, autographed by the composer, Mrs.
Dushcek obviously passed the test and sang this aria to a demanding Mozart’s
satisfaction! Soon thereafter, in 1789, Madame Duschek sang this aria, along with other
arias, at concerts given by Mozart in Dresden and Leipzig during a tour of
Germany. And knowing how Andrea
Lauren Brown sings we can safely assume that she is a vocal descendant of the
original prima donna for whom Mozart composed this aria.]
ALB:
As I said, I sang five Mozart concert arias during this tour. But in Bella mia fiamma Mozart’s genius makes
the ungainly tri-tone sound melodic and beautiful. Then in Solothurn at the
Castle Waldegg in Switzerland I participated in an open- air, staged production
of an opera by André Grétry (1741-1813) called Le Huron. Grétry was a French composer whom Mozart admired. It was under
the direction of the well-known stage director Georg Rootering.
RAS:
Do you mean “Huron” like Lake Huron and the Huron Indians?
ALB:
Yes! Le Huron, composed in 1768, was Grétry’s
first great success in Paris. The opera
was based on a play by Voltaire (1694-1778) called L’Ingénu (“The Innocent” or “The Pupil of Nature”). This 1767 play
was a blistering satirical attack by Voltaire on contemporary society. I played
the innocent love interest of “the Huron,” a man raised by Huron Indians but
transplanted from Canada to France. You can imagine all the embarrassingly
comic situations that arise as the Huron tries to make it in mid-eighteenth
century France! We had a multi-level, original Shakespearean stage in the round,
imported from Paris, with swings and ropes that my colleague swung from.
I
also portrayed the role of Dido in the Henry Purcell (1659-1695) opera Dido and Aeneas. This was near Munich,
in Schrobenhausen, for Die Festtage für Alte Musik (The Festival for Old
Music), a Baroque music festival held every September.
RAS:
And now you are back here for performances of Handel’s Messiah on Friday, December 6, at 7:00 p.m. in Philadelphia’s
Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square; at the Nassau Christian
Center of Princeton, New Jersey, on Saturday, December 7, at 7:00 p.m. and
finally in Paoli’s Daylesford Abbey on Sunday, December 8, at 4:00 p.m. But
when you return to Europe and your home-away-from-home in Bremen,
Germany…what’s next?
ALB:
Coming up will be a performance of Haydn’s (1732-1809) famed oratorio The Creation in Rottenburg am Neckar
with period-music specialists. Then over the next few months I am fortunate
that the rest of my upcoming concert schedule resembles the first half of the
year. This will include performing repertoire I have often sung, such as the
Bach Passions (Saint John and Saint Matthew), Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Brahms’s Requiem (which I also sang in Zürich
with the Tonhalle Orchester last May), and Carmina
Burana by Carl Orff (1895-1982) which I sang in June for at least the
seventh time. By the way, my debut with Carmina was in the glorious opera house
in Verona, Italy!
In
addition to various Bach concerts in which I will be singing cantatas and the Christmas Oratorio, I look forward to
performing a new piece with orchestra. It is Die letzten Dinge (an oratorio known in English as “The Last
Judgment” written in 1825-26) by Louis Spohr (1784-1859). Spohr was a German
composer who made his career in France, but this oratorio was reputedly very
popular, in its time, in Victorian England and the United States.
Also
during 2014 I look forward, among other things, to singing the soprano solo
part in Beethoven’s (1770-1827) Ninth Symphony on a tour that will take me to
Belgium and France in June. I will also make another special recording for
Naxos: all the solo cantatas for soprano composed by Johann Simon Mayr
(1763-1845). [Historic Note: Mayr was a German musician whose career blossomed
in Bergamo, Italy. He is credited with introducing that city to Beethoven and
his music. He also was the composition teacher of the famed opera composer Gaetano
Donizetti.]
RAS:
Andrea, you have a substantial amount of little-known music in your repertoire.
ALB:
You know, my colleagues and I are always happy to sing—with fantastic
conductors and ensembles of course—the standard pieces that are frequently
performed. But I am very happy to record and perform the works of lesser-known
composers. For instance, for the Naxos label I have made at least five discs of
rarely performed operas and oratorios. For Carus I made recordings featuring music
by neglected but important contemporaries of Mozart: Simon Mayr, Grétry, Niccolò
Jommelli (1714-1774), Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg (1760-1802), and Justin Heinrich
Knecht (1752-1817). I am proud to say that, over time, I definitely have made a
little niche for myself in Europe, performing new roles that none of my
contemporaries yet perform. Preparing and singing these unknown roles by
overlooked composers really appeals to my musicianship and originality. For me,
singing the solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is almost a form of relaxation!
RAS:
Allow me to conclude with these words of praise concerning the critical acclaim
you have received. Like Madame Duschek, who in her time was compared in outstanding
critiques to the most famous divas of her day, Andrea Lauren Brown too has
received many positive reviews in the press, some of which have drawn similarities,
in her dramatic and visually enthusiastic performances and her ability to sing
fast coloratura notes, to the talents of Cecilia Bartoli. This is high praise
indeed. VoxAmaDeus audiences most certainly count themselves lucky that they
are regaled so often by this "local lady" who has made such a mark in Europe.
Thank you, Andrea.