Additional Information
On March 16, as part of the Semaine du Neuf, the TAK Ensemble will present Star Maker Fragments. In the opening act, mezzo-soprano Kristin Hoff will perform Ana Sokolović’s Love Songs, an opera for solo voice that explores love in all its facets and in over 100 languages. Between songs, whispers, and noises, this intense and contrasting work immerses us in a journey through the theme of love, where passion, tenderness, loss, and discovery intertwine. For the occasion, PAN M 360 conducted an interview with Kristin Hoff, who shares her perspective on this fascinating work.
PAN M 360: How would you describe this work to someone unfamiliar with it?
Kristin Hoff: Love Songs is an opera for one voice, without accompanying instruments. It is sometimes sung, sometimes spoken, and sometimes with sound. The piece explores the themes of unbridled love, tender love, the love of a child, mature love, and love for someone we have lost. Each of these themes is preceded by a Doves movement, which plays with the words “I love you in,” repeated endlessly in 100 languages, to introduce each new section. The only section without a Doves movement is the very last one, “Love for Someone We Have Lost.” Love Songs is a non-linear journey through different experiences and perspectives of love, a pure-hearted love song with every language, colour, and character you can imagine. It’s surprising, moving, funny, and devastating—a unique adventure. I hope audiences come with open minds, ears, and hearts.
PAN M 360: You’ve performed Love Songs in several Canadian cities, and it has become a staple of your repertoire. What is it about this work that appeals to you so much?
Kristin Hoff: This piece speaks to me for many reasons: I love Ana Sokolović’s work. She’s a very, very inventive composer. Love Songs has so many contrasts, colours, and different characters, which means I discover new things every time I work on it, even 12 years later. Also, there’s something very liberating, empowering, and satisfying about standing alone on stage. Everything rests on my shoulders, which, in some ways, is a considerable amount of pressure. But I like that the piece consumes me and leaves no room for the small, insidious anxieties that can creep into performance situations.
PAN M 360: What personal touch do you bring to this work? What aspects do you particularly emphasize as a performer?
Kristin Hoff: Hmm, I really feel like I bring my all to this piece, in a way that most other pieces don’t require. Everything from my brain, my body, my feelings. Total presence, I think!
PAN M 360: This work is a real vocal challenge, particularly because of its multiple inflections and the use of 100 languages! How do you prepare for such a performance?
Kristin Hoff: First of all, I’m someone who loves a challenge. I remember starting to learn this work 12 years ago and being both thrilled and completely intimidated by the investment I would have to make to truly learn it, to memorize it. I’ve always loved languages, and researching pronunciation and translation was a pleasure. I think this learning and memorization process took six months of hard work. I was fortunate to receive significant support from the Canada Council for the Arts during the learning period. Twelve years later, the process of preparing for the performance is very different. I’m much less afraid of the piece because I know it inside and out. That said, I also know full well that there is no shortcut to the immense mental and physical commitment required to re-immerse myself in the play and perform it. I have to make room for it in my schedule, in my body, my mind, and my soul.
PAN M 360: Among your many commitments, you are the Artistic and General Director of Musique 3 Femmes and the Executive Director of the vocal side of the Mini-Concerts Santé. How do these commitments influence your artistic approach and your work as a performer?
Kristin Hoff: Musique 3 Femmes is a Montreal opera company that focuses almost entirely on creation. In fact, Love Songs is the only show we’ve produced so far that wasn’t also a work for which we supported the creative process. Leading this company and commissioning, developing, and producing new opera creations through my work with M3F means that, as a performer, I have a greater respect for the challenges of producing and presenting performances, as well as for the people who lead arts organizations and make the proliferation of performances possible.
I also have a greater respect and understanding of the creators’ own motivations and process. As an artist, I derive great joy from working directly with creators. I know that almost every living composer is willing to discuss changes to the score and my performance to enhance my interpretation of the work. Performing new music is a living, breathing thing—I love it!
