Certificate Recital: Rafael Collado, Voice

If you’re currently reading this, you’re probably sitting in Taplin Auditorium waiting for me to come out and sing. Or perhaps you’re reading this while I’m singing. That’s totally fine. It’s a long program and my voice will probably become boring after a while. Either way, my sincere thanks for being here!

I don’t have any particularly sophisticated thoughts or backstories to offer you about this program, but I am required to write something. See below.

O wie ängstlich, o wie feurig: In this aria from Mozart’s 1782 opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, the protagonist Belmonte sings about his betrothed, Konstanze, who has been kidnapped by Pasha Selim, an Ottoman dignitary, and his troops. Belmonte describes how his heart trembles with the thought of reuniting with Konstanze. In many ways, his desperation and anxiety mirror the emotions I am feeling as I open this recital.

Poema en forma de canciones: This song cycle was written in 1917 by Joaquín Turina, an important figure in Spanish impressionistic music. As Turina stated, “My music is the expression of the feeling of a true Sevillian who did not know Seville until he left it… yet, it is necessary for the artist to move away to get to know his country, just as it is for the painter who takes some steps backwards to be able to take in the complete picture.” This sentiment is definitely reflected in this song cycle, which is best described as “very Spanish,” which is to say, highly romantic and excessively dramatic. Definitely not at all like me. However, I can relate to Turina’s assertion about understanding where you come from only once you have left, especially in the way my relationship to my hometown of Miami, Florida has shifted since I’ve come to Princeton. I also appreciate the opportunity to sing a piece in my original mother tongue. Pardon me for singing this with my Cuban accent instead of a traditional Spanish one, it’s just more natural to me. Or as my professor Lorgia García Peña would say, I’m engaging in decoloniality.

Clair de lune: No, that’s not a typo, and yes, I am singing three pieces with the same exact title and lyrics. Not only do you get to hear three composers’ interpretations of the same text, but I also get to memorize fewer words! The original poem “Clair de lune” was written in 1869 by Paul Verlaine, a forefront French poet of the late 19th century. Then, in the span of under 20 years, Fauré, Debussy, and Szulc wrote music for this poem, with Fauré being the earliest in 1888 and Szulc (sort of a one-hit wonder with this piece) being the latest in 1907. All three pieces capture the essence of bittersweetness associated with moonlight to varying degrees of intensity. Did you know that Debussy wrote three different pieces entitled “Clair de lune”? Of course, his solo piano composition is the most well-known, but he also wrote two pieces for solo voice and piano with Verlaine’s poem. I’m doing the one that’s slightly less vocally demanding.

Winter Words: Making up the bulk of my recital is Benjamin Britten’s Winter Words. Using eight of Thomas Hardy’s “Collected Poems”, Britten touches on scattered subject matters in a series of short, yet vivid vignettes, with a general theme of the bleak transformations associated with winter, whether that involves nature or human behavior. The cycle culminates to the poignant “Before Life and After,” an existential pondering on the innate morality of the universe. Winter Words was originally written for tenor Peter Pears, who was… *checks notes* …Britten’s lifelong musical partner and, er, roommate? Let’s make very clear that these two men were in love with each other. However, being openly gay was strictly criminalized in the UK during most of Britten’s lifetime. As such, I’m happy to present a valuable piece of queer art that is not often labelled that way. Period.

Someone is Waiting & Being Alive: As a counterpoint to Britten, I will be singing some musical theater songs about being a straight man. Jokes aside, both of these pieces from Company are touching excerpts from a musical about struggling to find love, not just externally, but internally as well. I love a crowd-pleasing ending, and Being Alive is a wonderfully universal sort of triumph.

The question remains: “Why does the computer science major sing?” Much like Maya Angelou, despite the tribulations that life (ahem, Princeton) has put me through, I still find immense joy in art-making. Music has been my outlet for as long as I can remember, and I plan to keep it that way. All I can hope is that comes through in this performance!

RAFAEL COLLADO ‘24 is a senior from Miami, FL concentrating in Computer Science (BSE) with a certificate in Vocal Performance. He was heavily involved in choir from a young age, being a seven-time Florida AllState Chorus member. He also attended New World School of the Arts to pursue classical voice studies, where he earned an Honorable Mention in solo voice at the Florida Federated Music Clubs Convention and became a semifinalist in the national CS Music Vocal Competition.

Starting studies at Princeton in 2020, he joined Glee Club online before coming to campus as a sophomore. Since then, he began lessons with his current voice teacher of 3 years, Ron Cappon, and has continued to be involved in Glee Club, serving as its Technology Chair in the 2023/2024 season, and being featured as a soloist multiple times, most notably performing Deposuit from Bach’s Magnificat in Austria during the Club’s 2023 Balkans Tour. He is also a member of Chamber Choir, having sung in its performance of Poulenc’s Figure Humaine in Atlanta for the National Collegiate Choral Organization’s 2023 Conference.

Throughout his undergraduate career, Rafael has also been involved with many other singing organizations on campus, including Chapel Choir, Decem, Triangle, and PUP; perhaps he is most infamous for making his musical theatre debut as a sophomore in The Mushening (2021) and subsequently playing Shrek in Shrek: the Musical (2022), Onegin in Onegin (2022), and Shakespeare in Something Rotten! (2024). He has also performed as Ascanius in Dido’s Ghost (2022) and as a priest/armored man in Die Zauberflöte (2024). Additionally, he has sung at Trinity Church as a substitute tenor, with the Cecilia Chorus of New York at Carnegie Hall, and with the Edinburgh University Singers during his Fall 2023 semester abroad in Scotland.

Upon graduation, Rafael will be interning at Adobe in San Jose this summer as a software engineering intern before starting grad school in the fall. He will be pursuing an MS in Music Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology as a recipient of the prestigious GEM Fellowship, working to find cutting-edge ways to combine his passions of music and tech.

A native of Osaka, Japan, Akiko Hosaki is acclaimed for her sensitive playing, and is one of the most sought-after collaborative pianists and vocal coaches in the New York – New Jersey area. She is currently an adjunct assistant professor and the pianist coordinator of the University Accompanist Program at Westminster Choir College & School of Performing Arts of Rider University, and a staff member at the College of New Jersey and Bard Conservatory. Brought to the US by Dalton Baldwin, legendary collaborative pianist, she was his assistant at Académie internationale d’été de Nice since 2013 until his passing in 2019, and at Mozarteum Sommerakademie in 2017 and 2018.

She has collaborated with opera companies, such as Castleton Festival, New Jersey State Opera, Opera North, Opera New Jersey, Boheme Opera, Princeton Festival Opera, and Opera Magnifico. She also enjoys collaborating with instrumentalists, and frequently performs in chamber music concerts and the keyboard/basso continuo in orchestras. She holds degrees from Musashino Academia Musicae in Japan, Westminster Choir College, and University of Minnesota.