Measha: Come Back Soon!

I had tickets--front row, egad--for last night's recital by Measha Brueggergosman (proud native of New Brunswick, Canada) at Carnegie's Zankel Hall. It was one of the most enjoyable vocal recitals I've heard in a long time. Measha (prounounced "Me-sha," in case you were wondering) sang a program of cabaret songs by "serious composers"--Britten, Schoenberg, Bolcom--with some songs by Satie, Poulenc and Rorem sprinkled in. She sings this music with complete ownership, aided by her big personality and charming presence. Her voice sometimes sounds small, but since she expanded it convincingly in the spiritual she sang as an encore, it is hard to know whether that is a built-in feature or whether she was tailoring the size of her voice for the hall. It's a sweet, expressive voice, and her diction, especially in English, is superb; she makes every song a story, and conveys each song's spirit--playfulness, wistfulness, desire, sorrow--with real authority and conviction. She is such a delight that all I can ask is for her to come back to New York soon--real soon!--and put on another recital like this.