Mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska’s March 24 Koerner Hall recital with pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin marked a triumphant homecoming for the young Macedonian-Canadian singer. In an improvised speech between sets, she indicated that she had practically grown up in the hall, and in the adjoining conservatory. Twenty-six years of study, first as a student of violin and then of voice, meant this performance was offered as a sort of ‘love letter’ to all the mentors and community members who helped form her into one of today’s most promising lyrical artists.
Nikolovska possesses a distinctive vocal timbre: rich, but still bright in colour, with a penetrating upper register which puts her in good stead to also succeed in operatic repertoire, where there’s a need to project over a large orchestra in a big space. She recently proved her operatic chops in Toronto as the Fox in the Canadian Opera Company’s early 2024 run of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen.
Mezzo Soprano Ema Nikolovska, Photo by Kaupo Kikkas
As she proved at Koerner Hall, she is not afraid to take big vocal risks, and pare her sound down to a very fine filigree. This often results in a barely vibrating, ‘straight’ tone. Within the context of more intimate song repertoire, this technical choice was mostly appropriate.
Classical singers will often say they use the same technique performing on opera or concert hall stages. However, German Lieder, French mélodies or English art song are so text-driven that a good recitalist will usually give slightly more priority to articulating words than is sometimes possible in an operatic context. Nikolovksa proved exemplary in this respect, but almost to a fault. The aforementioned willingness to experiment with tonal colour sometimes resulted in a vocal line that was too managed and broken up. In the longer Debussy set that opened the program’s second half, one missed the sense of a smooth, legato line demanded by Verlaine’s languorous, perfumed poetry.
The program was loosely themed around the four seasons and included two piano solos for Hamelin: Tchaikovsky’s “June” from The Seasons and Debussy’s “Lent” from Images oubliées, both short and sensitively played by the French-Canadian pianist. An opening group of lesser-known Schubert songs were well-delivered by Nikolovska to a mostly uncomprehending audience, due to a snafu in providing printed text translations. That was happily remedied in the second half when we were handed texts as we exited the hall for intermission!
Charles Richard-Hamelin, Photo by Julien Faugere
Next, a set of songs by African American composer Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) to texts by Langston Hughes revealed clear mid-century jazz and gospel inspirations. Nikolovska relished the dramatic metaphors of thunder and impetuous young love in “Summer Storms,” which ended the first half. Debussy’s more familiar Ariettes Oubliées showed off the mezzo’s remarkable ability to shape, colour and highlight enigmatic texts with high pianissimi and full throated high notes. Her richness of tone and the reverberant hall acoustic sometimes worked against her in terms of optimal textual clarity, as it made consonants difficult to make out, and vowel shapes a little unclear.
The final set included two songs by Russian composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951), which were among the afternoon’s strongest pieces – Nikolovska was particularly engaging in the ominous “tick-tock”, life-is-passing, yet ultimately hopeful, new generation sentiments of “Sleeplessness.” She and Richard-Hamelin then immediately launched into a hilarious collection of Five Advertising Songs by Nicolas Slonimsky (1895-1995) with texts taken from early 20th-century American sales ads. Particularly amusing was the mezzo’s account of “Utica Sheets and Pillowcases, ” in which she fell asleep inside the piano.
Richard-Hamelin was the consummate collaborator, using a mostly light touch to support his singing partner. Nikolovska is clearly well on her way to a substantial international career, already with a string of European concert tours and opera engagements behind her. A stage animal, who possesses a quality instrument, it will be fascinating to follow her career trajectory in seasons to come.
For more information about Ema Nikolovska’s upcoming engagements visit askonasholt.com/artist/ema-nikolovska
