Merola to Continue its Virtual Recital Series

Raehann Bryce-Davis (courtesy of the Merola Opera Program)

At the beginning of next month, the Merola Opera Program will present the next installment in this year’s Virtual Recital Series. The recitalist will be mezzo Raehann Bryce-Davis, a 2015 Merola alumna. The title of her program is simply (and accurately) An Autumn Afternoon with Raehann Bryce-Davis. She will be accompanied at the piano by Jeanne-Minette Cilliers.

The program will include a world premiere offering, “I Am Not an Angry Black Woman,” composed by Maria Thompson Corley, who is a published novelist, as well as a Juilliard-trained concert pianist. This selection will be flanked on either side by compositions by other black women. The set will begin with “The Crescent Moon,” Florence Price’s setting of a text by Louise Charlotte Wright. This will be followed by Margaret Bond’s setting of Langston Hughes’ “Birth.” Corley’s premiere will then be followed by “We Wear the Mask,” a text by Paul Laurence Dunbar set by Brittney Boykin (B.E. Boykin).

The program will begin with four settings of German texts as follows:

1. Richard Strauss, “Heimliche Aufforderung,” Opus 27, Number 3
2. Robert Schumann, “Die Lotosblume,” Opus 25, Number 7
3. Johannes Brahms, “Von ewiger Liebe,” Opus 43, Number 1
4. Richard Wagner, “Schmerzen,” the fourth of his Wesendonck Lieder collection of settings of poems by Mathilde Wesendonck

The final selections will be settings of Spanish texts. “Maria La O” is Ernesto Lecuona’s setting of the words of Gustavo Sánchez Galarraga. This will be followed by “De España vengo” from the zarzuela El niño judio, composed by Pablo Luna.

This streamed performance will begin at 1 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time, note the emphasis!) on Sunday, November 7. Tickets are $25 for individuals and $40 for households. A limited number of $80 VIP tickets are available that include a virtual reception with Bryce-Davis after the performance. Eventbrite has created an event page that will handle all three of these prices. Once the payment has been processed, Eventbrite will provide the information necessary for viewing the stream. Viewing will be available through November 30.