The Perils of Love: Art Song from Scarlatti to Ravel
Karina Gauvin, star of the opera world, is regularly featured on major international stages from Paris to Milan to Tokyo. In this program, Karina presents an intimate selection of art songs for soprano and piano, in which poetry is set to music in the most profound and intricate way. Unlike operatic arias, these songs are meant for smaller, more personal settings, with an intense focus on the poetry's meaning and its musical expression. A close partnership between the voice and the piano is essential, and pianist
Michael McMahon fills this role as Karina’s ideal duo partner.
The songs of this program span from the early Baroque period through to Mozart, continuing with the tragic undertones of Gustav Mahler and a selection of masterfully crafted French “mélodies” by Bizet, Ravel, and Massenet. Themes of love, loss, passion, life’s struggles, and the quiet joys of nature are heard throughout.
Tickets are $70 for Level 1, $65 for Level 2, and $25 for students. Prices are inclusive of fees and taxes. Seating is assigned.
Single tickets go on sale on August 15, 2026.
To donate to the Cecilian Chamber Series, please visit:
DONATE
Biographies:
Karina Gauvin, soprano
Canadian soprano and Grammy nominee Karina Gauvin has impressed audiences and critics the world over, from La Scala in Milan to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw to Carnegie Hall in New York with her luscious timbre, profound musicality, and wide vocal range.
Described by Opera News as “a queen of Baroque opera”, Ms. Gauvin has sung with the world’s leading orchestras, including the San Francisco, Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto Symphonies, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Les Violons du Roy, Musica Antiqua Köln, Accademia Bizantina, and Il Complesso Barocco.
Ms. Gauvin has worked with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ivor Bolton, Teodor Currentzis, Bernard Labadie, Sir Roger Norrington, Kent Nagano, Fabien Gabel, Semyon Bychkov, Michael Tilson Thomas, Christopher Hogwood, Andrea Marcon, Helmuth Rilling, and Christophe Rousset. Also active as a recitalist, Gauvin has collaborated with pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Michael McMahon, and Roger Vignoles.
During the pandemic, Karina Gauvin was privileged to participate in a recording project, the complete songs of late 19th-century composer Jules Massenet. Her extensive discography – over 50 titles – has won her numerous awards, including a “Chamber Music America Award” for her “Fête Galante” disc with pianist Marc-André Hamelin, 3 Grammy nominations for her recordings with the Boston Early Music Orchestra, and several Opus Prizes. Recent projects have included Merab in Handel’s Saul at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and Giunone in Cavalli’s La Calisto at the Staatsoper München and at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
Among the numerous distinctions she received in her early career, Ms. Gauvin was named soloist of the year for the International French Radio Community, won first prize for the CBC Radio National Competition for Young performers, the Virginia Parker Prize as well as the Maggie Teyte Memorial Prize in London, and the Lieder and Public’s prize at the ‘s-Hertogenbosch International Competition.
Michael McMahon, piano
Pianist Michael McMahon is the preferred partner to many of the world’s finest singers. He has performed regularly throughout Canada, in Europe, Japan and the USA with singers such as Catherine Robbin, Karina Gauvin, Measha Brueggergosman, Marianne Fiset, Lyne Fortin, Dominique Labelle, Wendy Nielsen, Maureen Forester, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Annamaria Popescu, Joseph Kaiser, Nathan Berg, Brett Polegato, Benjamin Butterfield, Daniel Taylor, Michael Schade, Russell Braun and Richard Margison.
Following his studies at McGill University in Montreal, he completed his musical education in Vienna at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst and the Franz Schubert Institute, and in Salzburg at the Mozarteum. During this time, he studied with such legendary artists as Erik Werba, Hans Hotter, Elly Ameling, Jörg Demus, and Kim Borg.
In addition to his active performing schedule, Michael McMahon is a Professor at McGill University's Schulich School of Music in Montreal. He has had long associations with “l’Atelier lyrique de L’Opéra de Montréal”, Opera Nuova, the Orford Arts Centre, and the Banff Centre for the Arts, where he has worked regularly as a vocal coach. He is also often asked to give Masterclasses for singers and pianists, and is a resident artist at the Franz Schubert Institute in Austria and the C.O.S.I. Summer Opera program in Italy.
He has made numerous broadcast recordings for the English and French networks of the CBC, as well as for the BBC, RBTF, Radio Suisse Romande, and Radio France. With four JUNO nominations to his credit, his recordings on the Marquis, CBC, Atma, and Analekta labels have received critical acclaim.
Program:
Alessandro Scarlatti
Toglietemi la vita ancor (You can even take away my life)
Cara, care e dolce (Dear, dear and sweet liberty)
Giovanni Bononcini
Per la gloria d’adorarvi (For the Glory of Adoring You)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Das Veilchen (The Violet)
Dans un bois solitaire (In a Lonely Forest)
Als Luise die Briefe (As Luise Burned the Letters of Her Unfaithful Lover)
Jules Massenet
Le coffret d’ébène (The Ebony Casket)
Madrigal
Vieilles lettres (Old Letters)
L’improvisateur (The Improviser)
—Intermission—
Gustav Mahler
Ablösung im Sommer (The Changing of the Summer Guard)
Das irdische Leben (Earthly Life)
Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht (Who Thought Up This Little Song?)
Maurice Ravel
Cinq mélodies populaires grecques (Five Greek Folk Songs)
Le réveil de la mariée (The Bride’s Awakening)
Là-bas, vers l’église (Over There, by the Church)
Quel galant m'est comparable (What Gallant Compares with Me)
Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques (Song of the Girls Collecting Mastic)
Tout gai! (All are joyous!)
Georges Bizet
Guitare
Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe (Farewell to the Arabian Hostess)
La coccinelle (The Ladybug)
Ouvre ton cœur (Open your Heart)
