by Steven Blier | Aug 22, 2019 | Blier's Blog
Wednesday’s rehearsal always has a special place in these one-week residencies. It’s the last time we still feel we’re free to play, discover, develop. I can bring up some of the bigger issues I want each singer to be thinking about, and they still have the...
by Steven Blier | Aug 21, 2019 | Blier's Blog
When you have a one-week rehearsal period for a complicated program, you have to work quickly. Of course I want to be a gentle, enlightening guru-figure for the four singers I’ve invited. I also want to get every song up and running ASAP. I am happy to say that a lot...
by Steven Blier | Aug 20, 2019 | Blier's Blog
This is the third time I am doing Ports of Call, a program that circumnavigates the globe using songs from eleven countries in nine languages. In every port you meet a traveler—be it a merchant, an exile, a lover, an ex-pat, or an opium addict. Since I am comfortable...
by Steven Blier | Aug 19, 2019 | Blier's Blog
It always seems like a miracle when the cast arrives in Orient for our annual NYFOS@North Fork project. They zoom in by bus, by car, by ferry, and suddenly my quiet, sedentary life becomes a densely packed rehearsal period. This morning I am preparing to go from...
by Steven Blier | Mar 22, 2019 | Blier's Blog
A quick post-concert report as I bid farewell to this beautiful week. Overview: both shows went extremely well for the cast, who delivered the goods. The Sunday run took place in a black box theater that needed to be borrowed for the occasion due to renovations at...
by Steven Blier | Mar 17, 2019 | Blier's Blog
I’m rarely cheerful the day before a show. I wish I had a bit of Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s infectious, nitrous oxide enthusiasm to lift everyone’s morale—especially mine. But I always feel as if I am being led in front of a firing squad, and I seem to give birth to...
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