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Steven Blier returns to Song of the Day this week: Like most people on this planet, I was deeply disturbed and saddened by the terrorist attacks in Paris. I have nothing intelligent or cogent to say about the massacre, except that I hope it doesn’t fuel more...
Steven Blier is back to curate Song of the Day this week! November always turns out to be a four-sided deadline crunch: the Juilliard program is due, we’re putting the final touches on next season’s casting and touring dates, the Schubert/Beatles program looms, a...
from Steven Blier: I am still thinking about my strangely empty evening hearing Otello. It has become a habit of mine to listen to recordings of a work after I see it in the theater, and this morning I sampled Solti with Margaret Price and Carlo Cossutta, Levine with...
from Steven Blier: I came home from the Met’s Otello last night in a bit of a funk. The opera got a strong, rich musical performance from the chorus and orchestra, a bit on the mellow side for my taste but sophisticated and deeply musical. I esteem Yannick...
From Steven Blier: Today I want to honor Renata Scotto in honor of fiftieth anniversary of her Met debut. Her singing has meant a great deal to me in the course of my life. I was lucky enough to hear her at the old Met as Lucia. A friend of my parents offered to take...
From Steven Blier: As I work on the NYFOS@Juilliard show, "Harry, Hoagy, and Harold," I have been falling in love all over again with their music. I'm at the anguish point of my programming where the selection of any given song means the omission of another. I peruse...