from Steven Blier: I am still thinking about my strangely empty evening hearing Otello. It has become a habit of mine to listen to recordings of a work after I see it in the theater, and this morning I sampled Solti with Margaret Price and Carlo Cossutta, Levine with Scotto and Domingo—wonderful, familiar studio recordings. Then […]
Read Morefrom Steven Blier: I came home from the Met’s Otello last night in a bit of a funk. The opera got a strong, rich musical performance from the chorus and orchestra, a bit on the mellow side for my taste but sophisticated and deeply musical. I esteem Yannick Nézet-Séguin highly, and any conductor whose role […]
Read MoreFrom Steven Blier: Today I want to honor Renata Scotto in honor of fiftieth anniversary of her Met debut. Her singing has meant a great deal to me in the course of my life. I was lucky enough to hear her at the old Met as Lucia. A friend of my parents offered to take […]
Read MoreFrom Steven Blier: As I work on the NYFOS@Juilliard show, “Harry, Hoagy, and Harold,” I have been falling in love all over again with their music. I’m at the anguish point of my programming where the selection of any given song means the omission of another. I peruse anthologies and rifle through my boxes of […]
Read MoreSteven Blier is back DJing Song of the Day this week! Catch him in person TONIGHT at NYFOS After Hours, 10pm, at HENRY’s Restaurant. Make your reservations at 212-866-0600 or walk in to sit at the bar! from Steven Blier: It’s typical for this time of year. I am gearing up for a lot of projects […]
Read Morefrom Steven Blier: To commemorate this sad, solemn day, I turn to the things that have comforted me during my life. One of them is the Verdi Requiem, a towering work of art. I first fell under its spell when I was thirteen; the Price-Bjoerling recording was a bar mitzvah present. Here is a very […]
Read Morefrom Steven Blier: For the last few years my spouse and I have been separated on his birthday, and last April we were apart on our anniversary too. By now I’ve gotten used to postponed celebrations, and find they’re sometimes even better than the perfectly-timed ones. As a stop-gap measure today, I sent him a […]
Read Morefrom Steven Blier: I write this from my porch in Orient, Long Island. It’s the day before Labor Day. In front of me, the Long Island Sound; to my left, the Peconic Bay. The weather is heartbreakingly beautiful. This is probably my last truly calm day for a while.Tomorrow, we pack up the summer house, […]
Read MoreSong of the Day returns from holiday with a week of posts from Steven Blier: In my household I get to blast opera while we make dinner. Then, when we sit down to eat, we opt for something more soothing—Brazilian jazz, Rubén Blades, Bill Evans, Chabrier piano music. As I make the salad, I love […]
Read MoreThere were a lot of blessings this weekend. In spite of some nasty-looking icons on my iPhone weather app earlier in the week, the weather held up Saturday and Sunday. The Orient concert was sold out. And the Latin/Caribbean music worked its wiles on both audiences in a powerful way. The Saturday show in Bellport, courtesy of South Country Concert (run by […]
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