Thomas Meglioranza

No sweat Liebeslieder

I've sung Brahms' Liebeslieder more times than I can recall...at Eastman, Aspen, Marlboro, and a bunch of times each with Mark Morris Dance Group and the NYC Ballet.  One of the best things about singing it with the NYC Ballet is wearing a beautiful and elegant blue tailcoat with a short sleeve shirt underneath.  It's so very cool and comfortable.  As a champion perspirer, I'm very tempted to do this to my own set of tails.

Karchin's "American Visions"

I'm performing Louis Karchin's beautiful 25 minute piece for baritone and orchestra this week at NYU's Skirball Center.  This is the third major piece of Lou's that I've sung (the others being his opera, Romulus and another orchestral song cycle, The Gods of Winter).  Just as there are Verdi baritones and Wagner baritones and Debussy barytons-martin, I dream of someday establishing the Karchin-baritone fach, whose special requirements would include the ability to spit out text extremely quickly and leap wide intervals.



The Skirball Center is a great place to hear voice and orchestra, IMO.  The problem with most concert halls is that they take the loudest instruments of the orchestra (percussion and brass) and make them even louder (because their sound gets reflected off the back wall).  The curtains at Skirball seem to have a muting effect on those boomy instruments which helps prioritize the sound of the performers farthest downstage (i.e. the soloist).