Frauenliebe und -leben x 2 in the US and Canada

 

I'm just back from a short tour to North America: four concerts in six days with Angelika Kirchschlager and Eugene Asti, in Philadelphia, New York, Quebec and Ann Arbor. We were performing our 'Frauenliebe und -leben x 2' programme, beautifully devised for us by Graham Johnson. We had marvellous audiences and mainly they loved the programme- some people had a problem with the way we move in and out of songs and into duets, always using the Schumann song-cycle as the basis but not always performing the entire song, and interweaving songs from the Loewe Frauenliebe cycle. We love it and have done it so many times now that it seems quite natural, but it is different from a conventional Lieder recital. We hope to record it in the summer. The New York public really loved it and we were thrilled to see so many people in Alice Tully Hall on a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon; Philadelphia was great too- such wonderful concert halls everywhere! And Quebec is so beautiful; I was really sad to be spending so little time there. The concert hall is vast but has the most extraordinary acoustic- like an enormous Wigmore Hall! We finished our tour in lovely Ann Arbor, where everything was back to human dimensions and more what we are used to in Europe! Thank you to everyone involved in making our stay and our concerts such a success! FL

"Lott and Kirchschlager have often shared the stage in Der Rosenkavalier (the former as the Marschallin, the latter as Octavian), and were models of how strong personalities can complement each other without diminishing themselves. (...) Together, they all but symbolized Jungian unity, one reason this event was among the best this season."
(The Philadelphia Inquirer)

"Ces deux femmes s'entendent parfaitement sur le plan de l'interprétation. Non seulement voilà deux excellentes voix, mais voilà également deux superbes artistes habitées par le texte, capables de lui donner vie l'une aussi bien que l'autre." (Le Soleil, Quebec)

"Lott and Kirchschlager, both of whom have big careers in opera, are fine actresses, on this smaller stage, as well as superb singers. Each projects character and knows how to retain a sense of speech in her singing. (...) The voices are radiant and easy, the diction outstanding. And, oh, what a pleasure it was to hear their duet singing."
(The Ann Arbor News)