What can I do for Halloween that will be short but scary? I have a pretty good baritone/bass voice but not much time to prepare something.

Y ou might consider emulating “Fright Night” chamber performances, which have been part of Ottawa’s ChamberFest for the past several years, with bass Robert Pomakov performing Mussorgsky’s ‘Songs and Dances of Death’ [Песни и пляски смерти; Pesni i plyaski smerti] with pianist Valerie Dueck.

P omakov’s theatrical personality is perfect for this, and maybe yours is as well. He advises adopting a Rasputin-like alter-ego. In his own performances, he uses an extended range of dynamics, from softer pianissimos to louder-than-normal fortissimos, a dramatic technique that is effective for rendering scary realism in these lieder.

H ere are the songs:

• Колыбельная (Last Lullaby in D-sharp minor; 4:26) - A mother cradles her sick baby with a tremendous fever, who through no one’s fault becomes septic, organ-failure sets in, and the baby then dies. The majestic cruelty of pointless annihilation.
  
• Серенада (Serenade in D-sharp minor; 4:33) - Death lurks below the bedroom window of terminally ill woman, performing a pastiche of a serenade as though he were her lover. Unwelcome attentions, to say the least.
  
• Трепак (Trepak in D minor; 4:03) - A drunk stumbles out of a tavern into the snowy night, takes off his coat and mittens, and freezes to death while hallucinating about fields filled with summer flowers. Mortal haplessness, decorated with depression and morbid chemical dependency.
  
• Полководец (Field-Marshal in E-flat minor and D minor; 5:27) - Death is the commander of what’s left of grizzled dead and dying troops after an horrific battle, and he tells them how he will remember them all. Nice.

T his makes a fright-filled 20-minute program—or you can do just 2 or 3 of them if you like. The piano accompaniment is not terrifically hard.

Y ou might consider a black cape and possibly a black eye-patch. Scythes can be found at your local costume shop or, depending whether you live in a rural area or not, at your local garden store or feed/tack store.

• Robert Pomakov page at IMG Artists
  
• Mussorgsky ‘Songs and Dances of Death’ for bass & piano free sheet music download at IMSLP
  
• Mussorgsky ‘Songs and Dances of Death’ for bass & piano, Russian text at RecMusic.org
  
• Mussorgsky string sextets free sheet music download at Werner Icking Music Archive [‘The Catacombs’; ‘The Old Witch’]
  
• Hvorostovsky D. Mussorgsky: Songs & Dances of Death. (Philips, 1994.)
  
• Leiferkus S, Skigin S. Mussorgsky: Songs & Dances of Death. (Conifer, 1995.)
  
• London R. George London In Concert. (VAI, 1995.)
  
• Nederlands Blazers Ensemble & Sergey Aleksashkin. Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death. (Composers' Voice, 2007.)
  
• Black eye-patch, available with expedited shipping from Amazon.com
  
• 59-inch scythe handle (Amazon.com)
  
• 26-inch scythe blade (Amazon.com)