''Recital I (for Cathy)'' is a stage work by the Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Luciano Berio. It was written for Cathy Berberian, with whom Berio was married from 1950 to 1964, and is scored 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 17 instruments. It was first performed on 27 April 1972 in Lisbon in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Grand Auditórium by Cathy Berberian with Orquesta Gulbenkian, conducted by the composer.

Synopsis

In the piece a singer—who is, in Berberian's description, not a singer who gives a recital but an actress-singer who plays the role of a singer who gives a recital —enters the stage to find that the pianist who is to accompany her hasn't arrived. Accompanied by an off-stage harpsichord she starts her recital with a performance of

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered ...

's "Lettera amorosa" and "Lamento della ninfa" but stops to look for the pianist. She then begins a long spoken monologue that is interrupted by over forty, often very brief musical fragments taken from Berberian's repertoire, including works Berio had written for her voice in earlier years, ''Avendo gran disio'' and '' Epifanie''. As the recital progresses the singer's descent into madness is emphasized by quotations from '' Hamlet'', '' Pierrot Lunaire'' and the mad scenes from

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

's '' Lucia di Lammermoor'' and

Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...

's '' Dinorah'' . She ends the piece with a prayer for liberation ("libera nos"), her vocal range reduced to a semitone.

Quotations

In ''Quotation and Cultural Meaning in Twentieth-Century Music'' by David Metzer, the sources of the musical fragments quoted in ''Recital I (for Cathy)'' are identified as follows —the track numbers and time indications refer to the only recording that exists of the piece ( RCA 09026-62540-2, with Berberian and the London Sinfonietta conducted by Berio): #

, "Lettera amorosa" (track 1) #

, "Lamento della ninfa" (track 2) #

, "Lettera amorosa" (track 4, 1:02) # Johann Sebastian Bach, "Ich nehme mein Leiden mit Freuden auf mich" from cantata ''

Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75 Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata (The miserable shall eat), 75, in Leipzig for the first Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 30 May 1723. The complex work in two parts of seven movements each marks the beginning of ...

'' (track 4, 1:25 and 1:37) # Liturgia Armenia (track 4, 1:47) # Johann Sebastian Bach, "Ich nehme mein Leiden mit Freuden auf mich" from cantata BWV 75 ''Die elenden sollen essen'' (track 4, 2:03) #

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

, "Chanson épique" from ''Don Quichotte à Dulcinée'' (track 4, 2:42) #

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...

, "Ye gentle spirits of the air" from '' The Fairy-Queen'' (track 4, 2:57) # Friedrich Hollaender, " Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt", as sung by Marlene Dietrich in the film ''

Der blaue Engel ''The Blue Angel'' (german: Der blaue Engel) is a 1930 German musical comedy-drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg, and starring Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings and Kurt Gerron. Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller and Robert Lie ...

'' (track 4, 3:44) # Manuel de Falla, "Polo" from ''Siete canciones populares españolas'' (track 4, 4:22) #

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kno ...

, "Hôtel" from '' Banalités'' (track 4, 4:59) #

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

, "Träume" from the ''Wesendonck Lieder'' (track 4, 5:34) # Gustave Charpentier, "Quelle belle vie" from '' Louise'' (track 4, 5:49) #

Hugo Wolf Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf (13 March 1860 – 22 February 1903) was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Ro ...

, "Das verlassene Mägdlein" (track 4, 6:10) # Darius Milhaud, "La séparation" from ''Chants populaires hébraïques'' (track 4, 6:45) #

, "When I am laid in earth" from '' Dido and Æneas'' (track 4, 6:57) #

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

, "At home" from the ''Cat's Cradle Songs'' (track 4, 7:22) #

Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...

, "Adieu, notre petite table" from ''

Manon ''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was first ...

'' (track 4, 7:49) # Ernesto Berio, "Pioggerellina" (track 4, 8:28) # Luciano Berio, '' Epifanie'' (track 4, 8:48) # Luciano Berio, ''Avendo gran desio'' (track 5) #

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

, Lamentation from ''Jeremiah'' (track 6, 0:20) #

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

, "Mondestrunken" from '' Pierrot Lunaire'' (track 6, 0:30) # Ambroise Thomas, Polonaise ("Je suis Titania") from '' Mignon'' (track 6, 0:41) #

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...

, Recitative ("Je ne te parle pas") from ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

'' (track 6, 0:46) # Armenian traditional song "Ax lele, vax lele" (track 6, 1:07) # Alfredo Casella, "Er gatto e er cane" (track 6, 1:24) #

, "Placet futile" from ''

Trois poèmes de Mallarmé ''Trois poèmes de Mallarmé'' is a sequence of three art songs by Maurice Ravel, based on poems by Stéphane Mallarmé for soprano, two flutes, two clarinets, piano, and string quartet. Composed in 1913, it was premiered on 14 January 1914, perf ...

'' (track 6, 1:28) # Franz Schubert, "Der Tod und das Mädchen" (track 6, 1:48) # Modest Mussorgsky, "Song of the Flea" (track 6, 2:01) # Giovanni Paisiello, "Nel cor più non mi sento" from '' La Molinara'' (track 6, 2:21) #

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

, "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" from '' Rigoletto'' (track 6, 2:57) #

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

"Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen" from the '' Kindertotenlieder'' (track 8, 0:21) # Reynaldo Hahn, "L'heure exquise" (track 8, 0:47) # Léo Delibes, "Bell song" from '' Lakmé'' (track 8, 1:21 and 1:29) # Gioachino Rossini, "Non più mesta" from '' La cenerentola'' (track 8, 1:35 and 1:44) #

, " Al fin son tua" from '' Lucia di Lammermoor'' (track 8, 2:18) #

, card scene from ''

'' (track 8, 2:40) #

, "Ombre légère qui suis mes pas" from '' Dinorah'' (track 8, 2:55) #

, " O gioia che si sente" from '' Lucia di Lammermoor'' (track 8, 3:04) # Franz Schubert, "Der Jüngling an der Quelle" (track 8, 3:31) # Sergei Prokofiev, "Fields of the dead" from ''

Alexander Nevsky Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (russian: Александр Ярославич Невский; ; 13 May 1221 – 14 November 1263) served as Prince of Novgorod (1236–40, 1241–56 and 1258–1259), Grand Prince of Kiev (1236–52) and Grand P ...

(track 8, 4:14) #

, "Ombre légère qui suis mes pas" from '' Dinorah'' (track 8, 5:03) # Luciano Berio, ''Lied'' (track 9)

References

* (Quotations 26, 27 and 31 are not from Metzer. The author of these three quotations is Alejandro Coll). * {{Authority control Compositions by Luciano Berio