Monthly Archives: July 2026

Episode 480. Bacquier Encore

July 14, 2026Art Song, Bel canto, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAlfred de Musset, Almire Gandonnière, Ambroise Thomas, André Theuriet, Andrea del Sarto, Ariettes oubliées, Arrigo Boito, Camille Saint-Saens, Carlo Pepoli, Catherine Brilli, Cesar Franck, Claude Debussy, Daniel Lesur, Don Giovanni, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edmont Gondinet, Édouard Lalo, Ernest Chausson, François Coppée, Gabriel Bacquier, Gabriel Faure, Gérard de Narval, Giuseppe Verdi, Hamlet, Hector Berlioz, Henri Duparc, Henri Gui, I Puritani, Jacques Mars, Jacques Offenbach, Jésus Etchéverry, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jules Barbier, Jules Massenet, La Damnation de Faust, Lakmé, Le nozze di Figaro, Leconte de Lisle, Léo Delibes, Lorenzo da Ponte, Louis de Fourcaud, Louise Valmaggia, Manuel Rosenthal, Maurice Bouchor, Michel Carré, Otello, Paul Verlaine, Philippe Gille, Pierre Beaumarchais, Pierre Loti, Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Reynaldo Hahn, Roméo et Juliette, Sully Prudhomme, Victor Hugo, Vincenzo Bellini, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Allons, enfants de la patrie! Let’s celeberate Bastille Day in style! And what better exemplar of the power and élan of French music than the great Gabriel Bacquier?! It was only about a year ago that I published an episode featuring Bacquier singing art song. Today’s episode combines Bacquier in his more familiar guise as an opera singer, with further (and even rarer) recordings of him singing mélodies. About a year ago I coughed up a lot of dough for a super-expensive and super-rare 2-LP set entitled Panorama de la Mélodie française in which Bacquier shared the vocal honors with a French coloratura soprano who is virtually forgotten today. Today we hear his contribution to that rare 1964 release featuring songs by the usual suspects: Fauré, Debussy, Duparc, and Hahn, alongside some less-familiar repertoire by Saint-Saëns, Massenet, and Lalo. It came out to not quite enough music for a full episode, so I have supplemented it with excerpts from a great, but nearly forgotten, triumph of Bacquier’s: his assumption of the title role of French composer Daniel-Lesur’s 1968 opera, Andrea del Sarto. (Astute listeners will remember that last week I played Alain Vanzo singing a selection from this same piece.) In addition, I offer selections from two different 1963 aria recitals by Bacquier, one in Italian, the other in French. This assortment of material reasserts Bacquier’s versatility, his solid technique, even the beauty of his voice at that point in his career. As his voice aged, Bacquier gradually assumed more bass roles and character parts but throughout the 1960s, his voice retained its youthful beauty even as his characterizations gained in precision and power. Along with a handful of other French singers during that era, Bacquier was the greatest of the great.

Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Episode 479. Get to Know Alain Vanzo

July 11, 2026Bel canto, French Opera, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Tenors, Ileana Cotrubas, Listeners' Favorites, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Twentieth Century Opera, Verismo, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAbbé Prevost, Alain Vanzo, Alfred de Musset, André Mauprey, Andrea Chénier, Andrea del Sarto, Andrée Esposito, Angelo Anelli, Anita Terzian, Auguste Barbier, Benvenuto Cellini, Bruno Amaducci, Cavalleria Rusticana, Charles Gounod, Daniel Lesur, Das Land des Lächelns, Don Giovanni, Don Procopio, Édouard Blau, Édouard Duprez, Édouard Lalo, Erasmo Ghiglia, Faust, Francesco Maria Piave, Franz Lehár, Frédéric Mistral, Fritz Löhner-Beda, Georges Bizet, Georges Pretre, Georges Sébastien, Giacomo Puccini, Giancarlo Amati, Gioachino Rossini, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Giovanni Verga, Giuseppe Giacosa, Giuseppe Verdi, Guido Menasci, Gustave Cloëz, Hector Berlioz, Henri Meilhac, Henri Murger, Ileana Cotrubas, Jean Marietti, Jésus Etchéverry, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jules Barbier, Jules Gressier, Jules Massenet, L’italiana in Algeri, La Boheme, Le pays du sourire, Le Roi d’Ys, Léon Battu, Léon de Wailly, Lorenzo da Ponte, Ludovic Halévy, Ludwig Herzer, Luigi Illica, Mady Mesple, Manon, Manuel Rosenthal, Michel Carré, Michèle Le Bris, Mireille, Nino Bonavolontà, Paul Milliet, Philippe Gille, Pierre-Michel Leconte, Pietro Mascagni, Raymond Chevreux, Renée Doria, Reynald Giovaninetti, Rigoletto, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Serge Baudo, Suzanne Sarroca, Umberto Giordano, Victor Hugo, Victor Léon, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I return to Countermelody‘s Salut à la France miniseries with a tribute to the Monaco-born French-naturalized tenor, Alain Vanzo (1923-2002). There was simply no more elegant a tenor (or any singer!) in the French operatic repertoire (and beyond) than Vanzo in his glory days in the 1960s and 1970s. I have chosen a setlist which presents him, in his core repertoire (Gounod, Massenet, Lalo), sounding truly exquise, but I also show him in music for which he was less-celebrated, but equally compelling, everything from Mozart, Rossini, and Puccini, to Mascagni and even Giordano, with even more delicious surprises along the way. Special thanks to my friend Olivier, for specifically requesting this episode. In preparing it, I became a Vanzo admirer to an all-out raving Vanzo fan girl. In listening to this, you may well find yourself in the same place that I did!

Episode 478. Martial Singher: Un recueil de mélodies

July 7, 2026Art Song, Great Baritones, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century MusicAlden Gilchrist, André Theuriet, Armand Ocampo, Armand Silvestre, Chansons gaillardes, Charles Baudelaire, Charles d’Orléans, Charles Gounod, Charles-Gaston Levadé, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, Edmond Rostand, Emmanuel Chabrier, Francis Poulenc, Gabriel Faure, Henri Duparc, Herman Bemberg, Jean-Baptiste Faure, Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, John La Montaine, Jules Bertrand, Jules Lafforgue, Jules Massenet, Leconte de Lisle, Louis Gallet, Louise-Rose Gérard, Marcel Hubert, Martial Singher, Maurice Ravel, Paul Morand, Paul Ulanowsky, Piero Coppola, Reynaldo Hahn, Rosemonde Gérard, Ross Norwood, Victor Hugocountermelody

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Today is the first in a series of episodes honoring our Gallic friends, who this month also celebrate their independence day, call it what you will, Bastille Day or Le Quatorze Juillet. Our featured singer is French baritone Martial Singher (1904-1990). His career extended from opera to concert to recital and back again, but the main focus on this episode is on the wide range of French song that he performed in recital. I present in its entirety an ultra-rare 1950 recording entitled A Treasury of French Songs, which samples everything from parlor songs by Reynaldo Hahn, Charles Gounod, and Herman Bemberg; to deliciously treacly religious songs from Henri Büsser and Jean-Baptiste Faure (yes, “The Palms” in its original French!); to masterpieces of mélodie by Fauré, Duparc, and Chabrier. The episode is anchored by performances of Ravel and Poulenc songs recorded by Singher in 1934 and 1975, including Poulenc’s fervent “Priez pour paix,” recorded by Singher at the age of 70.

Episode 477. American Orchestral Song [Queer Edition]

July 5, 2026African American Singers, Art Song, Black History Month, Black History Month 2026, Forgotten Divas, Great Baritones, Great Contraltos, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Orchestral Songs, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Young SingersAntal Dorati, Ben Weber, Benita Valente, Bethany Beardslee, Brandon Keith Brown, Bright Sheng, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, David Del Tredici, Donald Gramm, Dylan Thomas, e.e. cummings, Edo de Waart, Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, Emily Pulley, Fiona MacLeod, Frank Ahrold, Frank Brieff, Frederic Prokosch, Gertrude Stein, Gian Carlo Menotti, Gossamer Noons, Gunther Schuller, Harold Farberman, Henry David Thoreau, Irene Gubrud, James A. Keeley, James Joyce, James Purdy, John Corigliano, John La Montaine, Judith Blegen, Julia Perry, Kurt Ollmann, Landscapes and Remembrances, Late Victorians, Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Mark Adamo, Marvis Martin, Mary Burgess, Maurice Peress, Melanie Helton, Mignon Dunn, Ned Rorem, Night Conjure-Verse, Philip Langridge, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Poem in October, Raphael Jimenez, Raymond Leppard, Richard Rodriguez, Ricky Ian Gordon, Robert Helps, Robert White, Roberta Alexander, Robin Morgan, Samuel Barber, Second Coming, Seiji Ozawa, Stabat Mater, Sylvia Alimena, Taylor Raven, The Mother of us All, Virgil Thomson, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Wilderness Journal, William Butler Years, William Sharpcountermelody

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I know, I know, I said that we were done with Pride for 2026. But honestly, given the tenor of the times (no pun intended), we have to continue foregrounding Pride every day we tread this increasingly precipitous path that is earth. And that is the United States of America. For as I write this. Even as our nation squeezes out what should be a momentous birthday celebration, our very queer existence is threatened. And one way of resisting the animosity and cruelty is to celebrate our history and our solidarity and our resilience and our creativity and our ingenuity and originality. All of these traits come to the fore in this episode: American Orchestral Song, Queer Edition. All of the composers fall somewhere on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, as do many of the poets as well as the performers. It’s interesting how many of the performances today center around the US Bicentennial in 1976, a time when spirits were much higher than they are today. Of course the most familiar figures are here: Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, Virgil Thomson, Gian Carlo Menotti, but also Charles Tomlinson Griffes, John Corigliano, Mark Adamo, and David Del Tredici. Perhaps even more important are figures less renowned or perhaps completely forgotten such as Julia Perry, Robert Helps, John La Montaine, Ben Weber, and the elusive Frank Ahrold, whose compisitions all reveal a bold and individual voice. Remembering these figures keeps them alive and provides us with courage to keep forging on, against the current as need be, yet always toward justice, inclusion, and equity.