UMS Concert Program, February 11,1973: George Shirley --

Concert: Seventh
Complete Series: 3810
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University Musical Society
of
The University of Michigan
Presents
George Shirley
Tenor
GEORGE POSELL, pianist
Sunday Afternoon, February 11,1973, at 2:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Recitative and Aria from the opera Orp hie.......Gluck
"J'ai perdu mon Eurydice . . ."
Songs of Travel and the Sea
Les Berceaux...............Faure
De Greve...............Debussy
L'Invitation au voyage............Duparc
L'lle inconnue (from "Les Nuits d'ete")........Berlioz
Songs of Flowers and Love
Fleur des bles..............Debussy
Manteau de fleurs..............Ravel
Crepuscule...............Massenet
Le Spectre de la rose (from "Les Nuits d'ete")......Berlioz
Fleur jetee...............Faure
INTERMISSION
The Pleasure and Pain of Love
Would You Gain the Tender Creature, from Acts and Galatea . . . Handel
There's not a Swain of the Plain..........Purcell
The Faithless Shepherdess..........Perkinson
Jimmie's Got a Goil............Blitzstein
In the Silence of Night..........Rachmaninoff
Nostalgia
My Lovely Celia..............Munro
Morning................Speaks
Duna.................McGill
The Green Hills of Ireland..........Del Riego
Open My Eyes to Beauty............Klemm
Seventh Concert Ninetyfourth Annual Choral Union Series Complete Programs 3810
Program Notes
Recitative and Aria from the opera Orphee . ......Gluck
The Greek minstrel Orphee, in mourning for his beloved wife Eurydice, has moved the gods to pity. The god of love Amor, grants Orphee the right to descend into the Underworld to rescue Eurydice with his singing, with the condition that Orphee not look at his wife while he leads her back to earth and life.
Eurydice, stung by Orphee's seeming indifference toward her, implores him to grant her but a single look. Unable to resist her sorrowful pleas, Orphee defies the gods and turns to Eurydice, embracing her. She dies in his arms, and he, griefstricken, laments the loss of his beloved.
"Unhappy one, what have I done Over what precipice have I thrown my unfortunate beloved . . . "Tis I who have taken life from her . . .
Only death remains for me ... I have lost my Eurydice; nothing equals my sorrow . . ."
Les Berceaux (The Cradles)...........Faure
"Along the quays, the large ships, rocked silently by the surge, take no heed of the cradles rocked by the hands of women . . .
On the day of farewells, when the men leave to dare the horizons that lure them, the large ships will feel their bulk held back by the soul of the faraway cradles."
De Greve (The Shore)............Debussy
"Over the ocean the twilight falls,
white unravelled silk.
The waves, like small wild creatures,
chatter, small girls leaving school;
amid the rustling of their dresses,
green irridescent silk!
The clouds, grave travelers, gather
on the coming storm. . . .
The little waves no longer know where
to put themselves. . . .
Rustling of billowing skirts,
green silk, bewitched.
But the compassionate moon comes to
quiet this gray conflict . . .
His little friends offer themselves as
lover's lips to his warm and white kiss.
Then, nothing but the tardy bells of
floating churches!
Angelus of the waves,
White smooth silk!"
L'Invitation au voyage (The Invitation to the Voyage) .... Duparc
"My child, my sister, think on the sweetness
to go there, to live together, to love and die in the land that resembles you . . .
There, all is but order and luxury, calm and sensual pleasure.
See the ships asleep on these canals;
It is in order to gratify your least desire that they come from the ends of the world . .
The setting suns reclothe the fields, the canals, the entire village in
hyacinth and gold; the world falls asleep in a warm light.
There, all is but order and luxury, calm and sensual pleasure."
L'lle inconnue (The Unknown Island)
Berlioz
"Tell me, young beauty, where do you wish
to go The sail swells its wing, the
wind will blow! The oar is of ivory, the
flag of silk, the rudder of pure gold . . .
Where do you wish to go To the Baltic
Sea The Pacific Ocean
'Lead me,' says the fair one, 'to the
faithful shore where one loves forever I'
This shore, my lovely one, is unknown in the land of loves!"
Fleur des bles (Flowers of the Grainfield).......Debussy
"Beside the grainfield
I found a good opportunity to gather
a bouquet for you.
Put it quickly on your bodice,
it is made in your likeness
and at the same time, made for you . .
A little bird, I wager, has already whispered to you the reason: this golden grain is the wave of your blonde hair . . . this swaying poppy, your bloodred lips . . . these cornflowers are your eyes, so blue that one would say they are two lightning flashes descended from the sky."
Manteau de fleurs (Mantle of Flowers)......
"All the flowers of my garden are roses;
the rose suits her beauty.
The cowslips are the first open, then
come the tulips, the hyacinth roses, the pretty carnations. . . .
All my peonies are roses, roses also
my gladiolas, my geraniums. . . .
And when she passes 'midst the flowers, pearled with tearlike dew drops,
in the intoxicating perfume of the roses and under the caress of things,
all grace, love, purity,
The flowers make her a rosy mantle
with which she adorns her beauty."
Ravel
Crepuscule (Twilight)
"Like a curtain under the whiteness of their petals drawn together, the lilies have closed their heart, the ladybirds are abed. . . .
Massenet
The lilies sleep but for a moment; would you not that, heads inclined, we chat lovingly The ladybirds are abed . . ."
Le Spectre de la rose (The Specter of the Rose)......Berlioz
"Open your closed eyelid
gently touched by a virginal dream!
I am the specter of the rose
that you wore last night to the ball . . .
O, you who were the cause of my death.
my rosecoloured ghost will come
every night to dance at your bedside.
But have no fear at all . .
For on your breast I have my tomb,
and on the alabaster where I repose,
a poet wrote with a kiss:
'Here lies a rose which all kings might envy.'"
Fleur jetee (Discarded Flower)..........Faure
"Carry away my folly at the will of the wind,
flower gathered with a song and thrown away while dreaming . . . Love perishes like a cut flower; the hand that has touched you shuns my hand forever . . . Let the wind that withers you, O poor flower, wither my heart."
The next program in this series is Claudio Arrau, pianist, on Friday, February 23. RCA, Decca, Angel, Columbia, and Philips Records
COMING EVENTS
Lado, Yugoslav Folk Ensemble........Monday, February 12
(8:00, Power Center)
Marcel Marceau, Pantomimist . Saturday and Sunday, February 17 and 18
(Power Center)
Claudio Arrau, Pianist..........Friday, February 23
Beethoven: Sonata in Eflat, Op. 27, No. 1; Liszt: (8:30, Hill Auditorium) Sonata in B minor; Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9
Philidor Trio............Sunday, February 25
(2:30, Rackham Auditorium)
Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company from Japan .... Monday, February 26
(8:30, Rackham Auditorium)
Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg......Saturday, March 17
Leopold Hager, Conductor (8:30, Hill Auditorium)
Soloists: Rita Streich, Rosemary Russell, John McColium, Ralph Herbert; Festival Chorus of the Choral Union, Donald Bkyant, Conducting AllMozart program: Symphony No. 40, K. 550; Arias from "II Re Pastore" and "Le Nozze di Figaro"; "Coronation" Mass
Angelicum Orchestra of Milan......Wednesday, March 21
Bruno Martinotti, Conductor (8:00, Power Center)
Bach: The Art of the Fugue (Nos. 1, 16, 8), and Suite No. 1 in C major; Mercadante: Concerto for Horn and Orchestra; Boccherini: Sinfonia in D minor
Aeolian Chamber Players........Saturday, March 24
(8:30, Rackham Auditorium)
Topeng Dance Theater of Bali.......Tuesday, March 27
(8:30, Rackham Auditorium)
National Ballet, "Sleeping Beauty".....Saturday, March 31
Sunday, April 1 (Power Center)
London Symphony Orchestra........Friday, April 6
Andre Previn, Conductor (8:30, Hill Auditorium)
Sold out
80TH MAY FESTIVAL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS
Four Concerts -May 2, 3, 4, and 5, 1973 THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA at all concerts,
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor
the University Choral Union -Thor Johnson, Guest Conductor Soloists: Rudolf Serkin, Jessye Norman, Van Cliburn, Isaac Stern
PROGRAMS:
May 2: ALLBEETHOVEN--Overture to "Leonore" No. 3; Concerto No. 4 for Piano and Orchestra, Mr. Serkin, soloist; Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica").
May 3: Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor; Strauss: "Ein Heldenleben."
May 4: Verdi: "Stabat Mater" and "Te Deum," University Choral Union; La Montaine: Songs of the Rose of Sharon; Wagner: "Du bist der Lenz" from Die Walkiire, and "Dich teure Halle" from Tannhauser, Miss Norman, soprano soloist; Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, Mr. Cliburn, soloist.
May S: Wagner: Prelude to Parsifal; Beethoven: Romance No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra; Mozart: Concerto No. 1, K. 207, for Violin and Orchestra, Mr. Stern, soloist; Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4, in F minor.
Series ticket orders now being accepted.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan Phone 6653717