Singer Danielle Buonaiuto
"I started performing A Small Handful at a pivotal point in my artistic practice performing contemporary music; I had started to develop work that was autobiographical, or at least, more informed by my own identity and perspective. The set is for solo voice, and I made it the cornerstone of a short recital program I could perform all by myself - unmitigated by other musical layers, I would simply deliver poetry, in my body, with my voice.
The poetry is by Anne Sexton, someone who struggled a great deal in her life with the constraints placed on her by familial and societal demands, as well as the burden of her severe mental illness, which was, of course, inadequately treated.
Lyons chose these poems from the early, middle, and late periods of Sexton's output and they trace a journey through motherhood, womanhood, personhood, and deal with Sexton's struggle for bodily as well as metaphysical autonomy. This resonated with me on a few levels - not only were we in a period of collective awakening in society and in classical music, but I realized that I feel strongly that my personal journey was deeply affected by similar limitations - as a woman, a person seeking authentic expression of my gender, and a queer person. In reading Anne's daughter's memoirs, I reflected on how the pain and trauma were inherited by the next generation, and how beautiful - though at times tragic - the complex relationship between mothers, daughters, sisters, and women, in general, can be. Though we share the same struggle, it is not always possible to spare our loved ones the collateral damage of our own oppression.
Gilda sets this poetry in her signature folk-inflected style. Simply incisive, emotionally driven, laid bare, Anne Sexton's poetry -- in her revolutionary confessional style -- comes straight off the page in Lyon's setting, and directly into one's heart. I am never unaffected by hearing or performing these songs."
