Music of love: Chatter to perform 'Rilke Songs' with soprano Ingela Onstad

Dec. 5—Santa Fe soprano Ingela Onstad remembers seeing Peter Lieberson's opera "Ashoka's Dream" in Santa Fe in 1997.

The composer's wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, performed in it.

Next weekend, Chatter will perform Lieberson's "Rilke Songs" with Onstad and pianist Judith Gordon in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

"I remember being very impressed by it as a young singer," Onstad said of the opera. "It feels like a full circle moment for me."

Lieberson based the songs on texts by the Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke. The composition was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2002. Gordon worked closely with the composer and played at the debut performance of the songs with Lieberson's wife at the 2001 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

"He composed them as love songs for his wife," Onstad said. "I've listened to recordings of her singing them, and it was very moving and touching."

She and Gordon have been rehearsing the piece for several months.

"I had to change some of the words because some of the translations didn't capture what the poetry meant to me," said Onstad, who speaks German. "They seemed close, but some of the imagery is evocative and mysterious. It's capturing sentiments that are elusive."

The five songs require Onstad to sing in a lower register like mezzo-soprano Hunt Lieberson.

"I love singing it," she said. "I enjoy singing in that part of my voice.

"I'm constantly listening to her inflections," Onstad continued. "They are challenging to sing. I think they are palatable; they're accessible to the ear."

The musicians also will perform Franz Schubert's Introduction and Variations on "Trockne Blumen" with flutist Jesse Tatum. The piece takes a somber song from Schubert's "Die schöne Müllerin," transforming it into a set of seven ebullient and virtuosic variations.

Onstad has been working with Chatter for "close to a decade."

"I just think they're a fantastic organization," she said. "There's not that much opera now compared to chamber music."

A native Santa Fean, Onstad has a varied international career in opera, concert work and contemporary music. She has performed Santa Fe Opera roles in "La Bohème," "The Magic Flute," "Falstaff," "Pirates of Penzance," "La Traviata" and "Suor Angelica."