NYFOS Announces Two New Recordings on BRIDGE Records

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG (NYFOS) Steven Blier, Artistic Director Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director announces two new recordings on BRIDGE Records: Bastianello / Lucrezia

Two New Comic Operas by John Musto and William Bolcom and "Quiet Please" Darius de Haas, vocalist; Steven Blier, piano

Bastianello / Lucrezia"

BRIDGE 9299A/B (Two Discs)

http://www.bridgerecords.com/catpage.php?call=9299A/B

This two-disc set presents the world premiere recordings of new comic operas by John Musto and William Bolcom. The twin operas contain librettos written by Mark Campbell, and were commissioned by and composed for New York Festival of Song (NYFOS). Both operas were written for identical casts-the five singers heard on these recordings. The 2-CD release comes packaged in a slipcase which contains a 112 page book with complete librettos.

Steven Blier writes: "Bill Bolcom's music for Lucrezia is exuberant and tonal, the opulent sound of desire. John Musto's musical world in Bastianello is more elusive and complex: chords often include elements of both major and minor, defying easy categorization. It is a fitting musical landscape for a piece that explores the way one moment can embrace many conflicting feelings. Lucrezia is a riotous piece where greed and deception are thwarted, and Bastianello, is a complex work in which a man learns the lesson of forgiveness."

Bastianello: Music by John Musto; Libretto by Mark Campbell.
Lucrezia: Music by William Bolcom; Libretto by Mark Campbell.
New York Festival of Song: Lisa Vroman, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano;
Paul Appleby, tenor; PatRick Mason, baritone; Matthew Boehler, bass;
Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, piano

"Quiet Please"
Darius de Haas, vocalist; Steven Blier, piano

BRIDGE 9334
http://www.bridgerecords.com/catpage.php?call=9334
This heartfelt song collection is a purely American phenomenon-supremely gifted musicians that can't be categorized or quantified: Stevie Wonder meets Leonard Bernstein; Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and the Gershwins rubbing shoulders across the years with Richard Rodgers, Adam Guettel, and Harold Arlen; songs from the Great American Songbook, musicals, Hollywood films, and opera. And all performed with exquisite style, poetry and nuance by vocalist Darius de Haas and pianist Steven Blier. Blier, one of today's leading advocates for American song, describes working with Darius de Haas as like "backing up a moody tenor sax...hypnotizing me with his voice." One enters a world of soaring melody and extraordinary emotional depth with this hypnotically intense recording.

Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most; (Tommy Wolf, Fran Landesman)?
They All Laughed (George and Ira Gershwin)?
If It's Magic (Stevie Wonder)?
I've Got a Crush On You (George and Ira Gershwin)?
Mr. Paganini (Sam Coslow)?
Someone to Watch Over Me (George and Ira Gershwin)?
There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon for New York (George and Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward)?
Good Morning Heartache (Irene Higgenbotham, Ervin Drake, Dan Fisher)?
Paper Moon (Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, Billy Rose)?
Some Other Time (Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, Adolph Green)?
In a Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Manny Kurtz)?
Glad to Be Unhappy (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)?
Love for Sale (Cole Porter)?
Sophisticated Lady (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Mitchell Parish)?
I Have Dreamed (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein)?
Hero and Leander (Adam Guettel)?
Migratory V (Adam Guettel)