This Friday Zheng Cao will grace the stage of the Herbst Theatre with Philharmonia Baroque. Her acclaimed voice will soar and flourish to the notes of Handel, Gluck, and Rameau, but the majesty of the evening will be found in the words of Frederica von Stade.
This evening will mark the U.S. premiere of Nathaniel Stookey’s Into the Bright Lights. This piece is an intimate reflection of the life and career of an opera star, as experienced by von Stade. “Flicka” was scheduled to premiere this piece but had to withdraw for personal reasons. The decision to withdraw was no doubt made easier by the availability of Zheng, her dear friend, who takes her place.
“For me, to step up into Flicka’s song cycle, it’s a total treasure,” says Zheng of the opportunity. Von Stade wrote the words, describing her experience in singing and aging as she stepped away from the stage. Though she wrote these words following a glorious career on the stage, Zheng has found an incredible connection to the sentiment of the words, beginning even with the first line, “What else, I cry, what else except to sing.”
These words especially resonated with Zheng because of her tremendous battle with cancer, a battle for her life and her voice, which she fought with Von Stade by her side. “She was the one there asking the doctor to save my voice when they had to do the lung biopsy.” Von Stade stood beside Zheng, enraged that Zheng’s life and career could be cut short. She could not have known in those long hours at the hospital that her words would allow Zheng to reflect on this desperate period in her life. “I feel, my God, if I’m not able to sing, what else is life meant for? That relates to all singers … We have such a desire to just sing.”
The excitement of the premiere of the piece comes second, for Zheng, to the honor of singing Flicka’s words and being entrusted with the piece. “Singing is a great treasure and honor. Every single performance, every single sound that comes out of me, I will do it with such gratitude because I could have lost all of it. I’m still able to sing and I’m going to do it with great joy.”
Into the Bright Lights embodies the joy of a life filled with song. The understanding of this joy, and the drive for it, has undoubtedly forged an inseparable bond for Von Stade and Zheng. This bond fought cancer and found the words to give flight to an opera singer’s most intimate sentiments and purpose in life.
“Every time she took me to the doctor’s office she sang the whole entire time in the car. … Singing is a huge part of our lives.”