“Botti’s inventive, six-movement Mangetsu, which means “full moon” in Japanese, sets three lunar-related texts, interspersed with short vocalise movements. The opening wordless song is meditative and quietly lyrical with double-stops on the violin creating three-part harmony with Botti’s solo voice. In the spare, pointillistic “From Darkness,” set to a few lines translated from The Diary of Izumi Shikibu, Botti delivers flighty melismas on the opening word “From” as Yoshioka plucks, slides and tremolos. Subsequently, the vocal line spins out hesitantly but reverently, as the violin sensitively shadows Botti’s excursions and subtly illuminates the text. “The Stolen Child,” with text excerpted from the Yeats poem of the same name, has an aggressive beginning with dissonant arpeggios in the violin. Later, an ostinato pizzicato accompaniment leads into a subtly bluesy section that describes a couple’s nighttime romp on the beach. As the text gets more abstract, the melodic line becomes more angular and Botti’s delivery breathier, showing a wide range of dramatic expression. The ending movement, another vocalise, is reflective again, soaring briefly, and fading beautifully.”

- Joshua Rosenbum (Opera News)

“….dreamlike multi-movement title work. The wordless sections (“mangetsu”)
are nested in between the movements with poems describing the moon and the ethereal world of childhood (Shikibu, Yeats, de Saint-Exupéry). The result is
music that is willowy and sensual, a luring mystery. Botti explores the possibilities of voice and violin interactions to a great degree but always in the service of the poetry.”

- Ivana Popvic (The Whole Note)
https://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/booksrecords2/vocalchoralreviews/31412-duo-della-luna-mangetsu-susan-botti-airi-yoshioka

Mangetsu
Poetry by Izumi Shikibu, William Butler Yeats
Premiere: Duo della Luna - Susan Botti (sop) and Airi Yoshioka (vln)
UMBC, Baltimore, MD (April, 2016)
Commissioned by Airi Yoshioka and UMBC

featured on Duo della Luna’s recording, Mangetsu.
available from New Focus Recordings

PROGRAM NOTE:

Mangetsu (“Full Moon”) is an abstract exploration of poetry relating to the moon – and the otherworldliness of childhood. The texts are interwoven and connected by wordless sections (“mangetsu”).