Nicolle Foland is a striking young woman, with a Musetta-perfect bright, striking soprano. This afternoon, for her recital in Berkeley's Herz Hall, she wore one of the most striking outfits I've ever seen in a concert hall (other than the Kronos Quartet, of course). For the first half of the concert, she had a cardinal's floor-length ensemble, with only her face and hands showing; after intermission, the jacket came off, leaving what no longer had an ecclesiastic resonance. Composer Jake Heggie provided the supportive accompaniment; his songs formed one of the varied concert's sets. Foland delivered accurate singing, fine diction in six languages, and bright, focussed top notes. Except for two Dvorak encores, she sang without too much shading, emotion, color. Two sets of Debussy songs were downright bland. Opening with "Ganymed" and four other Schubert songs was a gamble (five charming Obradors "classical Spanish" songs would have broken the ice easier), but Foland doesn't need "warming up" -- the voice was consistent all the way through. Foland's Russian diction and "Russian sound" were noteworthy in five Rachmaninoff songs, Heggie playing spectacularly, Foland ending each song beautifully. Two of the Heggie songs -- "Ample Make This Bed" and "The Sun Kept Setting" -- of the all-Dickinson set were performed for the first time, both impressive in their simplicity and quiet power. Foland, who sang in a more relaxed and lyrical manner from the Obradors songs on, caught the quiet, sincere tone of the older Heggie works to Dickinson texts -- "She Sweeps with Many-Colored Brooms," "As Well As Jesus?" and "At Last, to be Identified!" Now that some brief excerpts from Heggie's upcoming opera, "Dead Man Walking," are beginning to "leak out," it's amazing to hear the difference between his very large, twisting, late-Strauss orchestral music and the unique "Heggie sound" in the songs (utterly simple, accessible) -- the "two Heggies" seem two different composers. Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]