United States Various: Samantha Hankey (mezzo-soprano), Myra Huang (piano). Cal Performances, Hertz Hall, University of California Berkeley, 18.1.2026. (HS)
Poulenc – Trois Chansons de Federico García Lorca
William Schumann – Dichterliebe
Satie – ‘La Diva de l’Empire’
Schoenberg – ‘Gigerlette’
Trenet – ‘Boum!’
Weill – ‘Speak Low’ from One Touch of Venus; ‘Youkali’
Porter – ‘So in Love’ from Kiss Me, Kate
Encore: Bizet – Seguidilla from Carmen
I first encountered Samantha Hankey in 2015 at the Aspen Music Festival. One of the young participants in the opera program, she stood out as a vibrant mezzo-soprano with serious promise, especially as an adorable Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, a role she recently sang at Covent Garden. Now she is singing star roles regularly in Europe (Berlin Staatsoper and Wiener Staatsoper) and the title role in Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. With these credentials, there was no surprise at her poise and vocal intensity in a program that included William Schumann’s Dichterliebe and an appealing array of lighter-weight songs, among them favorites by Kurt Weill and Cole Porter.
Though carefully executed, Dichterliebe came off as a bit undercooked. The superb pianist Myra Huang (who also has a distinguished history with Aspen, not to mention heading up the young artists program at the Met) supplied extraordinary depth and understanding of the musical aspects throughout Schumann’s song cycle.
This collection of 16 mostly short songs, based on poems by Heinrich Heine, traces the travails and anguish of a love affair gone bad. Though traditionally sung by tenors or baritones, Schumann did dedicate the piece to a soprano, so it is not verboten for women to sing it. Hankey does not have the richest low range, but her voice travels easily from high to low with an even presence. Only the last two songs exceed two minutes, and a singer must convey a lot of emotion before the piano takes over and finishes the musical arc with Schumann’s extensive postludes.
Those of us referencing the libretto noticed that Hankey tended to use facial expressions and body language instead of ‘acting’ with her voice. Fists at her hips in a girlish posture set the stage for winsome singing in ‘Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’’ (‘When I look into your eyes’). A tilt of her head in ‘Ich will meine Seele tanchen’ (‘Let me bathe my soul’) hinted at a quizzical interpretation of a line translated as ‘The songs shall tremble and quiver’, rather than her suggesting trembling and quivering with her voice. Her arms crossed during ‘Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen’ (‘What a fluting, what a scraping’) made it seem withdrawn rather than an exclamation.
With more time to develop a vocal arc, the longer final songs carried the best combination of visual and sound. The skipping rhythm of ‘Aus altern Märchen’ (‘From fairy tales of old’) and the bouncy ‘Die alten, bösen Lieder’ (‘The bad old songs’) also provided a musical lift to the finish before taking a serious turn in the second half of the last song which references a lover’s grave. Although the singer’s stance at the end conveyed an unexpected resolve, as if to stifle the grief rather than express it, Huang’s softly executed piano postlude caught the grief perfectly.
Hankey’s humor came through in a series of droll songs in the second half, her voice catching ironic aspects in the lyrics. In Satie’s ‘La Diva de l’Empire’, Hankey introduced a modern disdain as the ‘diva of the empire’ shows a woman’s scorn for unwanted attention from men. Schoenberg’s early ‘Gigerlette’, which turns an intimate teatime into something decidedly more louche, came through with a sparkle, and Charles Trenet’s ‘Boum!’ had a lighter touch than the title (‘Boum does mean boom’) would suggest.
The two Weill songs paired the seductive ‘Speak Low’ with the satirical fantasy ‘Youkali’, the French language seeming utterly natural. Without the context of the plot in Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate (itself a turn on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew), ’taunt me, hurt me, deceive me, desert me’ needed a more ironic tone than the seriously masochistic interpretation we got in a sultry performance.
Best of all was the encore, the Seguidilla from Bizet’s Carmen. With her hands behind her back, leaning against the curve of the piano, Hankey not only portrayed the handcuffed character but got all the nuances necessary to make this aria a success. Would someone please cast her as Carmen!
Harvey Steiman