Phil Kline Surprises with a Song Cycle
Meet the Ghost of Isabella Stewart Gardner
By: Susan Hall - Feb 12, 2025
On Sunday, February 23 at 1:30 p.m., the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents the world premiere of ghost story, a song cycle commissioned from composer/lyricist Phil Kline. It’s inspired by the life and times of Isabella Stewart Gardner. The concert features the Gardner debuts of the soprano Nicoletta Berry and the fearless piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire (pianists Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer; percussionists Sae Hashimoto and Russell Greenberg).
Isabella Stewart Gardner was a remarkable proto-feminist, a free thinker, and a free spirit determined to behave as she wished. She smoked and wore her Red Sox regalia to the symphony. Yet she liked to remain a mystery, asking friends to burn her letters, and burning her own.
Kline says, "Anyone who enters Isabella's house encounters the ghost of the woman who built it. It is the spirit which guides you through the seeming free-form landscape of the museum. These songs attempt to delve into the world of a maverick who did what she wanted, and to reveal secrets that she did her best to conceal—a tenderness underlying her determination."
Other than a poem by Wilfred Owen, all of the texts were adapted by Phil Kline and come from a variety of sources. They range from Isabella's letters to Bernard Berenson, a catalog description of one of the paintings stolen in the notorious 1990 theft, Isabella's funeral instructions, and a gossip sheet's account of her "sensational" behavior at a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert.
In the past twelve months, Kline's opera Tesla on the famously inventive and strange electrical engineer, premiered in concert at the Guggenheim Museum. Singers and orchestra were mixed on a packed stage backed up from time to time by Jim Jarmusch images. Unsilent Night, a holiday event made of ambient sounds, started under the arch of Washington Square Park. The original boomboxes have been replaced by iPhones. The evocation of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s ghost comes at the Gardiner Museum in Boston.
The combination of live music, the unique atmosphere of the museum, and the intriguing life of Isabella Stewart Gardner herself promises a rich, immersive performance. Phil Kline's song cycle offers an excellent opportunity to explore her legacy from both a personal and artistic lens.
Tickets here.