The Music:
John Adams
Am I in Your Light?
Mahler
“Rückert Lieder”
George Frideric Handel
Ombra mai fù
Executive producer: Jim Mulally
If You Love For Beauty showcases Metropolitan Opera and GRAMMY® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, and The Colburn Orchestra conducted by Yehuda Gilad.
Opera News heralded mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke’s debut album If You Love For Beauty and described her onstage “attractive, erotic stage presence.” Writing in Opera News specifically about this recording Eric Myers continues “In Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft, [Sasha] floats a beautiful mezza voce as soft as the linden fragrance she is describing. Liebst du um Schönheit is sung with hushed intimacy, and Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen comes wrapped in a quiet, confessional tone of resignation and introspection. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder captures the correct rapid-fire, gently comic air of frustration. In the stark Um Mitternacht, Cooke rises movingly from the depressive episode depicted in the opening to the great epiphany of the final lines.”
“combining as she did the outward purity of a Renaissance angel and a voice of powerful sensual warmth and excellent musicality” -Anne Midgette, The New York Times
“gifted young mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, as Kitty Oppenheimer, was able to create a fresh, vital portrayal, bringing a luminous tone, a generously supported musical line, a keen sense of verbal nuance, and a flair for seduction” -Alex Ross, The New York Times
“sung with aching, wistful intensity” -Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
Yarlung Records exhibited at The Show in Newport with the analog tape of this album before its release on CD or vinyl. Numerous critics kept returning to the room to hear more of Sasha and this tape. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief of PFO later gave Yarlung the prestigious Audio Oasis award in recognition of his return again and again over the course of the show to hear Sasha and Colburn Orchestra. Sasha and the outstanding Colburn Orchestra offer us a musical oasis indeed.
–Bob Attiyeh, producer
