Various Composers - Songs of Orpheus (Kelley O'Connor; Robert Spano)

Information

• Claude Debussy - Chansons De Bilitis
• Robert Spano - Sonnets to Orpheus
• George Crumb - Three Early Songs
• Edward Grieg - Haugtussa, op. 67

Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano

Robert Spano, piano

Date: 2025

Label: Sono Luminus

_____________________

This album unites song cycles by Grieg, Debussy, Crumb, and Spano, composed over 125 years, into a meditation on love, nature, mortality, and art’s transformative power. Structured in thematic pairs, Debussy and Spano evoke Ancient Greece, while Grieg and Crumb draw on nature’s enchantments and love’s impermanence. Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis (1899) exudes sensual desire; Spano’s Sonnets to Orpheus (2020) gives voice to Rilke’s mystical poetry; Crumb’s Three Early Songs (1947) offer fragile odes to night, flower, and wind. Together, the cycles compel reflection on love’s joys and sorrows, echoing Rilke’s idea that loving another is life’s greatest challenge.

Kelley O’Connor is an acclaimed American mezzo-soprano, trained at USC’s Thornton School of Music and UCLA. Celebrated for her collaborations with leading composers, she has premiered works by John Corigliano, Kareem Roustom, Joby Talbot, and Bryce Dessner. John Adams created the title role of The Gospel According to the Other Mary for her, which she has performed with top conductors worldwide. She is also renowned for Lieberson’s Neruda Songs and Golijov’s Ainadamar. On the operatic stage, O’Connor has sung major roles including Carmen, Britten’s Lucretia, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and works by Berlioz, Verdi, and Britten across leading opera houses.