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John Harbison: Mirabai Songs
What do you know, I’m finally featuring a non-mezzo! As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, pianist Alden Gatt and I decided to pair John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs with Schumann’s Frauenliebe und leben for our recent Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert. We liked the idea of providing a contrast with the very traditional woman’s role depicted in the Schumann, and we also wanted to feature the words of a woman poet herself (not just the words of a fictional female character).
Robert Schumann: Süsser Freund
I have to feature the work that loomed largest for me this year, Robert Schumann’s iconic Frauenliebe und leben. I finally learned it all and performed it after years of wanting to do so but never finding the time or the right venue to make myself just do it. The right time turned out to be my April recital for Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Concerts series which I performed with Alden Gatt, a wonderful pianist and friend of mine.
Joseph Canteloube: Baïlèro
I love that music can have the power to transport you to a place and put you right inside of a memory. There are certain pieces of music that I experienced in such a powerful way the first time I heard them that they bring back an incredibly strong emotional and visceral memory whenever I hear them again. “Baïlèro” from Chants d’Auvergne is one of those pieces.
G. F. Handel: As With Rosy Steps The Morn
With today’s selection I’d like to pay homage to two of my favorite things: a favorite composer and a favorite singer who combine in the most wonderful way on this track.
Carlos Guastavino: Abismo de sed
Today is the day—Song of the Day turns 3! Here’s a look back at our first week of songs from NYFOS’s artistic director Steven Blier. Have a listen to “Abismo de sed,” sung by Teresa Berganza with true cojones.
Gilbert & Sullivan: The Sun Whose Rays
As Song of the Day turns 3 this week, we look back at our first week of songs (beginning June 15, 2015) from NYFOS’s artistic director Steven Blier. Here is Valerie Masterson performing Yum-Yum’s Act II song from The Mikado. It’s a rare bit of footage, not the 1966 movie but an even better 1973 rendition for television.
Rodgers and Hammerstein: June is Bustin’ Out All Over
As Song of the Day turns 3 this week, we look back at our first week of songs from NYFOS’s artistic director Steven Blier. Today, in honor of summer, here’s the iconic Leslie Uggams singing “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” for live television on a day when there was a disaster with the cue-cards.
Schubert: Who is Silvia?
Song of the Day turns 3 this week! Here’s a look back at our first week of songs from NYFOS’s artistic director Steven Blier. Here’s the hit song from Two Gents, “Who Is Sylvia.”
Mozart: Queen of the Night’s Act II aria
Song of the Day turns 3 this week! Here’s a look back at our first week of songs (beginning June 15, 2015) from NYFOS’s artistic director Steven Blier: To kick the venture off with a bang, two renditions of the Queen of the Night’s rage aria (Act II, Mozart’s Magic Flute).
Madison Leonard
Madison Leonard, one of our most recent NYFOS@Caramoor Emerging Artists has had a big year! And now she answers our questions as Artist of the Month for May 2018.
Michael John LaChiusa: Heaven
“The Art of Pleasure” ends with a section simply called “Peace.” The centerpiece is an unpublished song by Michael John LaChiusa entitled “Heaven,” which I first heard on Mary Testa’s album, Have Faith.
Tom Lehrer: Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
“The Art of Pleasure”—my Wolf Trap concert for this year—includes a section of guilty pleasures. This was at once the most fun and the most difficult group to program. How far were we willing to go? It’s not so easy to assign louche material for a group of people you don’t know. As always, I took a flying leap (the M.O. for my entire career, it seems). The first song would definitely be Tom Lehrer’s 1959 classic “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.”
The Kinks: Lola
In the interest of empowering the cast of my Wolf Trap show “The Art of Pleasure,” I asked them to make suggestions of songs and subjects. “What pleasures beyond the obvious ones (food and sex) do you want to sing about, and what songs bring those pleasures to life for you?” I wondered what kinds of answers I’d get. At this point I knew only one of my cast members personally, and no one wants to look stupid or weird—especially not young professionals dealing with a music director they’ve never met.
Franz Lehár: Schön wie die blaue Sommernacht
The final group of songs in Act I of “The Art of Pleasure” is simply called “Romance,” and that gave me an opportunity to program the steamy duet “Schön wie die blaue Sommernacht” from Lehár’s Giuditta.
When it comes to high-calorie, high-fat romance, there’s no one quite like Viennese operetta icon Franz Lehár. His stage-works create a world of unmarried blonde women, tenors whose lasciviousness skirts the overtly creepy, and a passel of supporting players who are usually less wealthy and less Viennese.
Xavier Montsalvatge: Cançó amorosa
I am at Wolf Trap this week working on a program called “The Art of Pleasure.” Why? Well, for the past eighteen months, I have been assaulted every morning by news of cruelty, greed, shortsightedness, and mendacity unlike anything I can remember. I know others also sense that the world is caving in—how is this being allowed to happen? So I thought: we need to take a moment to meditate on things that give pleasure. It will give us strength.