Irene Welhasch Berg releases new recording with her husband (08/28/05)

Irene Welhasch Berg releases new recording with her husband

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Irena Welhasch Baerg and Theodore Baerg, internationally renowned soprano and baritone, respectively, recently launched their new album, "La Mystique D'Amour" at Windermere Manor in London, Canada. The launch was mainly a thank-you party to the local community for their support of the arts.

For the Baergs, the release of "La Mystique D'Amour" signifies another level of their operatic careers. The couple created this project as a retrospective of their individual, yet converging operatic journeys. La Mystique D'Amour (The Mystery of Love) partly is an expression of the careers in opera that the singers have shared together, as Mr. Baerg was Mrs. Welhasch Baerg's leading man on the operatic stage.

The album - which features music by Claude Debussy sung by Mrs. Welhasch Baerg, and that of Arnold Schönberg and Maurice Ravel sung by Mr. Baerg - does not contain any duets, as the two artists wanted to sing their particular repertoires in art song.

Mrs. Welhasch Baerg chose to record Debussy pieces because of her love for her French repertoire, which includes her engagement by L'Opera de Nice in 1986 for "Mélisande" in Debussy's impressionist masterpiece, "Pelléas et Mélisande" which she considers the highlight of her career. That same year she also starred as Blanche in Francis Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites" for the Canadian Opera Company, which was later broadcast on CBC-TV.

Mr. Baerg chose to include Schönberg's "Dank" (Thank You), among other songs, because "La Mystique D'Amour," according to Mrs. Welhasch Baerg, is a thank-you for the couple's careers as well as to art, music and everyone who influenced their love for music.

Mrs. Welhasch Baerg has also appeared in the title role of Antonin Dvorák's "Rusalka," and she played Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's "La Bohème." In the long-running Toronto production of "The Phantom of the Opera" Mrs. Welhasch Baerg played Carlotta Giudicelli, and in Ferencz Lehár's "The Merry Widow" put on by the Canadian Opera Company, she held the title role.

Beginning on July 16 Mr. Baerg will play Des Grieux in a French double bill of one acts, "Le Portrait de Manon," Jules Massenet"s sequel to "Manon" and "La Voix Humaine" put on by the Glimmerglass Opera at The Alice Busch Opera Theater in Syracuse, N.Y. Glimmerglass Opera maintains an international stature with 43 performances of four operas, all in new productions, each season. The opera, which is associated with the New York City Opera, draws support from local members of the Glimmerglass Opera Chorus, supernumeraries and the Glimmerglass Opera Guild, which assists the company with numerous fund-raisers and special events.

Mrs. Welhasch Baerg, meanwhile, will be teaching students and spending time with family. At the same time the couple is also working on a project involving Ukrainian music. "It will involve a recording of vocal repertoire for baritone and soprano, as well as the re-publication of Lysenko's art songs with English translations and transliterations in the IPA (international phonetic alphabet). This would make Ukrainian classical art song accessible to all teachers and students of voice at music faculties and conservatories all over North America," Mrs. Welhasch Baerg said.

On top of performing and recording albums, Mr. Baerg is also a professor at the University of Western Ontario, where he runs the opera division. Mrs. Welhasch Baerg is a part-time instructor at the same university.

Readers may purchase "La Mystique D'Amour" by e-mailing [email protected].

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