NYFOS AFTER HOURS--PROTEST SONGS

Mikaela Bennett, Joshua Blue, Jacob Scharfman, Andrew Munn, Amanda Lynn Bottoms, Chelsea Shephard, and Dimitri Katotakis

Hosted by the gracious Henry of Henry's Restaurant, an Upper West Side institution, New York Festival of Song After Hours presented their final show of the season; it was a different sort of show, comprising songs of protest, but just right for the mood in NYC these days. We liberal arts loving folk feel like a persecuted minority with a great deal to worry about and against which to protest.

Our pianist/arranger/host Steven Blier picked up an idea by the highly esteemed young director Mary Birnbaum and immediately compiled a list of songs on the theme of protest. There was no trouble finding a cast of talented young singers from Juilliard's Department of Vocal Arts to perform the songs.

This was indeed a different kind of show. There was no "Sing for Your Supper" to get us all in a jolly mood and Mr. Blier eschewed his customary banter about each song. He told the audience that he wanted the songs to "speak for themselves". Many of the songs related to oppression in foreign countries, in which case the singer read the text in English.

The wildly talented Mikaela Bennett opened the program with Stevie Wonder's song "If It's Magic". We were not too sure about what was being protested, unless it is the carelessness of our culture in not taking care of the things that matter. Ms. Bennett is unceasingly eclectic and just when we were enjoying the soul and jazz inflected song, she burst forth with some operatic riffs that reminded us of her versatility.

Toward the end of the evening she sang Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" which clearly protested the despoiling of nature and the failure to appreciate our blessings until they are gone. Ms. Bennett's personality is larger than life and she put her own expressive stamp on this song which was written in the 60's, long before she was born.

Her duet with Amanda Lynn Bottoms was sung in Spanish and the two women harmonized beautifully in "Como la cigarra", a protest by lesbian poet/musician/writer Maria Elena Walsh against the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983).

Ms. Bottoms had a couple fine solos as well. She sang "Song for Peace" from A Prayer to the New Year by the young Arabic/American composer Mohammed Fairouz, setting of text by Fadwa Tuqan. It was a prayer for peace in the Middle East and we were not sure whether Ms. Bottoms sang in Arabic or the original Aramaic.  In any event, it was lovely.

She was absolutely riveting in "Lamento esclavo" by the 20th c. Cuban composer Eliseo Grenet with text by Aurelio G. Riancho.

Also in Spanish was Leonard Bernstein's l977 setting of text by feminist Puerto Rico poet Julia de Burgos, from his work Songfest. Chelsea Shephard performed "A Julia de Burgos" with passion, revealing the strong core of a woman who has found it necessary to be outwardly conventional and compliant.  

Ms. Shephard had a good time in her duet with Dimitri Katotakis, performing Randy Newman's ironic song "Political Science"--at heart a protest against American aggression.

Mr. Katotakis did well with "Pampamapa", Carlos Guastavino's setting of Hamlet Lima Quintana's poetry--more resistance to Argentinean fascism, although the text is more allusive than descriptive. The complex folkloric rhythms were stirring.

What Joshua Blue did with Fats Waller's song "Black and Blue" was extremely powerful. The text by Andy Razaf speaks to the painful damage done to an individual's sense of self worth by prejudice. It felt very personal and filled with truth.  It hurt! Mr. Blue is appropriately named since he has a real feeling for the blues and knows just how to bend a pitch.

He was similarly superb in Stevie Wonder's "Big Brother" which deals with government surveillance.  It made us think of racial profiling; it made us uncomfortable, which is a good thing. We might add that Mr. Blue's instrument has a very special timbre.

Jacob Scharfman sang a wonderful song about Gay Pride called "The Lavender Song", written by Mischa Spoliansky in 1920 as "Das Lila Lied" and popular in German cabaret. The lyrics were written by Kurt Schwabach and translated by Jeremy Lawrence. It's a fine song but we wish we had heard it in the original German.

But we did hear Mr. Scharfman sing in Yiddish--the 1943 "Zog Nit Keynmol", by Vilna poet Hirsh Glik and also known as "The Partisan's Song". The pre-existing melody was written by Soviet-Jewish composer Dimitri Pokrass.  It's hopeful message was adopted by the Vilna Partisans who were inspired by the Warsaw ghetto uprising, and it spread from one concentration camp to another with its inspirational message.

Andrew Munn sang "Bella, Ciao", a traditional song of resistance to Mussolini and also Marc Blitzstein's "The Cradle Will Rock" from the 1937 show of the same name--a pro-Labor musical during the Great Depression which protested against wicked greedy capitalists.

The entire ensemble performed the encore--"Now is the Cool of the Day" an Appalachian folk hymn recorded by Jean Ritchie. With seven stunning voices raised in harmony, singing about taking care of Mother Earth, it was an inspiring way to end this special evening.

Additional musical support was provided by Chris Reynolds on piano and Jack Gulielmetti on guitar.

(c) meche kroop

NEW, NEWER AND NEWEST MUSIC

Michael Barrett, Naomi Louisa O'Connell, Amanda Lynn Bottoms, Jesse Blumberg, Chelsea Shephard, Amy Owens, and Steven Blier

Our admiration of and affection for a group of young singers swayed us toward reviewing last night's New York Festival of Song. It was indeed a challenge for our 19th c. ears to relate to a program of late 20th and 21st c. music. We love opera, we love stories, we love lieder that tell us a story. So much contemporary vocal music is abstract and offers settings of texts that we would not enjoy reading for their own merits. The music inspired by these texts does not seem to add much.

Steven Blier's program played to a packed house and comprised works of three generations of American composers. The earliest one was Paul Bowles, the next was William Bolcom, and the newest was Gabriel Kahane.

It was a triumph of singing and acting on the part of the artists that overcame our feelings of being lost in abstraction. Our happiest moments came when the material offered a relatable dramatic situation. 

Paul Bowles' Picnic Cantata is a daffy almost surrealist tale about four women planning and executing a picnic. The four women singers appeared dressed in mid 20th c. summer dresses. Their voices harmonized beautifully.

When mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O'Connell sang the aria "The Sunday paper is full of news", she related the sad story of a married woman in love with a married man, writing to an advice columnist. She filled the story with pathos and sympathy so the accompaniment by Mr. Blier and Mr. Barrett began to make sense.

In that cycle, we also enjoyed "In sun and shade", in which the lyrical piano line seemed to express the image of a warm day spent  in nature with the kites flying. Some interesting sounds were provided by percussionist Barry Centanni.

Our favorite part of the evening was William Bolcom's Suite from Dinner at Eight which was receiving its world premiere. The opera itself, with libretto by Mark Campbell, will receive its premiere next month at Minnesota Opera; we expect it will be a great success. It is based on a play from 1932 written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. 

Accompanied by both pianos, soprano Chelsea Shephard used her ample vocal artistry and dramatic skills to portray Millicent Jordan who is planning a dinner party in the opening aria "Lobster in aspic", endowing the role with imperiousness, anxiety, and the best kind of humor--the unselfconscious type.

Mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms was stunning and convincing as the retired actress Carlotta, reminiscing with Millicent's husband Oliver in "Our town".

Versatile baritone Jesse Blumberg was convincing as Oliver Jordan in the troubled aria "You think you're safe", as he faces the failure of his business in The Great Depression.

Soprano Amy Owens, remembered as a charming Zerbinetta at the Santa Fe Opera (summer 2014), gave a moving performance of "My love will see us through"--sung by the Jordan's daughter Paula to her troubled alcoholic lover.

Ms. O'Connell invested Lucy, married to a cheating doctor, with all the ambivalence of a woman who stays with her man despite the pain he causes her. The work ended with the entire ensemble raising their voices in hopeful harmony in "The party goes on" (even without the guests of honor and the lobster aspic).

A world premiere was on the program as well--Gabriel Kahane's Six Packets of Oatmeal, commissioned by NYFOS. The text was a "poem" by Galway Kinnell which was not at all poetic, just the ramblings of an isolated man who fantasizes about imaginary companions joining him for breakfast. Although Mr. Blumberg sang it beautifully, we kept thinking about Schubert's Winterreise as a far more artistic depiction of isolation and mental illness. 

There were some mighty strange sounds emanating from the piano and something we did enjoy was Mr. Barrett's demonstration of how plucking the strings under the lid of the piano could produce some strange overtones. But the text was too idiosyncratic for our taste.

A shorter piece by Mr. Kahane from 2006 was of more interest to us. "Half a box of condoms" from his Craigslistlieder was sung by Chelsea Shephard and offered ample chuckles.

(c) meche kroop