:Honey and Rue
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{{Infobox musical composition
| name = Honey and Rue
| image =
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| composer = André Previn
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| form = Song cycle
| text = Toni Morrison
| language = English
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| performed = {{Timeline-event|date={{Start date|1992|01|05|df=y}}|location=Carnegie Hall, New York City}}
| published = {{Timeline-event|date={{Start date|1993|||df=y}}|location=Chester Music, London}}
| movements =
| scoring = soprano and small orchestra
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}}
Honey and Rue is a song cycle composed by Oscar and Grammy award winner André Previn and premiered by Kathleen Battle, with words from poems by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison.{{cite book|author=Karen F. Stein|title=Reading, Learning, Teaching Toni Morrison|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3554BEVqIIC&pg=PA12|year=2009|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-1-4331-0223-3|pages=12–}} It is scored for a solo soprano and small orchestra and is influenced by the rhythms of jazz, blues and American spirituals.{{cite book|author=Carmen Gillespie|title=Critical Companion to Toni Morrison: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qo5h9LqqanAC&pg=PA256|year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-0857-5|pages=256–}} The New York Times termed the composition "a model of understated luxury, rich and plastic without the need of ornament".
History
According to The Critical Companion to Toni Morrison, Kathleen Battle had been moved by Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, and asked Previn and Morrison to create a song cycle for her. The cycle was ultimately commissioned by Carnegie Hall. The lyrics, according to the Chicago Tribune, "move across a specifically black, urban, female landscape of experience".{{cite web|last1=von Rhein|first1=John|title=Battle Serves 'Honey And Rue'|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1996/02/18/battle-serves-honey-and-rue/|website=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Chicago Tribune|access-date=5 May 2015}}
It was premiered in 1992, sung by Battle in the Carnegie Hall, but most notably remembered as the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood Festival opener, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.{{cite web|last1=Bernard|first1=Holland|title=Review/Music; Kathleen Battle Sings a Custom-Made Cycle|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/13/arts/review-music-kathleen-battle-sings-a-custom-made-cycle.html|work=The New York Times|access-date=5 May 2015}} This was the first time Morrison had written for an original score. The score was published in 1993 by Chester Music.{{Cite book|oclc = 30907218|title = Honey and Rue: Six Songs for Soprano and Orchestra|isbn = 9780711932258|last1 = Previn|first1 = André|last2 = Morrison|first2 = Toni|year = 1994}} Battle also performed the work that year at the Ravinia Festival with conductor John Nelson and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/07/26/something-new-under-the-stars/|title=Something New Under The Stars: Previn's Song Cycle Gets Its Local Debut|date=July 26, 1993|author=John von Rhein|author-link=John von Rhein|work=Chicago Tribune}}
Battle recorded the cycle with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Previn conducting, on the Deutsche Grammophon label in 1995, together with Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and George Gershwin's, "I Loves You, Porgy" and "Summertime". In its review of the recording , the Baltimore Sun praised the work as "a wonderful cycle with a splendid text".{{cite web|last1=Wigler|first1=Stephen|title=Previn and Battle produce treasurable disc Savory: Recording's best part is 'Honey and Rue,' written by Andre Previn for Kathleen Battle|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1995/12/17/previn-and-battle-produce-treasurable-disc-savory-recordings-best-part-is-honey-and-rue-written-by-andre-previn-for-kathleen-battle/|website=The Baltimore Sun|publisher=The Baltimore Sun|access-date=5 May 2015}} That same year Battle sang the role with the New York Philharmonic, conductor Leonard Slatkin, and Toni Morrison as orator at Avery Fisher Hall.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/16/arts/music-review-life-after-met-goes-on-for-battle-next-door.html|title=Music Review: Life After Met Goes On For Battle, Next Door|date=December 16, 1995|work=The New York Times|author=Anthony Tommasini|author-link=Anthony Tommasini}} Battle has also performed the work with other major orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen in 1997,{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-sep-07-ls-29628-story.html|title=Philharmonic Strikes Up Another Season|author=Mary Lou Loper|work=Los Angeles Times|date=September 7, 1997}} the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Gerard Schwarz at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in 2000,{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/2000-07-29/entertainment/25608603_1_philadelphia-orchestra-summer-programs-honey-and-rue|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528011317/http://articles.philly.com/2000-07-29/entertainment/25608603_1_philadelphia-orchestra-summer-programs-honey-and-rue|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 28, 2015|title=Battle Is Triumphant, Bernstein Is Battered The Soprano Was Exquisite In Songs And Spirituals. A "West Side" Medley For Orchestra Was Botched.|work=Philadelphia Media Network|author=David Patrick Stearns|author-link=David Patrick Stearns|date=July 29, 2000}} and the Detroit Symphony and conductor Thomas Wilkins in 2006.{{cite news|url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/3997.html|title=Detroit Symphony to Honor Kathleen Battle at Gala|date=27 February 2006|author=Ben Mattison|work=Playbill}}
Soprano Harolyn Blackwell has also performed the work several times with Previn as conductor, including performances with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York (1996),{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/19/arts/classical.html|title=Classical|author=James R. Oestreich|author-link=James R. Oestreich|work=The New York Times|date= October 19, 1996}} the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1998),{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19981113&id=0YwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4000,1508013&hl=en|title=No Limits: Two Distinctive Singers Who Dare To Cross The Lines of Style|author=Robert Croan|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette}} the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo (1999), and the Oslo Philharmonic (2001).{{cite news|url=http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2001/03/30/250227.html|title=Musikalsk vismann|date=30 March 2001|work=Dagbladet}} Previn led the Oslo Philharmonic in performances of the work again in 2006, this time with soprano Nicole Cabell.{{cite news|url=http://www.kulturspeilet.no/2006/10/20/|title=Korenes korverk|date=20 October 2006}} More recently, soprano Jeanine De Bique performed the cycle to open the 102nd season of Matinee Musicale in the Anderson Center in Cincinnati in May 2015.{{cite web|last1=Gelfand|first1=Janelle|title=Soprano soars in André Previn's Honey and Rue|url=http://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/arts/2014/10/02/anderson-opera-matinee-musicale-art-song-cincinnati/16593393/|website=Cincinnati.com|publisher=Cincinnati.com|access-date=5 May 2015}} Soprano Elizabeth Futral is scheduled to sing the work in August 2015 with the Pacific Symphony.
Cycle
- "First I'll Try Love"
- "Whose House Is This"
- "The Town Is Lit"
- "Do You Know Him"
- "I Am Not Seaworthy"
- "Take My Mother Home"
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Fontaine, Jeanette. "He Sang, She Sang: The Gendered Song Cycle." Journal of Singing 70.1 (2013): 97.
- Gingerich, Katrina. "The Journey of the Song Cycle: From “The Iliad” to “American Idiot." Musical Offerings 1.2 (2010): 3.
- Baby, Tar, et al. "Works byToni Morrison." Toni Morrison (2010): 307.
External links
- [http://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0001798145 Honey and Rue] on AllMusic
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