Laura Smolik- Lúa Descolorida
MM Recital
Jeanette MacDonald Recital Hall USC
March 2016
Robert Blake, piano
Lúa Descolorida
Osvaldo Golijov (1960)
Rosalίa de Castro (1837-1885)
Composed in 1998
Born and raised in Argentina by Eastern European Jewish immigrants, and having also lived in Jerusalem and in the United States, Osvaldo Golijov’s use of a variety of ethnic influences, including klezmer melodies, Sephardic street calls, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and Argentinian tangos, along with more contemporary techniques like laptop sampling, make him the quintessential contemporary global composer.
Lúa Descolorida ("Colorless Moon") sets a melancholic text by 19th-century Galician poet Rosalía de Castro. Golijov describes the poem best by saying, “the despair of the text is defined in a way that is simultaneously tender and tragic.” Written initially as a solo piece for his muse, Dawn Upshaw, Lúa Descolorida was later added to Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark’s Passion) as the aria “Peter’s Tears”. The “quietly radiant” and florid vocal line is underscored throughout by the constant and somewhat static piano. A brief musical interlude echoes the singer’s melismatic style that carries the listener on what Golijov describes as a "slow-motion ride on a cosmic horse."
