Emily D’Angelo and Sophia Muñoz
Queen’s Hall 22/8/25
Emily D’Angelo mezzo soprano, Sophia Muñoz piano
The ‘personally curated ‘ song recital has become a staple of modern chamber music, and I’ve seen two fine examples in the last months, by Helen Charlston at Paxton and Hugh Cutting here. Today’s similar programme by Canadian mezzo, Emily D’Angelo promises much - we’re told it’s an epic journey through world-wide connections to nature. I was impressed by her voice in the streamed 2021 Royal Opera House La Clemenza di Tito, and, last September, aged 30, she opened the New York Met Opera season in a role written for her in Jeannine Tesori’s ‘Grounded’.
A initial blip on the journey has to be smoothed over by Head of Music, Nick Zekulin: in her final finessing of the programme, Emily D’Angelo has strayed from the one on the freesheets. Only some of us have picked up the few printed copies of the new programme (also online), but we’re all encouraged just to “Sit back and enjoy the music.” (Does the EIF not have a backroom person to run down to the printers?)
Onwards! Emily D’Angelo has a clear well-focused mezzo voice and Sophia Muñoz on piano is a supportive and inventive accompanist. The eclectic programme mixes well-established folk-song inspired favourites from Vaughan Williams, Britten and Bartok, with a sprinkling of rarities – a song by blues composer W C Handy, another with lyrics by David Lynch of ‘Twin Peaks’ fame. Eclectic and diverse certainly, but there’s a sameness in her presentation which doesn’t convince me of the rationale behind many of these songs. Many singers choose their comfortable mid-range for their opening numbers: this morning caution about widening her vocal or dramatic range seems to pervade much of the first half of the programme. The excerpts from ‘Grounded’, which I was eager to hear, having missed the cinema broadcast, are too short to be meaningful, though Muñoz conjures up an orchestra in her accompaniment.
There are exceptions. The performance of three songs by Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) are successful. The Yeats’ settings ‘Down by the Salley Gardens’ and ‘The Cloths of Heaven’ are sung convincingly, with attention to the poet’s words. Best of all was Clarke’s ‘The Seal Man’, a setting of John Masefield’s 1905 poem about a selkie’s seduction of a woman. She tells the tale well as it lulls us into thinking this is a love story, then as we bluntly learn ”she was drowned of course.”
After the interval Emily D’Angelo opens up her voice for the larger emotional range in more challenging material, like the three Mahler songs (two by Gustav, one by Alma) The most exciting are Wolf’s ‘Der Feuerreiter’ (The Fireman) and Clara Schumann’s ‘Lorelei’ where her dramatic abilities come to the fore. In the tale of the fireman’s two rescues, genuine fear is apparent in her voice, but also in her face and gestures, as she scans the distance looking for flames. We may know or guess the ending, but we trust her to tell us about it. Importantly too, she shows her ability to get inside a different persona. Sophia Nuñez relishes this powerful music.
A good-sized audience gives them an enthusiastic reception, after which there are encores, the first an arrangement of Randy Newman’s 2017 song ‘The Wandering Boy’.
