NEW YORK LIGHTS

The piano score you hear is entitled "New York Lights” from William Bolcom's opera "A View from the Bridge”. The opera’s storyline, based on the Arthur Miller play of the same name, is just as relevant today as when the play premiered in 1955. It revolves around the hardscrabble lives of immigrants from Italy trying to build a life in a new place and how the external and internal pressures play out in the characters’ relation-ships. New York offers the promise of something better than what was left behind, yet the reality of the hardships, disappointments, and prejudices experienced by this com-munity constantly batter that hope. The words to this very special aria reflect the long-ing of things from home--the countryside, the food, the aromas, the sounds. Yet, in spite of the nostalgia for that which was left behind, at the end of each verse, the procla-mation is made--"but none compare, to the New York Lights."

The opera premiered in 1999, and in 2003, Mr. Bolcom arranged the aria (originally for voice and orchestra, and then, voice and piano) as Concert Paraphrase for Piano. In my mind, this makes the music more flexible, more moving, more abstract. It is true, that knowing it is a sort of love letter to New York, like the beating of drums, blowing of horns, and shouting of voices each evening at 7:00 p.m. during this pandemic, one can revel in the resilience of New Yorkers. But, how much more moving is it to realize we are global citizens, fellow travelers on this earth, inextricably linked by our actions and intentions, and united by our desire to not only survive, but to live.