''Hate Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Orchestra'', or simply ''Hate Songs'', is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

tic

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...

for

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

and orchestra by Norwegian composer

Marcus Paus Marcus Nicolay Paus (; born 14 October 1979) is a Norwegian composer and one of the most performed contemporary Scandinavian composers. As a classical contemporary composer he is noted as a representative of a reorientation toward tradition, tonal ...

based on poetry by American poet

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...

. Paus' ''Hate Songs'' was published in 2014, and was included on

Tora Augestad Tora Karen Elisabeth Augestad (born 10 December 1979) is a Norwegian mezzosoprano, musical conductor and actor. One of Norway's most established classical singers, she focuses on jazz, musical theater, contemporary music, and cabaret. Her stag ...

's and the

Oslo Philharmonic The Oslo Philharmonic (Oslo-Filharmonien) is a Norwegian symphony orchestra based in Oslo, Norway. The orchestra traces its roots to the Philharmonic Society founded in 1847 and the Christiania Musical Association co-founded by Edvard Grieg in 18 ...

's album ''Portraying Passion: Works by Weill/Paus/Ives'' (2018) with works by Paus,

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

and

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...

; it has received critical acclaim and was awarded the

Spellemannprisen Spellemannprisen, often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards in English, is a Norwegian music award presented to Norwegian musicians. The award was established by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organizati ...

(Norwegian Grammy Award) for 2018 in the Classical class. Paus' ''Hate Songs'' is based on the poem "Women: A Hate Song" published by Parker in '' Vanity Fair'' in 1916 and subsequent poems that have been described as "a photo-book of New York with the female caricatures that Parker abhorred or despised, notably idle bourgeois ladies, who were the object of patriarchal worship as angelic domestic creatures." Professor of musicology

Ralph P. Locke Ralph P. Locke (born 1949) is an American musicologist, classical music critic and professor emeritus of musicology at Eastman School of Music. He founded the ''Eastman Studies in Music'' series. He is a contributor to the ''New Grove Dictionary o ...

wrote that Paus' ''Hate Songs'' "proved to be one of the most engaging works" in recent years; "the cycle expresses Parker's favorite theme: how awful human beings are, especially the male of the species." Locke highlighted Augestad's recording of ''Hate Songs'' as one of the "best opera and vocal music" works in that year. Albrecht Thiemann, editor of ''

Opernwelt ''Opernwelt'' (''Opera World'') is a monthly German magazine for opera, operetta and ballet. It includes news about current performances, portraits of composers and performers, articles about opera houses, performance spaces, and contemporary and ...

'', called the work "a captivatingly orchestrated, spirit-sparkling opus" and "a coup that provides an immense listening pleasure. With this work, Paus highlights a woman hardly known in Europe who attacked the social roles and conventions of her time with pointed sarcasm: the New York writer and critic Dorothy Parker (1893–1967). One of her best works is a series of lyrically rhapsodizing, caustically comical swear prose in which she settles accounts of all kinds with personal objects of hatred. For example the polymorphic narcissistic 'man' figure that you encountered in metropolitan everyday life of the early 20th century."

Discography

and the

, ''Portraying Passion: Works by Weill/Paus/Ives'', LAWO Classics, 2018

References

{{Marcus Paus Compositions by Marcus Paus Classical song cycles in English 2014 compositions Songs based on poems