Just listen to how Bobby Short sings Cole Porter’s ‘I’m In Love Again’! It’s perfection.
I am addicted to rough edges around a beautiful voice: that little bit of grit, the almost-growl, the ability to sense the breath in the sound. And pretty much any recording of Bobby Short holds me spellbound. Enjoy this one!
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Hailed by The New York Times as “radiant,” Irish mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell deftly balances her love of opera with that of art song, musical theater and popular song with repertoire ranging from Schumann, Strauss and Ravel to Bernstein, Gershwin and Randy Newman. An alumna of the NYFOS@Juilliard residency, Naomi returns to NYFOS this week in Lyrics by Shakespeare on Wednesday, October 16 at Merkin Hall. To follow Naomi on Facebook, click here.
Had a hunger to hear this song today, for some reason. Mr. Short gets not only the eroticism but the fatal hopelessness of the thing. Tragedy is helplessness to change oneself and one’s behavior before one hurls oneself over the cliff. This love thing is like that. The futility of feeling alive again, just one more time, even after all the disappointment, is encapsulated in the pathetic repetition of the word “love.” All language, all jazz age sophistication, dissolves in the helpless childish moan: love love love. It’s good to see that you sing Randy Newman. He is the master of setting seemingly everyday language, or finding the natural music in it and letting it speak colloquially, in its overalls, to the most tragic effect. Living without you, for example…another lonely day.
I love this song. I wish more artists had recorded it. Found one by Bing Crosby (not great) but no others.