Dawn Upshaw: The dawn of a renewed voice
Friday, February 02, 2007
DAVID STABLER
The Oregonian
When Dawn Upshaw walks onstage Thursday to perform at the Newmark Theatre, the acclaimed soprano won't just inaugurate a new vocal series in Portland. Her concert also marks Upshaw's return to the stage for the first time since being diagnosed last August with breast cancer.
Upshaw's silvery voice and easygoing grace have won audiences all over the world -- plus three Grammys -- and earned her the label "the diva next door." Thursday's concert will be her third appearance in Oregon. She sang in Eugene in 1992 and at Kaul Auditorium in 1999, both vocal high points.
This time, Upshaw, 46, opens the new Vocal Arts Series presented by Friends of Chamber Music. Two other concerts follow in the series this season: soprano Julianne Baird and the Aulos Ensemble on March 19; and Chanticleer, the male a cappella choir, on April 13-14.
Last summer's news didn't shock her, Upshaw said from her home in Westchester, N.Y. Eight years ago her sister was also stricken with breast cancer. Her sister is fine, now, but Upshaw knew she herself was at risk.
"I figured, someday, I'd get a call," she says.
Surgery removed two tumors, followed by two months of chemotherapy, which wasn't as bad as she feared, she says. "Nothing unbearable, nothing even close to being unbearable. But it wasn't fun."
Because doctors caught the cancer early, Upshaw's prognosis is very good, she says. Still, she's only just begun to process what happened.
"It's life-changing, but I don't have perspective on that yet. It's one of those things that has a huge impact on your life, like becoming a parent, and music." One thing she knows for sure is that throughout her recovery, family and friends, including Dana Upshaw, her sister who lives in Portland, never left her side. "I feel I am blessed through this strange journey."
Upshaw remembers feeling unfocused while going through chemo. "It was hard to read a book. I didn't even attempt to worry about how things would affect my work."
But with a winter tour looming, she had to start thinking about what music she wanted to sing. "I had to program this recital long before I knew how I was going to feel that day. I didn't particularly feel like singing. What do I want to sing about? What do I think I can sing?"
Her choices, informed through growing up with folk music and pioneering new music by John Harbison, John Adams and Oswaldo Golijov, mix down-home and ethereal art song.
She'll open with three Stephen Foster songs that she calls soothing and calming. "They call me into the evening of music-making," she says.
Robert Schumann's "Mignon" is full of yearning, and Hugo Wolf's "Bekehrte" relates the awe and sensuality of a first experience with love.
Four songs from "The Nursery" by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky call on Upshaw to become childlike in character, while one of her favorite composers, the Argentinean Golijov, contributes an entirely different feeling. "Lua descolorida" is about a woman speaking to the moon. "She's desperate, asking for comfort from the light of the moon because she feels so lost, but she can't even bear that light. She wants to disappear."
Upshaw ends on a light note with three wonderful "Cabaret Songs" by William Bolcom, including the delightful "Black Max" and the whip-smart "Amor."
Upshaw's voice is changing, she says, just one more element in life that doesn't stay put. "I feel even more comfortable with my lower range than in the beginning of my career. It feels fuller."
"I like variety," she adds. "You connect with different texts, even different music, as the years pass."
©2007 The Oregonian
