| :: NewYorkQnews.com :: FireIslandQnews.com :: QnewsMegaMall.com :: GayLifeInAmerica.com :: TheBestOfFireIsland.com :: FireIslandRealtors.com |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
NYFOS, Celebrating 20 Years, Offers Pleasing Potpourri of Song |
|
|
by Bruce-Michael Gelbert | >> see bio |
|
|
 |
|
| Michael Barrett and Steven Blier, photo by - Joseph R. Saporito |
|
It was the kind of evening that made the listener realize and appreciate what a marvelous musical gift Artistic Director Steven Blier and Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett and their New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) have given us. Kicking off NYFOS' 20th anniversary season with a diverse program entitled, with tongue in cheek, "No Song Is Safe from Us," at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on October 18 (and 16), pianists Blier and Barrett and a dozen singers drew on earlier NYFOS evenings of the festival's specialties to cover an amazing amount of musical territory. Blier was at the keyboard for most of the evening and was spelled by Barrett for part of the second of the concert's four segments.
The "Latin Lovers" section began with songs in Catalan. Blier and soprano Jennifer Aylmer opened this pleasing potpourri with a bouncy "Canço de grumet" ("The cabin-boy's song"), by composer Eduardo Toldrà and poet Tomàs Garcés, from "A l'ombra del lledoner" ("In the shade of the nettle tree"), redolent of open sea and open air, brightly and lyrically sung. Puerto Rican tenor Javier Abreu lent honeyed tone to a mournful "Damunt de tu només les flors" ("Above you, only flowers"), from "Combat del somni" ("The battle of dreams"), by Frederic Mompou, with text by Josep Janés, dedicated here to the memory of singers Anna Moffo, Alexandra Montano, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Soprano Michelle Areyzaga delicately limned Narcís Bonet's song cycle "Haidé," to Joan Maragall's poetry, consisting of a melancholy "Com una flor" ("Like a flower"); "Ves qui t'ho havia de dir" ("Behold the one who should have told you"), an abashed confession of love; and a contemplative "Jo porto el teu pensament" ("I carry the thought of you"), neo-classical in its use of the long melismatic line.
Turning to zarzuela, Areyzaga gave a bel canto account of sweeping florid romanza "Yo quiero a un hombre" ("I love a man"), from composer Manuel Fernández Caballero and librettists Carlos Arniches and Celso Lucio's "El cabo primero" ("The first chief"), capped with an elaborate cadenza.
Music of Latin America concluded this portion of "No Song." Abreu lyrically sculpted Carlos López Buchardo and Gustavo Caraballo's "Canción del carretero" ("The cart driver's song"), a loving and despairing address, from Argentina, to one who has departed. Aylmer's proud and feeling "Samba classico," by Heitor Villa-Lobos, to E. Villaba Filho's words, praised "an idealized Brazil," according to Blier, and her hot rumba, "Palmira," by the Cuban Moisés Simons, who also wrote music for "I Love Lucy," boasted back-up vocals and percussion-drum and maracas-provided by Abreu and Areyzaga.
In the "Our American Godfathers" segment, Aylmer and baritone William Sharp gently bickered in "Storyette H.M.," Leonard Bernstein's setting of Gertrude Stein's prose, from "Songfest," with Barrett at the piano. Areyzaga joined them to harmonize and eulogize, dulcetly, in Ned Rorem's version of Oscar Wilde's "Requiescat," from the song cycle "Evidence of Things Not Seen," commissioned by NYFOS. Areyzaga, Blier and violist Leslie Tomkins collaborated on William Bolcom's "Let Evening Come," with poetry by Jane Kenyon, memorializing, in a way, late mezzo-soprano Tatiana Troyanos. Sharp and Barrett proffered a haunting "Rose Song," a love song salvaged from Marc Blitzstein's failed musical "Reuben, Reuben." Abreu and Blier turned to a contemporary piece "Hero and Leander," from Adam Guettel's "Myths and Hymns," a classy pop song, with Abreu bending the pure vocal line as needed. Sharp, Blier and Barrett closed this part with Bernstein's "Oif Mayn Khas'neh" ("At my wedding"), from "Arias and Barcarolles," a work NYFOS gave its American premiere. In this song, to a poem, in Yiddish, by Yankev-Yitskhok Segal, a modest-seeming fiddler plays like one possessed, until the wedding guests cry out for mercy with, "Hob rakhmones!"
NYFOS' forces next considered music of Scandinavia, in the "Songs of the Midnight Sun" section, for which Blier returned to the keyboard. Areyzaga made an emotional outpouring of Finland's Jean Sibelius' "War det en Dröm?" ("Was it a dream?"), sung in Swedish to Josef Julius Weksell's words, and continued with the hymn-like "Det kom ett brev" ("There came a letter"-from mother to child), by Sweden's Gunnar de Frumerie and Pär Lagerkvist. Aylmer approached Bo Linde and and Viola Renvall's neo-romantic "Den ängen där du kysste mig" ("The meadow where you kissed me") and Norway's Edvard Grieg and Aasmund Olavsson Vinje's full-blown romantic "Våren" ("Spring") with simplicity and sincerity. Abreu brought this quarter of the program to a rousing conclusion with Sweden's Gustav Nordqvist and Jonatan Reuter's "Till havs" ("To the sea").
Versatile genius Blier is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and introduced an octet from that institution for the pertinent "Songs of Peace and War," the finale of the concert, focusing on American popular music. Tenor Paul Appleby delivered a bravura rendition, complete with climactic top note, of George and Ira Gershwin's "Homeward Bound," a message, with a sentimental-sounding verse and a lively chorus, from a soldier far from home, from "Strike Up the Band." In a rousing "Gee I Wish I was Back in the Army," from Irving Berlin's score for the film "White Christmas," tenor Alex Mansoori confessed that he missed being cared for, and the two tenors mocked unthinking war mongering in Randy Newman's wry "Political Science," blithely threatening "Let's drop the big one." Mezzo-soprano Renée Tatum's recitation of Katha Pollitt's "Trying to Write a Poem Against the War" introduced soprano Charlotte Dobbs' delivery of John Musto's disturbing, off-kilter lullaby "How Many Little Children Sleep," from "Dove sta amore," to James Agee's anything-but-lulling poem, mentioning terror, weeping and killing. Baritone Paul LaRosa accompanied himself on guitar in a hard-hitting "Masters of War," Bob Dylan's angry protest song. The Juilliard singers blended voices in a hopeful a cappella "Now is the Cool of the Day," the folksong by Jean Ritchie, with solos by Sri Lankan soprano Tharanga Goonetilleke, baritone David McFerrin and bass Marc Webster. For an encore, all twelve vocalists, led by Barrett, collaborated, a cappella, on the spiritual, "There's a Great Camp Meeting (in the promised land)."
NYFOS' next concert at Weill Hall, "Love at the Crossroads," on November 13 and 15, features Blier, with soprano Sari Gruber, mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy, tenor Hal Cazalet, and baritone Matthew Worth, in music by Stephen Sondheim, Cy Coleman, Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms, and others. Tickets at $48 are available through CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800 or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. The company's web address is www.nyfos.org.
On March 11 and 13, NYFOS will present the premieres of two comic operas, "Bastianello" and "Lucrezia," commissioned from composers Musto and Bolcom.
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
|
| Search Your Theater Here! |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| Buy Your Tickets Now! |
|
| [ Click Here >> ] |
|
| |
|
| FEATURED HOME FOR SALE |
|
|
|
|
MORE FIRE ISLAND HOMES FOR SALE & RENT AT:
The Best of Fire Island.com >> |
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Return to Top of the Page
We are pledged to the letter and the spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity
throughout the Nation. We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing program in
which there are no barriers to obtain housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familiar
status, sexual orientation or national origin.
Equal Housing Opportunity. All material presented herein is intended for information purpose only.
While the information is believed to be correct, it is presented subject to errors, omissions,
changes or withdrawal without notice.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
HOME | SHOW LISTINGS | NEW YORK CITY | ART & MUSEUMS | REAL ESTATE | RESTAURANTS | SHOPPING
BROADWAY | OFF-BROADWAY | OFF-OFF-BROADWAY
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NewYorkQnews.com | FireislandQnews.com | QnewsMegaMall.com | GayLifeInAmerica.com | TheBestOfFireIsland.com | FireIslandRealtors.com
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
© 2007 QOnStage.com - All Rights Reserved
Design, Implementation, and Maintenance Provided By Circa58/59
Privacy Policy, Disclaimer
|
|
