Music / Echoed Voices, Siobhan Stagg, soprano and Nico de Villiers, piano. At Albert Hall, July 19. Reviewed by LEN POWER.

Securing the right to host a recital with Australian star soprano Siobhan Stagg and pianist Nico de Villiers, National Opera had good reason to be proud of themselves.

Born in Mildura, Victoria, Stagg joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin as a young artist, spending six years there as a principal soloist, singing Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Micaëla in Carmen, Gilda in Rigoletto, Marguerite in Les Huguenots, Musetta in La Boheme and Zerlina in Don Giovanni, to name just a few of her lead roles.

Even as a young artist, she stepped into serious roles elsewhere at short notice, notably Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at London’s Royal Opera House. Her US debut was as Cinderella in Massenet’s Cendrillon at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and, back at home, she sang Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande for Victorian Opera, winning her a 2019 Green Room Award.

South African pianist, coach and author Nico de Villiers holds degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the University of Michigan and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

He has performed as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician in many prestigious venues internationally. He has long been infatuated with the Dutch-American composer, Richard Hageman and has spent years promoting Hageman’s music.

A Dutch-American composer, Hageman, after becoming an American citizen in 1925, famously conducted for the Metropolitan Opera and coached at the Curtis Institute. He even shared an Academy Award in Hollywood for his score to John Ford’s western movie, Stagecoach. He also acted on film as the conductor, Carlo Santi, in The Great Caruso.

This unusual recital, Echoed Voices, featured works by Richard Hageman, Richard Strauss and Henri Duparc. Educational as well as entertaining, Stagg sang many of Hageman’s songs along with others by Strauss and Duparc. Nico de Villiers explained and demonstrated in fascinating detail the influences of those two composers on Hageman’s work.

Stagg’s powerful voice soars effortlessly to the high notes, which she then easily sustains. She displays a notable sensitivity in quieter moments of the songs and her ability to display emotions with her voice and body language shows that she is also a fine actress. It was impossible to choose any song as a highlight of the recital as they were all superbly sung.

Both artists showed that Richard Hageman’s work is worthy of greater recognition. Stagg and de Villiers made warm and down-to-earth connections with the audience by their friendly explanations of the songs. It gave an unusual and memorable intimacy to the evening.