Soprano Jasmine Habersham is a rising star in the younger generation of opera singers. Her voice has been lauded as “exquisite” by Broadway World, and she’s acclaimed for having a “well-controlled, silvery tone” by Opera Today. Habersham will perform a recital at Morningside Presbyterian Church on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m., and she joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom along with Dr. Johnathan Crutchfield, the organist and choirmaster of Morningside Presbyterian.
Interview highlights:
On the difference between singing with a full opera cast vs. solo performance:
“When singing opera, you kind of have a team around you, if that makes sense, where you can go off of your other castmates. There’s so many other things supporting you, whereas in solo recital, it’s much different. It’s much more intimate, and I have to think of all these little different characters and different emotions within each song that I do. So for me, it is extremely a much more intimate and vulnerable place to be … That’s such an amazing way to connect with an audience when it’s just you and the piano and an audience, and you feel that synergy happening.”
“There are certain journeys that good songs take,” said Habersham. “At least, as a singer, I have to create that journey of the song, and create those pictures and elements myself, very much the same way that I would with opera. But it’s just the song. I don’t have any other character interaction to go off of, so at least it’s very vital for me to make sure that I do create that artistic journey so it’s understandable. And what’s so beautiful about it too, is there’s so many layers you can go with that, and so many different types of emotions that you can put in song.”
On Habersham’s path to an opera career:
“There was this amazing fine arts camp in Macon, Georgia, called Midsummer Macon, and it was this summer intensive camp that lasted about two weeks, and some of the best years of my formative life, because … actually, that is where I literally found my voice,” recalled Habersham. “I found my discovery of my love for singing when I heard Audra McDonald and her album ‘Way Back to Paradise,’ and one of the very first songs on that album was Ricky Ian Gordon’s ‘Dream Variations,’ which, actually, I will be singing on the recital.”
“That was one of the very few moments that I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to do this thing called singing,’ and that’s when that complete love affair started. From there, I started taking voice lessons with Nadine Whitney at Wesleyan College. She suggested that I apply to college for voice, so I ended up going to Shorter University for my undergraduate degree, and then for my graduate degree, I went to the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that’s where things kind of emerged from there.”
Musical selections not to be missed at the recital:
“I will be singing a few arias, some Mozart arias, particularly two Handel arias, a Mozart aria, and also a Rossini aria. These are things that I have been singing for a couple of years,” Habersham said. “There are some things that are new that I actually wanted to kind of give myself a challenge on, technically. But some of the songs that I will be singing are some of the Ricky Ian Gordon Songs from ‘Only Heaven.’ So those include ‘Dream Variations,’ ‘Heaven’, ‘Stars,’ which is such an incredible song … All of them are by Langston Hughes. Ricky Ian Gordon does such an excellent job of setting his text in a really beautiful way.”
“I’m also doing some songs from Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein. Actually, these are some of his most notable works, like ‘Green Finch and Linnet Bird,’ ‘Somewhere’ and ‘I Feel Pretty.’ I wanted to pay homage to Sondheim, especially since we lost him last year,” she added.
Two of the songs in this piece — “Dream Variations” and “Heaven” are performed by Audra McDonald and Ricky Ian Gordan.
Jasmine Habersham performs Oct. 29 at Morningside Presbyterian Church. Tickets and more information are available at https://www.morningsidepc.org/the-nancy-frampton-rising-artists-series
