This past weekend, Steven Blier brought his audience on a journey of yearning and time during the New York Festival of Song at the George Washington University in Washington D.C.
He combines a mix of older Spanish songs, English pieces that Victorian poetry as the lyrics and contemporary pieces about life on the East Coast in his program, creating alternating series of solo song cycles and quartets.
A song cycle is a group of songs, usually songs for a solo voice with a piano or orchestral underscore, performed in sequence without any interruptions in between. Usually, all the songs in one cycle have one message or theme underlying them and tying them together — in this case, "Memory Palace."
The evening opened with "Cancao da folha morta (Song of the Dead Leaf)," composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos and performed by the ensemble - Suprano Michelle Areyzaga, mezzo-suprano Rebecca Jo Loeb, tenor Paul Appleby and baritone Andrew Garland.
The arrangement of this solo piece into a four-part song was very well done, balancing the higher voices with the lower voices and the transition between the two female singers and the two male singers at different verses was so subtle that it was hardly noticeable at all.
After the opening, Areyzaga began the first song cycle of the evening, a set of three songs from "Floresta do Amazonas (The Forest of the Amazon)." This set of songs was used as a soundtrack in the film Green Mansions, and as such, Areyzaga was very dramatic when singing these songs.
She used a lot of hand gestures and her facial expressions illustrated the "cruel pain" and "ever-increasing grief" that the character in the song felt. She turned this not into just a song recital, but a performance of the character who sings about her lost or unrequited love.
The next soloist was Appleby, who did a set of songs by Frank Bridge, who used poetry from the 19th century. His songs were more peaceful and not as dramatic in comparison, but he was still able to capture the subtle color and nuances of the five songs in his song cycle.
The singer who had the most expression and captured the spirit of the songs was Loeb. Her mezzo-suprano voice was able to hit the lower notes in "La maja dolorosa" and resonated loudly throughout the theatre.
What captured the audience's attention the most, though, was the fact that she was able to convey the irony and mischief in the song's lyrics with just a simple look, a tilt of her head or the way she held herself and the way she stood.
She has had a history of performing in shows, both opera and musical theatre, and that really showed in her performance on Saturday evening. Her body language conveyed the fact that she has "always been a woman of wiles" who would "run after him ceaselessly / throughout Spain."
Another ensemble piece that stood out from the concert was "Two Fairy Tales" by Stephen Sondheim, from the musical A Little Night Music. In this song, two characters are singing about a fairytale they heard when they were younger and what they remembered about that fairytale. Their lyrics, often opposing each other, overlap.
This song was different from normal performances of this song in that it was adopted for four people, and all four singer turned to look at and interact with each other, responding to what the other said throughout the piece. Not only was it a funny song, but the singers made it memorable but not just standing there and performing it, as most singers at song recitals seem apt to do.
The final solo performer of the evening was Garland, who did a series of songs set in the modern day East Coast. Without gestures or body language, he was still able to capture the tragic mood of the pieces, especially the nostalgic evoked in "Underberg" and the regret in "Rochester."
However, there were points in "Middagh" when he had to step over to look at the score over the pianist's shoulder. Whether this is some sort of artistic decision or if Garland lost track of where he was or forgot his lyrics is unclear, but as there was no reason in the lyrics for him to have done so as an artistic choice, it seems more likely that it is the latter.
At the end of the show, the singers performed one more piece which hadn't been announced in the program – another piece by Sondheim, from his musical "Follies." This time, they not only sang with minimal acting, but with dancing and a full-on performance of the song, leaving the audience with a lively feeling as the performance ended and the house lights went up.
As far as the choice of venue goes, the theatre was small and intimate, the perfect place for such a performance of song cycles, but for such intimacy, acoustics had to be sacrificed. Luckily, it was a small location, so volume wasn't an issue.
Therefore, it was a good location to hold the concert, especially since the theme was "Memory Palace." The singers were able to communicate directly to the audience through the songs they performed together and by themselves and bring the audience closer to the raw emotions in each piece, whether it be nostalgia, loss or longing.
