My first suggestion is that you come up with a unifying idea or theme for
your recital.
There are SO MANY possible songs out there that it's very hard to even
begin to make suggestions without knowing anything about your taste, your
vocal capabilities, your interests, etc.
There are two approaches you can take to narrow down your choices: one is
to simply put together a program of whatever songs and arias you've been
working on in the past year or so, and to choose from the most "polished"
among them, with an eye towards musical and emotional variety.
The other more disciplined approach is to choose a "theme" or "subject",
and to select songs that fit with that theme/subject. In the past,
Vocalists have done programs of songs about animals, birds, and love,
songs by mentally ill composers, settings of Shakespeare, etc.
In the past, I've chosen my recital repertoire using both approaches. Some
typical programmes I've done:
My favourite musical theatre and operetta songs at the moment
Songs from 85 years of West End Musicals
The opera arias I felt were most "polished" at the moment
The Passion of Christ (which I sang this year for Good Friday) - vocal
solos and hymns I felt were particularly illustrative of different events
of the Passion
The Resurrection of Christ (which I and a friend sang this year for
Easter) - vocal solos, hymns, and duets, all on a Resurrection/Easter
theme (my soprano friend sang Mozart's Alleluia, of course)
At the moment, I'm planning the following "themed" recitals:
400 Years of Sacred Solos - the programme I'm preparing at the moment, and
planning to sing a number of times at different churches (nice feature:
over time I can easily swap songs in and out, so I don't grow bored with
the programme)
Songs of the Great War (a recital shared by me and at least one other
singer, to include Frank Martin's cycle "Die Weise von
Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke" as the centrepiece, plus other
settings of war poems, songs by composers who fought in the war, songs
popular with soldiers during the war, and songs about the war) - to be
given on Armistice Day 2003 or 2004
Songs for Holocaust Remembrance (to be shared with a soprano, and to
include Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, Laitman's "I Never Saw Another
Butterfly", and Stanley Hoffmann's "A Psalm Beyond the Silences", among
others) - to be given on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2003 or (more likely)
2004
I know at least two people who have done recitals of song settings of
poems by Paul Verlaine.
Just a few illustrations of ways in which you can make more meaningful
choices for recital programmes. I suggest you come up with either a list
of your "best songs" at the moment, or a recital "theme", "subject",
period, author, or composer, then post your request for songs again - it
will make it a bit easier for us to help you. Also be sure to give us some
idea of your vocal category, your sense of your own technical proficiency,
and your favourite song-writers/composers.
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
________________________________
I want to know God's thoughts...
the rest are details.
- Albert Einstein
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