By Sebastian Spreng, Visual Artist and Classical Music Writer

Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) is a song cycle by Robert Schumann with lyrics taken from the poems of Heinrich Heine. A peak achievement of the Romantic Movement, the Lieder join poetry and music in an inseparable embrace. The 16 brief poems on which they are based capture the poet, his love, his world and the arrival of May, that is, of longed-for spring. Twenty days before May – Friday, April 10, to be exact – tenor Martín Nusspaumer will sing Dichterliebe as the first part of a recital that will also include songs by Spanish composer Joaquín Turina and tangos in the second bringing the St. Hugh-Steinway Concert Series to a close. The mix is unusual but not strange if you are acquainted with the performer. Martín Nusspaumer

The tenor’s ancestors arrived in Uruguay from Switzerland in 1863, settling near the lovely town of Colonia del Sacramento. Martín went off to the capital, Montevideo, to study engineering and, out of curiosity, took a singing test at a conservatory across the street from the university. That audition changed his vocation and his life. Almost an engineer, he chose to become a tenor. After studying with Rita Contino and Horacio Mauri, he made his debut in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino, produced by SODRE, the cultural institute attached to Uruguay’s Ministry of Education and Culture. Onstage at the Rossini opera he met his future wife, soprano María Antúnez. After Martín completed a residency and further training at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, the couple lived for a while in Washington, DC, and then settled in Miami, his current artistic base of operations, where seven months ago Amelia was born –named after the main role in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, their favorite opera.

In 2012, his performance as the Savoyard in the Florida Grand Opera’s production of the zarzuela Luisa Fernanda led to his being chosen for the 2013–2014 Young Artists program. At the FGO he sang in Nabucco and Thaïs and this year opened the season as Lieutenant Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. He just returned from Istanbul, where he sang alongside soprano Eglise Gutiérrez and bass Burak Bulgili. Earlier, he played the “Duende” in Ástor Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires and the sole character in Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s Tango, both with Opera Naples. The roles were quite different, but he accepted the challenge at the urging of maestro Ramón Tebar, to whom he is grateful for all he learned at the FGO and Naples. Next season, he is preparing Rodolfo in La Bohème and Arrigo in The Battle of Legnano, both with the Sarasota Opera.

For his first solo recital in Miami, Martín decided to move away from opera and zarzuela and plunge into the world of song. Unhurried, calm, good-natured, this somewhat Swiss and very Uruguayan gaucho explains: “I’m not a big fan of aria recitals. You don’t achieve the same effect as in opera. For this intimate setting, I chose songs. They are beautiful poems and I try to show the similarities between Lieder, which are German songs, and tangos, our own Rio de La Plata Lieder, accompanied by bandoneón. As a bridge between them I plan to sing Turina’s Poems in the Form of Songs, perfect for Roberto Berrocal, who will accompany me on the piano.” His models are Fritz Wunderlich and Hermann Prey, superb performers of Schumann’s Dichterliebe, and of course legendary tango singer Carlos Gardel, “who was not French but Uruguayan, as has just been confirmed.” The interviewee’s assertion leaves no room for debate, much less if, like in this case, the interviewer is Argentine.

Last Dec. 30, Martín and María returned to Montevideo to sing at the new National Auditorium with SODRE’s Youth Symphony. He had ample reason to be excited. “I never saw anything like it in Uruguay. It’s a wonderful orchestra that works like El Sistema. They already have 1,500 young people who are given instruments, lessons and even housing if they come from outside the capital. It was thrilling to see the massive support for music, opera and the ballet that retired star Julio Bocca directs. It makes me happy to see something so big happen in such a small nation… and I also felt like a prophet in my own country.” As the engineer he is, his explanation is mathematical: “The sum total is what counts, and it’s very simple. Those 1,500 children have 3,000 parents, 12,000 grandparents and thousands of friends. In a country of barely 3 million people it means an immense enrichment of the present and future of music. There is a comforting and contagious interest in going to the theater. Once they get there, it’s our job to persuade them to stay and enjoy music forever.”

Martín Nusspaumer’s noble sowing is on track to reap rewards. Music, singing, his traditions, his family, María and Amelia are his loves, similar to those expressed in A Poet’s Love and the tangos he will sing April 10. He is a worthy heir of his ancestors’ name, which in German means “walnut tree grower.”

Friday, April 10, 2015, 8 p.m.; http://sthughconcerts.org/

Tenor Martín Nusspaumer performs Schumann’s Dichterliebe with Roberto Berrocal at the piano, as well as tangos from his native Uruguay, accompanied by bandoneón player Emmanuel Trifilio.

St. Hugh Church, 3460 Royal Road, Coconut Grove, FL 33133 – (305) 318-5008