With "Hoagy on My Mind," which plays at Arci's Place (450 Park Avenue South, at 30th Street) through Sunday, this singer has expanded his style beyond the customary voice-and-piano cabaret format to bring in a jazz violin (played by Johnny Frigo, an octogenarian from Chicago) and an accordion (played by Mark Harman, who doubles on piano) in addition to a bass (Mary Ann McSweeney).
Baritones, or bass baritones, are fortunate that when Rubinstein came to write an opera based on the story of Mikhail Lermontov's popular poem, "The Demon", he avoided using the customary glamorous voice of the tenor for the title role.
She uses the first-person narrative voice customary with autobiographies, but also includes fiction-like elements, told from the perspective of a child that is "artfully recreated by an adult narrator".
She had been reflecting on current events, and I expected to hear her customary tartness, but her voice faltered, and tears slipped down her cheeks.
Mr. Farrar was the natural here: his unscrubbed voice, and the customary slouch in his phrasing, made the songs he sang feel closer to a spirit of mordant remorse.
For Ms. Borda, who has taught yoga to a variety of audiences, including Hasidic women in Brooklyn, it came as a shock, when shortly after opening a previous studio in the area eight years ago she was approached by a Muslim student who voiced concerns with customary chants like "ohm".
The resentments that Mr. Romney was voicing are not the customary resentments of the one percent who live in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
A small ripple of applause rings out - as well as a couple of customary morons trying to get their voices heard - but the for the most part it's impeccably observed.
Musically, the outlook is better: Olga Borodina is her customary fine self, applying a fantastic chest voice and her characteristic languor in creating a Carmen both earthy and seductive.
You probably tend to write in either active or passive voice, depending on what is customary in your country.
Given the choice last week, I opted for the dubbed one, which I normally do with foreign animated pictures, because after all we're not concerned here with losing the actors' real voices the way one is with customary dubbing.
