On Sunday, February 12, at 3:30 PM, Alissa Grimaldi will perform “The Flower of the Mountain,” which was composed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Stephen Albert. The event will take place at the St. Marks Church in the Bowery, at 131 East 10th Street, at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 10th Street in Manhattan.
The event is presented by Downtown Music Productions, Mimi Stern-Wolfe, conductor. Donation: $20; seniors and students $12. Reservations not necessary. Contact Downtown: 212-477-1594. Contact Alissa Grimaldi at 212-679-3461, cell at 646-784-0302. AlissaGrimaldi@mac.com.
The performance will also include “Creation Du Monde” by Darius Milhaud, and “Lincoln Portrait” by Aaron Copland (Larry Marshall, narrator).
Stephen Albert, an American composer, was born February 6, 1941 and died December 27, 1992 in a tragic automobile accident. His music is described at Musical Sales Classical as “powerful, dramatic, colorful, and deeply emotive. Contemporary in sound, yet firmly rooted in traditional compositional techniques, Albert’s music sought to establish links with fundamental human emotions and musical archetypes.” (Go to Biography on this site for much more about Albert and his music.) Find out more about Albert at: http://stephenalbertcomposer.com and on Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Albert .
Alissa Grimaldi is a soprano who has performed the major operatic roles as well as having appeared in musical theater. She has extensive experience as an actress and a dancer as well as a singer.
A vocal technician with over twenty years of experience, she uses a student-focused technique. She studied in the studio of Jacqueline Victorino in California. Alissa debuted Albert’s “Flower of the Mountain” on the West Coast in 1991.
Click here to hear Lucy Shelton’s performance.
Text for ‘Flower of the Mountain’, adapted from ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce:
I love flowers
Id love to have the whole place
swimming in roses
God of heaven
theres nothing like nature
the wild mountains then the sea
and the waves rushing
even out of ditches
primroses and violets
nature it is
the sun shines for you he said
the day we were lying among the rhododendrons
the day I got him to propose to me
yes first I gave him a bit of seedcake
out of my mouth
and it was leap year like now
sixteen years ago
my God after that long kiss
I near lost my breath
yes
he said I was a flower of the mountain
yes
so we are flowers all a womans body
yes
that was one true thing he said in his life
and the sun shines for you today (etc)
yes
and that was why I liked him
because I saw he understood or felt
what a woman is
O that awful deepdown torrent
O and the seas
and the sea crimson
sometimes like fire
and the glorious sunsets
and the fig trees in the Alameda gardens
yes
and rosegardens (and the) jessamine
and geraniums and cactuses (etc)
and Gibralter as a girl
where I was a flower of the mountain
yes
when I put the rose in my hair
or shall I wear a red
yes
and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall
and I thought
well as well him as another
and then I asked with my eyes
to ask again
yes
and then he asked me
would I
yes
to say
yes
my mountain flower
and first I put my arms around him
yes
and drew him down to me
so he could feel my breasts
all perfume
and his heart was going like mad and
yes
I will
yes
text