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  • A Conversation with Kate Lindsey, Part 2
  • Leslie Holmes (bio) and Kate Lindsey

THE VOCAL POINT

Continuing my conversation on Zoom with mezzo soprano Kate Lindsey …

Leslie Holmes:

I haven't seen much mention of oratorio in your bio material.

Kate Lindsey:

I haven't done much oratorio. I've done more Mozart than other composers. As a lyric mezzo, it can be about tessitura. With Bach, sometimes things can seem a bit low. Sometimes I'm more a second soprano than an alto. It depends on the orchestra, or where it's being done … what country, what pitch is being used.

LH:

You have a wonderful range. I love your [Berlioz] Nuits d'été.

KL:

Oh, thank you.

LH:

I've sung that a lot, so I am very familiar with the range. Your low notes are rich and full, and your high notes just soar. Your French is superb. I'm a Francophile and very fussy about French.

KL:

I love French. It's probably my strongest foreign language. I love singing in French.

LH:

When you were working on making the recording Thousands of Miles, could you speak French well enough to converse with Baptiste [Trotignon, pianist], or did you have to have an interpreter? He speaks fast.

KL:

Yes, he speaks really fast. I find that he is hard to follow, but Baptiste speaks amazing English. When we met, I didn't know how well he spoke English. I was living in London and went to a train station, got out, and met him in Paris. I talked to him about the project, and shared with him some of the thoughts I had about repertoire. We met for just a couple of hours, and I turned around and went back to London. He shocked me that his English was so good. You know, there are quite a few French people who will speak English with a really heavy French accent. He doesn't. He said he learned it because of jazz. So much of the jazz world operates in English. We ended up conversing mostly in English. [End Page 127]

LH:

I loved your climbing up on those rocks for the Arianna CD jacket photo.

KL:

Oh, yes. That was terrifying. I won't be doing that any time soon again. We needed the shot, but I realized afterwards that it was too scary. I found the photographer locally one day. We sat in a coffee shop talking about where to get the photo. I had kind of a picture in mind, so he wandered down the coast a bit, to see if he could find anything. Afterwards, he said that he had found rocks just down the road that he thought would be the right place to do it. He said that we had to wait for a gray, slightly raining, morning. We knew we had about ten days when we were both here, and we were just checking back and forth. One night he said that the next morning looked as if would be okay. I quickly threw something together to wear, and then we met the next morning at 8:30 or 9:00.

LH:

Was it raining?

KL:

It was drizzling.

LH:

I would think the rocks would be slippery.

KL:

They were, but it depended on where we were. Further out they were wetter from the tide. We were being cautious. It was cold and there were tears on my face because of the wind blowing on it. It was kind of experimental, to see what we could get. Afterwards, I remember coming home, thinking that I hoped he got a shot because I really didn't want to do that again.

LH:

We're glad you're still here.

KL:

I do appreciate that. It was a bit risky, but the shot, I think, was worth it in the end.

LH:

On Thousands of Miles, I love Kurt Weill's French pieces. You know, the ones he wrote for Lys Gauty when he lived in Paris, after fleeing from Germany. Have you ever done "Complainte de la Seine"?

KL:

We, actually, recorded that for the disk. It is...

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