FEMALE PERSPECTIVE: Golda Schultz, soprano, makes her Princeton University Concerts debut with pianist Jonathan Ware in “This Be Her Verse.” (Photo by Dario Acosta)

Making their Princeton University Concerts (PUC) debuts, South African star soprano Golda Schultz and pianist Jonathan Ware will bring the original song cycle, “This Be Her Verse” to PUC audiences on Monday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Richardson Auditorium.

The program includes works by female composers Clara Schumann, Emilie Mayer, Rebecca Clarke, Nadia Boulanger, and Kathleen Tagg. It reflects Schultz’s great love of lieder, concert singing, and storytelling; she is as at home in solo recitals as she is starring in opera productions, including the Metropolitan Opera’s Porgy and Bess and the Royal Opera House’s Così fan tutte.

“This Be Her Verse” explores themes of love, nature, folklore, and belief from a distinctly female perspective. In many cases, these lieder reimagine the sound of works by male poets and playwrights, including Henry Bataille, William Blake, Henrich Heine, Maurice Maeterlinck, John Masefield, Albert Samain, Paul Verlainem, Johan Wolfgage von Goethe, and Willam Butler Yeats. In some cases, the female composer has reimagined poems previously composed into lieder by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. Also in this program is the three-piece song cycle “This Be Her Verse,” written by multi-instrumentalist Tagg and poet Lila Palmer The work was commissioned by Schultz and Ware.

“Emilie Mayer, whose music was never recorded, was a genius on the level with Beethoven, but she was forgotten the day after she died in 1883,” Schultz said, discussing the program’s curation. “Nadia Boulanger became one of the greatest pedagogues with a touch that defined American culture. Even when we forget these women, what they’ve done still remains.”

“We are thrilled to bring Golda Schultz’s radiance to Princeton University Concerts for the first time with this incredibly thoughtful and beautiful program,” said PUC Director Marna Seltzer. “We are presenting this concert as a tribute to the memory of Maida Pollock, Princeton University Concerts’ former director (1964-1988), who passed away over the summer at the age of 100. I can think of no better way to honor her incredible legacy than with this program that celebrates the vital power of the female perspective.”

Tickets are $10-$50. Visit puc.princeton.edu or call (609) 258-2800.