Singing from the Heart
Arias, Lieder, and Romantic Strings
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Ariana Iniguez, soprano
Steven Moeckel, guest violinist
Arizona Philharmonic String Quartet
Program notes ©2026 by J. Michael Allsen
In this program, soprano Ariana Iniguez joins us singing arias from operas by Bizet, Saint-Saëns, and Puccini, art songs by Burleigh, Fauré, and Strauss, and popular songs by Manzanero and Bernstein. Backing her up, in arrangements commissioned specifically for this program, is the Arizona Philharmonic String Quartet, led by guest violinist Steven Moeckel. The quartet has its own feature in a masterful string quartet written by an 18-year-old Felix Mendelssohn. After intermission, the quartet plays a folksy work by audience favorite and Prescott native Mathew Lanning, and arrangements of several early songs by Dvořák.
Georges Bizet
Habanera
Seguidilla
both from Carmen
Georges Bizet, 1875
Considering it is one of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen by Georges Bizet (1838-1875) had a pretty rocky start. It was premiered at the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1875, and in one account written by Ludovic Halévy, one of the librettists, the audience started with enthusiastic approval but were completely unresponsive by the end “…and after the fourth act, when the crowd was glacial throughout, no one came backstage except for three or four faithful and sincere friends of Bizet’s. They all had reassuring phrases on their lips, but sadness in their eyes. Carmen had failed.” The opera was a tremendous success half a year later when it was performed in Vienna and quickly became an international hit. In true romantic irony, however, Bizet never saw this success—he died three months after the premiere. Carmen is based upon a novel by Prosper Mérimée and is set in Seville at the beginning of the 19th century—the main characters are Roma girls, peasants, soldiers, and smugglers. Bizet was able to make effective use of Spanish rhythms and melodic turns in the score, particularly in his musical characterization of Carmen. At the center the story is her seduction of Don José, a young corporal. Don José tosses aside the good girl Micaela, who loves him, in favor of the bad girl Carmen. Carmen in turn ignores him and turns her attention to the dashing bullfighter Escamillo. In the end, Carmen’s scornful taunts put Don José into a jealous rage, and he stabs her to death.
We open with a pair of arias from Carmen, beginning with the Habanera (L’amour est un oiseau rebelle), Carmen’s dramatic entrance. The soldiers anxiously await her appearance from the cigarette factory where she and the other Roma girls work, and when she appears, she sings this seductive song about the nature of love. Underlying the aria is the rhythm of the habanera, a sensuous Spanish-Cuban couple dance. The chromaticism of the melody (which Bizet appropriated from a habanera by a Spanish composer, Sebastián Yradier), and the low, smoky vocal range make this one of the sexiest arias in the operatic repertoire. The Seguidilla (Près des remparts de Séville) comes from the end of the first act. Don José has been ordered to haul Carmen off to jail for brawling with one of the other cigarette girls. In the course of this aria, again based upon a sinuous dance rhythm, Carmen taunts Don José unmercifully. He lets her escape, setting up the tragic events of the opera’s final act.
Felix Mendelssohn
String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13
I. Adagio—Allegro vivace
II. Adagio non lento
III. Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto— Allegro di molto
IV. Presto
Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) wrote his String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13—the earliest of his six fine quartets—in 1827, when he was just 18 years old. (The misleadingly named Quartet No. 1, Op. 12 was in fact written over a year later, and he also wrote a youthful Quartet in E-flat Major in 1823, which was not published until after his death.) Despite his youth, Mendelssohn was already an experienced hand at writing chamber music, having completed both his String Quintet and String Octet. In his first serious essay in writing for string quartet, this young composer produced a truly profound work in which he seemingly attempts to deal with both the topic of love, and the formidable legacy of Beethoven’s late quartets.
At some point in 1827, Mendelssohn fell in love. We don’t know who the young woman was, but he apparently expressed his feelings in a song, Frage (Question), Op. 9, No. 1. As he wrote to a friend: “The song that I sent with the quartet is its theme. You will hear it—with its own notes—in the first and last movements, and in all four movements you will hear its emotions expressed… I think I express the song well…” In fact, when the quartet was first published, Mendelssohn insisted that the song be printed with the score. The repeated opening line of the song, Ist es wahr? (Is it true?) is quoted in the quartet score. He likely cribbed this idea from Beethoven, who died in 1827. The song text is worth quoting in translation:
“Is it true? Is it true? That over there in the leafy walkway, you always wait for me next to the vine-covered wall? And that you also talk about me with the moonlight and the little stars? Is it true? Speak! What I feel, only she grasps: she who feels with me and stays ever faithful to me, eternally faithful.”
Among Beethoven’s final works are a series of string quartets that were often considered to be inscrutable by his contemporaries. The Quartet in F Major, Op. 135 was his very last string quartet, and was hot off the press when Mendelssohn was at work on his quartet: it was published in his hometown of Berlin that very year. It famously begins with a motive labelled Muss es sein? (Must it be?), which is answered by another motive, Es muss sein! (It must be!). Just what Beethoven had in mind here is unclear: explanations range from an existential question about his own mortality to a rough joke about a cheapskate patron! Mendelssohn makes subtle references to other Beethoven quartets as well.
Mendelssohn’s quartet is remarkably unified, tied together by references to the song melody, and the feelings expressed. It opens with a gorgeous Adagio introduction that culminates in three clear references to the Ist es wahr? motive. A threatening cello trill leads into the body of the movement, a turbulent Allegro vivace in sonata form, whose fierce contrapuntal development seems to be a reference to Beethoven’s Op. 132 quartet. The slow movement (Adagio non lento) begins with a pair of themes, both referring to the motive: one lush and romantic, and the second fugal. A long stormy middle section marked poco più animato is filled with references to the song. A violin solo near the end leads to a reprise of the sublime opening mood. The Intermezzo has a clear-cut form. The opening (Allegretto con moto) is a dancelike theme for the first violin accompanied by pizzicato chords. The trio (Allegro di molto) is a playful, light-footed fugue that resembles the dancing fairies of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, written the year before. The final movement (Presto) begins with a pair of emotional flourishes from the violin before launching into a stormy texture that recalls the opening movement. At the end, a passionate recitative for solo violin leads to a return of the first movement’s opening Adagio section, now capped with a direct quote of the final phrase of the song.
Harry T. Burleigh
Your Lips Are Wine
Her Eyes Twin Pools
Harry T. Burleigh
Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) was a pioneer in fusing Black musical styles, particularly the spiritual, and Western classical music. He studied with Antonín Dvořák in the 1890s, when the Bohemian composer was in the United States, teaching at the National Conservatory in New York City. It was Burleigh who introduced Dvořák to the spiritual, an influence on Dvořák’s well-known “New World” Symphony. Burleigh had a successful career as a singer but was particularly well-known for his published arrangements of spirituals: arrangements that brought this style into the homes and churches of hundreds of thousands of Americans of all races. Burleigh was also a composer in his own right, writing well over 200 compositions, most of them art songs. The two songs heard here were published in 1915, as part of his song cycle Passionale, settings of texts by poet and civil rights pioneer James Weldon Johnson.
Your Lips Are Wine is a rather dark, seductive song full of chromaticism and blue notes. Her Eyes Twin Pools is much more sentimental in style, reaching a peak of passion only in the final lines: “Wherein, to seek the quested goal / a man might plunge, and lose his soul.”
Antonín Dvořák
Cypřiše, arr. Hans-Peter Dott
No. 1 Vyvroucí písně spějte
No. 5 Ó byl to krásný zlatý sen
No. 10 Mne často týrá pochyba
Antonín Dvořák
In 1865, Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was a 24-year-old man in love. He had fallen hard for his 16-year-old student Josefína Čermáková, daughter of a Prague goldsmith. When it became clear that Josefína did not return his love, he poured his feelings into a set of 18 songs on texts from collection Cypřiše (Cypresses) by the Czech writer Gustav Pfleger-Moravský. While the original songs were never published, Dvořák continued to tinker with them over the years, eventually publishing most of them between 1881 and 1888. (The complete songs were not published until 1957.) In 1887, he published 12 string quartet arrangements of the songs under the title Ohlas písní (Echoes of Songs). The excerpts played here come from a complete set of the 18 songs arranged for string quartet about 20 years ago, by German composer Hans-Peter Dott. And whatever happened to Josefína? Dvořák actually married her younger sister Anna in 1873, but he maintained a very close friendship with his sister-in-law for decades after. In 1895, he was in New York City in the midst of a three-year sojourn in America, when he received word that Josefína was dying. Dvořák, who was working on his great cello concerto, was heartbroken, and adopted his song Lasst mich allein in meinen Träumen gehn(Let me wander alone in my dreams, Op. 82)—a favorite of hers— as the second theme of the concerto’s slow movement. This was a heartfelt tribute to Josefina and its text probably reflects Dvořák’s emotions at the time.
Dott has masterly transformed the songs, originally for tenor or baritone voice and piano into evocative movements for string quartet. The six selections played here trace a clear emotional arc that reflects Dvořák’s unrequited love. We play three of these selections at this moment in the program, and three more on the second half of the program. No. 1 Vyvroucí písně spějte (You sing fervent songs) is wistful and dreamy throughout. No. 5 Ó byl to krásný zlatý sen (O it was a beautiful, golden dream) is generally upbeat and bright, though with occasional hints of darkness. Darkness dominates the next song—No. 10 Mne často týrá pochyba (I am often tormented by doubt)—which is led by the viola. Viola also leads in a brief moment of relief in a contrasting middle section, before bringing back the dour opening motive.
Armando Manzanero
Somos novios / It’s Impossible
Armando Manzanero
We close this first half with an unabashedly schmaltzy love song. Mexican songwriter Armando Manzanero (1935-2020) wrote one of his greatest hits, the romantic bolero Somos Novios (We’re a Couple) in 1968. Two years later, with a new set of English lyrics by Sid Wayne, It’s Impossible was recorded by crooner Perry Como, with a lush orchestral background. It became one of Como’s biggest successes: in early 1971 it became his first top 10 single since the 1950s. It has since been covered by many artists, from Elvis Presley and Engelbert Humperdinck to a duo by Andrea Bocelli and Christina Aguilera.
Mathew Lanning
On The Inside I’m Hootin’ On the Outside I’m Hollerin’
Mathew Lanning
After intermission, the quartet opens with a work by Prescott Valley native Mathew Lanning. His arrangements have been heard several times at these concerts, and the Arizona Philharmonic played the premiere of his in memoriam in 2023. Lanning is an internationally-performed award-winning composer, pianist, and organist based in Boston, MA. He is a candidate for the DMA degree at the New England Conservatory under Michael Gandolfi. He serves as a teacher of graduate music theory and composition there as well. Lanning’s works have been praised highly by professional composers and audiences alike. Since publishing his first work at the age of 14, he has completed numerous concert-length orchestral works, including an abundance of symphonies, symphonic suites and orchestral poems, and other short orchestra, chamber, and solo works. His music has been performed by orchestras, professional chamber groups, and soloists around the United States, including Transient Canvas and Grammy-nominated Imani Winds. He has studied at programs at the Boston Conservatory and the Curtis Institute of Music. Mathew has also served as an assistant for Orange Mountain Music, helping to produce concerts involving world-renowned artists such as Philip Glass and William Bolcom at venues like Carnegie Hall and the Morgan Library.
Lanning provides the following note about the composition heard here:
On The Inside I’m Hootin’ On the Outside I’m Hollerin’ or: Hoedown is a lively recomposition of two classic American fiddle tunes—Turkey in the Straw and Arkansas Traveller—reimagined for string quartet. I grew up hearing these melodies recomposed in all manner of settings while growing up in Prescott, be it at bluegrass, folk, or classical concerts. These tunes, despite their simplicity, are always lively, full of energy, and seem to spark an irresistible urge to get up and dance. In writing this piece, I wanted to explore their energy, wit, and rhythmic drive while stretching and spinning them through my own musical lens. The piece premiered in October 2023 at the New England Conservatory, and sharing it now in my hometown of Prescott brings it full circle—a return to the community that shaped me and supported my journey toward a life in music. It is a joy to bring my music back to Prescott again—the place where so many of the seeds of my musicianship were first planted. Thank you for being part of that journey, and I hope you enjoy this spirited little hoedown.
Gabriel Fauré
Les berceaux, Op. 23, No. 1
Gabriel Fauré, 1907
In 19th-century Parisian musical culture, you were either “in” (associated with the Paris Conservatoire or Opera, or one of the other recognized arbiters of taste) or “out”, with very little gray area between. Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was most definitely on the outside for most of his early career: studying outside of the Conservatoire with the church musician Louis Niedermayer and later with Camille Saint-Saëns. Though he eventually became a teacher at the Conservatoire at the end of the 19th century (eventually becoming its director after a nasty scandal that ensued when his student Maurice Ravel was denied the prestigious Prix de Rome), Fauré’s music retained a much more eclectic and imaginative approach than many of the young composers trained at the school. The song Les berceaux (The Cradles) comes from 1879. The text is by poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme, who would eventually win the first Nobel Prize for literature in 1901. The berceuse or cradle-song was a well-known genre in 19th-century France, usually setting a relaxed melody above a rocking background in 6/8 or 12/8. In this case, the background rhythm does double duty: representing both the rocking of cradles, and the rocking of the great ships at the quay. The solo part is quiet and serene, reaching a bit of passion only in the final stanza: the point is that even the lure of the sea and adventure for men is overcome by the gentle rocking of cradles by mothers and wives.
Richard Strauss
Les berceaux, Op. 23, No. 1
Richard Strauss, 1918
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) is known today primarily for his large works—operas and symphonic poems—but he was also a prolific composer of art songs throughout his career, culminating in the deeply profound Four Last Songscomposed just before his death. Among his early works are the 8 Gedichte aus “Letzte Blätter” Op. 10 (8 Poems from “Last Pages” – 1885), his first published set of songs. The title of the set refers to a collection of poems by Hermann von Gilm, published in the last year of Gilm’s life. The third song, Die Nacht (Night) is widely viewed as one of Strauss’s early masterpieces. In his book on Strauss’s Lieder, Alan Jefferson describes it as “a song of trembling and yearning, a song tinged with fear that the night, which takes away the familiar shapes of daylight, will also steal the beloved…” This is a subtly-shaded work in which the darkness of night gradually steals in until the final heartbreaking stanza.
Antonín Dvořák
Cypřiše, arr. Hans-Peter Dott
No. 11 Mé srdce často v neštěstí
No. 13 Na horách ticho a v údolí ticho
No. 15 Mou celou duší zadumně
Hans-Peter Dott
We return to the remaining three Hans-Peter Dott arrangements of selections from Antonín Dvořák’s Cypřiše. No. 11 Mé srdce často v neštěstí (My heart is often in pain) is stormy and turbulent, except for a brief moment of folklike tranquility. No. 13 Na horách ticho a v údolí ticho (Silence in the mountains and in the valleys) opens in the same light mood as the opening song, but this light pastoral mood is briefly broken by a stormy transition. No. 15 Mou celou duší zadumně (With all my soul, thoughtfully), opens with a long, questing cello melody. When this returns at the end, the texture breaks suddenly and the music expresses a sense of melancholy peace.
Camille Saint-Saëns
“Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Samson and Delilah
Camille Saint-Saëns, 1880
Of the twelve operas Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) composed, Samson and Delilah cost him the most effort and time. The general feeling in the 1870s was that Biblical subjects simply didn’t work on the operatic stage, and there was general confusion as to why Saint-Saëns, a professed atheist, should attempt a work based upon an Old Testament story. The composer himself wrote that Samson and Delilah was originally conceived as a religious oratorio, but his librettist talked him into using this story as the basis for an opera. It was begun in 1868 but took him nearly eight years to complete. A concert performance of Act I in 1875 was savaged by the critics, and the opera was finally staged (in German) outside of France in 1877. Franz Liszt, the director of the Weimar opera, had been an early champion of Saint-Saëns’s music and arranged for this performance. It was not staged in French until 1890, and then only in several provincial cities. When Samson and Delilah finally appeared in Paris in 1892, it was only a modest success. Despite its early history, however, Samson and Delilah remained part of the standard operatic repertoire—it is the only one of Saint-Saëns’s operas to be regularly performed today.
Samson and Delilah is based upon the Biblical story of Samson, the great warrior-champion of Israel. The real star of the show, however, is Delilah. She becomes a complex, though still evil, character, who seduces Samson and eventually dies with him in the end. Saint-Saëns wrote this part for the great French soprano Pauline Viardot, and dedicated the score to her. Ironically, Viardot never sang the role on stage—by the time Samson and Delilah finally appeared in Paris in 1892, she had long since retired. This concert features one of Delilah’s great moments. The aria Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix(My heart opens on hearing your voice) from Act II is Delilah’s seduction of Samson, who at the end of the act gives in, and repeats this music in a passionate love duet.
Giacomo Puccini
“O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi
Giacomo Puccini
Gianni Schicchi is the third of three short operas that Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) grouped together as “Il trittico.” The operas were premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1918. Gianni Schicchi is the lightest of the three. Set in medieval Florence, it has a typically convoluted Italian comic opera plot that concerns the death of the wealthy Buoso Donati, and his greedy relatives’ struggle for his property. It also centers on the frustrated love of Rinuccio and Lauretta, daughter of the conniving Gianni Schicchi (a character briefly mentioned in Dante’s Inferno). There are all of the traditional, wonderfully ridiculous elements of comic opera—a frantic search for lost documents, mistaken identity, etc.—among the more outrageous moments is when Schicchi imitates the recently-deceased Donati in order to dictate a new will to a notary. In the most famous aria of the opera, Lauretta drops to her knees before her father and sings the poignant O mio babbino caro, begging him to help her marry her beloved.
Leonard Bernstein
“Somewhere” from West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein, 1950s
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), one of the central figures in 20th-century American music, could have been successful in any one of several musical careers: on Broadway, as a classical composer, as a concert pianist, as a conductor, or as an educator. Instead, Bernstein chose to be all of these things…and to do all of them magnificently! His Broadway masterpiece is West Side Story (1957), a collaboration with lyricist Stephen Sondheim and choreographer Jerome Robbins. The show is an “updated” version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet tragedy, set not in 16th-century Verona, but in 1950s New York City. The lovers in West Side Story are a Puerto Rican girl named Maria, and a Polish-American boy named Tony. In place of warring Montagues and Capulets, there are two rival gangs fighting for territory. The Sharks are recent Puerto Rican immigrants, and the Jets are an “American” gang, primarily Tony’s Polish-American buddies. The song Somewhere—a hopeful vision of a brighter future—appears at the end of Act I. In the original production, this song was sung off stage to accompany a ballet sequence between Tony and Maria. Maria sings a bit of the song and reprise at the very end, as Tony dies in her arms.
Program
Bizet: Carmen, Act I: Habanera “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (Carmen)
Georges Bizet 🇫🇷
Ariana Iniguez
Bizet: Carmen, Act I: Seguidilla “Près des remparts de Séville” (Carmen)
Georges Bizet 🇫🇷
Ariana Iniguez
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13
Felix Mendelssohn 🇩🇪
Burleigh: Your Lips are Wine
H. T. Burleigh 🇺🇸
Ariana Iniguez
Burleigh: Her Eyes Twin Pools
H. T. Burleigh 🇺🇸
Ariana Iniguez
Dvořák: Cypřiše, B. 11 (Arr. H. Dott for String Quartet)
Antonín Dvořák 🇨🇿
No. 1 Vyvroucí písně spějte
No. 5 Ó byl to krásný zlatý sen
No. 10 Mne často týrá pochyba
Manzanero: Somos Novios [It’s Impossible]
Armando Manzanero 🇲🇽
Ariana Iniguez
INTERMISSION
Lanning: On the Inside I’m Hootin’ On the Outside I’m Hollerin’ (2023)
Mathew Lanning 🇺🇸
Fauré: 3 Mélodies, Op. 23: No. 1, Les berceaux
Gabriel Fauré 🇫🇷
Ariana Iniguez
R. Strauss: Die Nacht, Op. 10, No. 3
Richard Strauss 🇩🇪
Ariana Iniguez
Dvořák: Cypřiše, B. 11 (Arr. H. Dott for String Quartet)
Antonín Dvořák 🇨🇿
No. 11 Mé srdce casto v bolestí
No. 13 Na horách ticho a v údolí ticho
No. 15 Mou celou duší zadumně
Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, Act II: “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” (Dalila)
Camille Saint-Saëns 🇫🇷
Ariana Iniguez
Puccini: Gianni Schicchi: O mio babbino caro
Giacomo Puccini 🇮🇹
Ariana Iniguez
Bernstein: West Side Story: “Somewhere”
Leonard Bernstein 🇺🇸
Ariana Iniguez
BIOGRAPHIES
Ariana Iniguez, soprano
Ariana Iniguez
Soprano Ariana Iniguez is a native of Phoenix, Arizona. Operatic roles include Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, performed with the Festival of International Opera (Urbania, Italy) and Varna International Music Academy. She has performed with Phoenix Chorale since 2022 and also sings with Quartz Ensemble, AZ Bach Festival Chorus, and the Arizona Musicfest Festival Chorus. In 2023 she made her debut with Beth Morrison Projects in the premiere of a modern adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea, with additional projects forthcoming. Concert and oratorio work includes solo appearances in Bach’s St. John Passion and Verdi’s Requiem. She holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Voice Performance from the University of Arizona.
Steven Moeckel, violin
Steven Moeckel
Violinist Steven Moeckel has appeared worldwide as concerto soloist, concertmaster, and recitalist. He made his concerto debut at age 8 and has since performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including a two-year period as Principal Soprano Soloist with the Vienna Boys Choir. His concerto repertoire ranges from core classical and romantic works to Shostakovich and Corigliano’s The Red Violin, and he was invited to China by the Ling Tung Foundation to perform the violin concerto The Butterfly Lovers with a Chinese orchestra.
A graduate of the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg and Indiana University, Moeckel has served as concertmaster of Germany’s Ulm Philharmonic, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, The Phoenix Symphony, and the Santa Fe Opera. An active chamber musician and recitalist, he has appeared at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival with Leon Fleisher and Menachem Pressler, frequently performs with pianist William Wolfram, and has toured Europe and the Americas with pianist Paula Fan, including performances of Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas. He is a tenured violin professor at Northern Arizona University, president of the Arizona chapter of the American String Teachers Association, and artistic director of the Oxmoor Farm International Chamber Music Festival in Louisville, Kentucky.
Musicians
Ariana Iniguez – Soprano
Steven Moeckel – Violin I
Sarah Schreffler – Violin II
Ana Katherine Dominguez Alvarado – Viola
Wesley Skinner – Cello