When I walked up to the entrance of Weill Recital Hall, I noticed a sign for an upcoming recital by mezzo-soprano, Sasha Cooke... Then as I looked at the date for that recital, I noticed it said "April 4, 2008". Tonight. -Hmm... Is she singing in another hall? That's when I noticed the pieces of paper taped to the doors. Apparently, both Joseph Kaiser and his accompanist, Craig Rutenberg, were sick, and Sasha Cook and her accompanist, Pei-Yao Wang, were recruited on very short notice to fill in for the evening.
For a few moments, I had thought about asking for a refund, but since I hadn't heard a mezzo-soprano or soprano in recital in a while, I went ahead and headed into Weill.
Her program consisted of some of my favorites: Debussy's "Chasons de Bilitis", Schumann's "Frauenliebe und -Leben", and de Falla's "Siete Canciones Populares Espagnolas", as well as a set of songs by John Harbison, "North and South".
All in all, it was a wonderful recital. I've never heard Sasha Cooke before, and I was pleasantly surprised by her very "soprano" sounding mezzo-soprano voice. Bright, clear, without that (stereo-)typical smokiness of some mezzos. Her accompanist was very good, although, I did find myself wishing for some more colorations in the Debussy and de Falla - but I also thought the piano seemed to be voiced a bit on the bright side too, so that may have been the issue. Alas, the charms and appeal of Harbison's music still seem to elude me. There were a few nice moments during "North and South", but those were during passages where I thought he was sounding like William Bolcom and Ned Rorem.

For her encores, she performed Rachmaninov's "Spring Waters" - which I had just heard the night before in the larger hall, and a truly hauntingly beautiful aria from John Adam's "Doctor Atomic" - she'll be a part of the Metropolitan Opera's production next season.
*There was one interesting flub during the de Falla set. The pianist started the intro to one of the songs...
-Hmm, that's not the next one in the set... Then Ms. Cooke gestured to stop and briefly chatted with her accompanist. Her pianist had accidentally turned one too many pages, and had skipped over one of the songs. Oops!