Formal, restrained, refined, subtle and warm only in the most regal way, the combination of great poetry set to music by great composers and sung by greatly intelligent singers could seem like a state visit from a foreign dignitary. The language, the repertoire and her way of presenting recitals would have been unthinkable even five years ago. Blythe's choices are all in English, and that's only the starting point. Rather than present the kind of recital that asks Philadelphia audiences to make a cultural and chronological leap, she's offering a program that requires no advance study, no foreign-language translations, but is instead a musical encapsulation of the American immigrant experience.
People spend a heck of a lot of time with their heads in the program notes.
I'm the kind of singer who likes to look at my audience in the face. I adore German lieder and French chanson and do a lot of it. But it's more important for me to reach the audience. The once-strict format has given way to a blank slate, a bare template on which singers guarantee nothing except singing. The audience will choose the encores.