Songs for Murdered Sisters • Press Coverage
Critical Acclaim
“Atwood’s precise, heartfelt language elicited a profoundly empathetic score from Heggie; the music — tender and twinkling, haunted and sad — embodies a sibling’s love being forced to incorporate sorrow. In a riveting filmed performance, Hopkins ricochets among the stages of grief. The film’s terrific soundtrack is also available.”
The New Yorker
“The piece builds skillfully, and Mr. Heggie, who writes lyrically and idiomatically for the voice, unerringly finds the musical kernel of each. One is reminded of Schubert’s “Winterreise” and of Schumann’s “Dichterliebe,” both mental journeys of grievous loss, particularly in the way that a song may begin in one emotional register, then take a sudden turn.”
Wall Street Journal
“Heggie’s piece is wrenchingly personal. The result is transformational. On a technical level, Heggie’s simple, graceful melodies and harmonies, and clear, delicate orchestration, heard through Hopkins’ warm, mellifluous singing, turned Atwood’s words into the loveliness and complexity of song. Yet they seemed to take the unimaginable pain of the murders into something that could hold and display the insoluble emotions of it all in a place that could be controlled by both Hopkins and the listener. There was a wonderful precision in the music and the performance, the ability to show something important and also dangerous with transparency and honesty, while being the master of it. Far more than the pop-psychological notion of closure, this is how people can hope to carry grief, which never goes away.
New York Classical Review
“It was the American premiere of the orchestral version of this work, of a beauty only comparable to the intensity of the emotion it conveys. The orchestral version of these eight songs, based on as many poems by Margaret Atwood, is of an instrumental and vocal richness that will most likely make these songs soon part of the repertoire. These songs by Heggie-Atwood were an optimal choice to complete the concert.”
Mundoclasico
“Heggie’s seasoned writing skills are also on display throughout, especially in the setting of texts, the skillful use of Hopkins’ vocal register and colours, the compelling dynamic choices, and, most powerful, the deafening silences.”
The Whole Note
“Heggie responds to the innate musicality of Atwood’s poems with a combination of lyrical sweep and angular incisiveness, offering long phrases of heartbreaking beauty, moments of sensitivity and grace, and a vehicle for the deep fury born of powerlessness. With his glowing, velvety baritone, Hopkins gives a soul-baring performance that is gut-wrenching, cathartic, and a model of pinpoint focus. Hopkins’s performance is so masterful, the material so personal, that it’s hard to imagine anyone else singing this work, but it deserves many performances by many interpreters. Heggie and Atwood have created a superb, timeless song cycle that resonates universally in the tradition of Kindertotenlieder and Winterreise. By avoiding despair, Songs for Murdered Sisters offers consolation, hope and, for those willing to heed it, a call to action.”
Opera News
“[Atwood and Heggie’s] joint creation is Songs for Murdered Sisters, eight pieces of starkly simple, singable poetry by Atwood set with simple, singable, mood-enhancing eloquence by Heggie, and brought to wrenching life by Hopkins in the film (directed, also with moody simplicity, by James Niebuhr).”
Opera Canada
“This striking and moving piece was prompted by the murder of Nathalie Warmerdam, the sister of Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins. The resulting work, Songs for Murdered Sisters, is at once powerful and tender, and also prompts a remarkable vocal performance from Hopkins. Heggie’s settings are richly tonal and on occasion also mingle effectively with Schubert’s own musical language.”
BBC Music Magazine
“The sensitive interpretation of Hopkins and Heggie is like perceiving the breath and the pain of the many victims who have suffered and suffered damage of every kind. While listening to this music it is possible to grasp the fascinating compositional invention while highlighting how much the music seeks to express in the intentions of the work.”
GBOPera
“The score, inspired by the murder of Hopkins' sister and dedicated to all victims of femicide , is an important addition to the repertoire. In short, a masterpiece.”
Le Devoir
“The wonderful new Heggie/Atwood song cycle was the star of the evening. The eight poems effectively encapsulate the range of emotions generated by such a horrible event: loss, anger, hope, sadness, confusion and more. Each gets a fitting setting from Heggie. So much verbal and musical complexity is packed into these 25 minutes.”
Bachtrack