Press
18 August 2007
Carole Farley, Painters' Hall, LondonBy Robert Maycock
The Gallic-themed City of London Festival set up a clash between Daniel Roth's organ recital in Southwark Cathedral and Carole Farley singing La Voix Humaine across the river. Tough choice for France-fanciers, though the singer managed a full house and the venue, too, was a draw, joining for the first time the portfolio of elegant settings that are a festival speciality.
The hall gives a voice nowhere to hide. Not that Farley's voice could avoid notice. Shaped in opera houses since a New York Metropolitan debut at 19, it has acquired proportions that could be called commanding if she had not at the same time developed shapely phrasing and clarity of diction.
Debussy's opulent Baudelaire setting "Le balcon" rose to brilliant climaxes. You could hear how she modified vowel sounds to soften the impact of some peak moments, and later on, as the song's sensual glow faded, the fine control of musical detail took over and the poet's world came alive.
Two of Satie's waltzing songs followed, the explicit lyrics delivered frank and straight, with just a discreet sway of the body. In Gershwin, John Constable accompanied with an almost subliminal swing to the rhythm, while Farley was in her element with "Isn't it a pity?", its wit deftly allowed to speak for itself. Touching songs by Harold Arlen, of "Over the Rainbow" fame, drew out a quieter feeling for line and character.
La Voix Humaine, Poulenc's opera for one singer and an absent lover, works just as well in recital, in the right hands, as it does with a full staging. Farley has made an award-winning DVD of the latter, but with just a chaise-longue and a telephone she was able to exploit the intimate setting to lay bare the minutiae of a dying relationship with a quick impulse here and a tangle of wires there. Constable discreetly maintained the momentum of a score that can itself break up if it's played with too much deference to the voice, while Farley developed an almost stoical resignation amid the regrets, as though the character knows that, sometime in the future, it will all have to happen again.
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Seen and Heard International Review: CITY OF LONDON FESTIVAL
Poulenc: Carole Farley, (soprano), John Constable, (piano).
Painters Hall, London 27.6.2007 (AO)
Wedged between Aldeburgh and the Proms, the City of London Festival may not get the attention it truly deserves, but it’s very packed with interesting events, concerts and activities. A few years ago, they brought Stockhausen himself for a concert at the very top of the Gherkin, with its unsurpassed panorama over the city. The Festival, which runs from 22 June to 12 July, features musicians as renowned as Willard White, Heinrich Schiff, Accentus, the renowned chamber choir with their charismatic conductor, Laurence Equilbey, Yan Pascal Tortelier (conducting Berlioz’s Requiem), Steven Osborne, Fran?ois Le Roux, and many other well-known names. The venues they use are part of the pleasure. This concert was held in the magnificent Painter’s Hall, where a copy of the guild’s charter can be seen, complete with red seal and the date 1466.
This year’s Festival has a French theme, so one of the keynote concerts was a performance of Poulenc’s masterpiece, La Voix Humaine, by Carole Farley, for whom it is something of a trademark.
She’s performed it many times, and her film of it (review) is a powerful piece of theatre, like a compelling film noir. It’s a very perceptive interpretation for what is happening is murder, carried out impersonally through the telephone, a weapon that leaves no trace, as the singer tells us.
As a device, Poulenc’s uses of a telephone narrative makes the piece even more difficult to perform, as the singer is cruelly exposed. In this recital, Farley is accompanied only by piano, not orchestra, so she’s even more alone. The piano part, moreover, supports action such as the ringing of the telephone, rather than supporting the voice part. No wonder Poulenc relished the challenge of performing it himself, with Denise Duval. And what demands it makes of the singer! Not only does she have to convey the character of the woman through this minimalist narrative, but she also has to convincingly convey the personality of her lover and the nature of their relationship so the “story” expands beyond brief snatches of one-sided conversation.
The subject’s personality isn’t nice, which puts even more pressure on the singer to make us sympathise. The woman lives in a haze of delusion, constantly staving off reality and inventing excuses, for her lover as much as for herself. Yet, she’s also intelligent, picking up on every emotional clue the lover gives, grabbing at any means of salvaging the situation. And she really does love the cad. As she collapses, Carole Farley sings her last words, Je t’aime, Je t’aime with such convincing depth that she captures a wide range of conflicting emotions. The woman might be on the verge of suicide, but the one thing she can’t pretend is that she doesn’t love. It is a tribute to Farley’s consummate skill that she manages to express this underlying warmth in the woman, with a magnificent voice. This was a very well-observed, psychologically perceptive portrait of the woman who has been hurt so long that she’s learned to defend herself by manipulation and illusion, even though it’s the very thing that destroys her ability to maintain relationships.
This really is a tour de force, and it’s not surprising why relatively few sopranos expose themselves to its unforgiving demands. But Carole Farley’s insights into character are so acutely penetrating, that her interpretation seems to evolve organically out of sheer instinct. Experience in opera has taught her the musical equivalent of method acting : every detail, from a whispered word, to an arched eyebrow, builds into a whole. She has the secret of expressing infinitely more than text alone. This protagonist became a real person, which made the impact of the piece extremely moving. I was most impressed by this performance, and very, very glad that I went!.
Anne Ozorio
Songs of the Americas / Wigmore Hall / June 2005 - Reviews
"Carole Farley showed just how rich and lovely her singing can be...first with hushed understatement, then unabashed joy, the lower reaches of her voice seeming to glow."
Musicweb International
"Miss Farley... was magnificent as she sang with an infectious and expressive lilt, and with clear diction, one rarely had to consult the texts printed in the programme."
Ray Picot - ILAMS
Kundry / Parsifal / Indiana University Opera Theatre
"Farley is obviously a singer who throws herself into a role. Quite rightly as Kundry, she was far less concerned with beauty of sound than truth in theatrical packaging, this even though she brought forth a host of exciting tones along the way. She became the all of Kundry, guile and guilt, designing siren and despairing sinner, the seeker after redemption even if that might result only from the destruction of Parsifal's innocence. It is Farley, as Wagner intended from his Kundry, who became the propulsive force in this Act II, with her cries and her screams and her seductive entreaties.
Herald Times
Katerina Ismailova / Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk / Metropolitan Opera, New York
"Carole Farley, an American taking over the role of Katarina Ismailova amid many Russians, carried the day. A sultry, towering, ultimately harrowing presence... her fake lament at the death of her first victim, her father-in-law, Boris Ismailov, had just the right incongruous beauty."
The New York Times
William Bolcom Songs / Naxos (NAXOS 8.559249)
"Carole Farley is a 'big' performer, bringing extensive operatic experience to bear on her approach to art songs... Farley's postures and a certain magical edge to the voice perfectly complement Bolcom's eclecticism and baroque sensuality... Farley embraces the varied tone of the songs in this cycle with her own astonishing variety."
www.classicalsource.com
"Ms Farley... is especially fine."
The New York Times
"The powerhouse singer is Carole Farley... The disk begins with a lumbar-levelling scream, and goes onwards and upwards from there."
Alan Rich - LA Weekly
"Farley and Bolcom work together like two lobes of one musical brain. Highly recommended!"
Craig Smith - PASATIEMPO, The Santa Fe New Mexican
"She opens in stunning style with 'You Cannot Have Me Now' - a lady's defence of her honour which begins with an ear-piercing scream."
Manchester Evening News
Kurt Weill Songs / ASV (CD DCA 790)
Farley produces a nicely controlled smear at proper moments (the Alabama is delicious), but she hasn't fallen into the Ute Lemper don't-we-all-wish-we-were-Lotte-Lenya trap. This is singing on the high (i.e., stratospheric) intelligence level.
Alan Rich - Los Angeles Kurt Weill Newsletter
Ned Rorem - Selected Songs (Naxos 8559084)
"It was something of a coup to persuade American composer Ned Rorem to record this selection of some of his finest songs with soprano Carole Farley, one of his regular collaborators and a hugely undervalued singer whose neglect by the big name companies is inexplicable. The disc is a tour de force for Farley, who swivels between passionate declamation and flawless lyricism."
The Guardian
"Farley gives thoughtful renditions of all of these, and Rorem plays with cool precision."
Michael Anthony - Star Tribune
"...very beautifully and most idiomatically performed by Carole Farley, with the composer himself as her incomparable accompanist."
Robert Matthew-Walker - International Record Review
"Carole Farley is the ideal singer for Rorem's music. The sound of her voice is pure and sensual."
Richard Todd - Ottawa Citizen
"Some singers bring to Ned Rorem's songs a wealth of vocal color; others connect emotionally with the spirit of the texts. Soprano Carole Farley is a rare singer who does both, making her performances of these 30-plus songs worthy of that over-used label 'definitive'."
Ken Smith - Star Ledger
"Open the windows and feel the bracing air of Carole Farley."
Jonathan Woolf - Musicweb
"Carole Farley, in excellent voice throughout, is simply not to be missed."
Robert Matthew-Walker - Music Opinion
"American Carole Farley is as expressive a soprano as these songs demand, respecting their linguistic clarity and delivering them in haunting, sensitive timbres. A must buy."
Iris Lorenz-Fife - Independent Coast Observer
"Throughout this splendid recital... Carole Farley's singing impresses for spirit and insight. The vocal beauty, the humour, the expressive and dramatic intensity, and above all her clearly communicated love for the songs make these five-star performances."
Stephen Johnson - BBC Music Magazine
Love Songs (Lecuona) - Recorded Recital (BIS-CD 1374)
"Farley sings all the songs with great finesse and warmth of feeling. The recording is wonderfully pure and clear."
Guy Richards - Gramophone
"I never heard Carole Farley's voice sound better. Abetted with flair by John Constable, she captures the atmosphere and languor to perfection with ravishing floated high notes and plangent Hispanic lower tones."
Bernard Jacobson - Fanfare Magazine
"Other recordings of Lecuona do exist, but this is the one that will put them on the map."
Music Web
"Carole Farley demonstrates again her qualities as one of the most admirable sopranos currently before the public, performing with notable artistry."
Robert Matthew-Walker - International Record Review
Grieg - Songs with Orchestra / Carole Farley, soprano; Jose Serebrier, cond; London Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia O / (DINEMEC DCCD 022)
"Farley seems in effortless command of her texts. She is also in quite wonderful voice, floating a line of tensile strength, crystal clear intonation, and judicious tonal coloring, and ranging with apparent ease from the intimate expression of the smaller lyrical songs to the picturesque and heroic elements of more expansive ones like the imposing "From Monte Pincio". Well-known for her performances of operatic repertoire from Monteverdi, Mozart, and Strauss to Janacek and Berg. Farley at her best is a singer of captivating charm and keen intelligence. Here she is certainly to be heard at that best, and Robert Matthew-Walker's 24-bit recording for Dinemec provides both her voice and the idiomatic accompaniments Serebrier draws from two leading London orchestras with a sonic ambience of ideal richness and clarity."
Fanfare Magazine