Category Archives: Honor Your Mentors

Episode 373. Carol Neblett: Girl of the Golden West



Today is the day that the United States formerly celebrated its independence. But the events of recent months have not made me feel much like celebrating. As I racked my brain to think of an “American” (read: US-American) of whom we could be truly proud, my mind flew to Carol Neblett, one of the great (if relatively unsung) voices of the 1970s and beyond. Carol died prematurely and unexpectedly in November 2017, and from the earliest days of the podcast, it has been my intention to bring increased attention to her incandescent voice and artistry. For a while, her son Stefan Schermerhorn and I have been planning to do such a tribute, but as with so many such plans, life got in the way. With the looming national holiday, however, I felt the urgent need to do a Carol Neblett episode. So I contacted Stefan earlier this week to ask him if he had any reminiscences to share with us as I was preparing this urgently-needed episode. He returned with an absolutely charming Fourth of July anecdote which begins the tribute. There follows a plethora of live recordings of near-definitive performances of an enormous range of roles that were core to Carol’s repertoire: Violetta, Ariadne, Thaïs, Marietta, Manon, Musetta, Louise, Tosca, Magda in La Rondine, Margherita in Mefistofele, Leonora in Il Trovatore, and Elettra in Idomeneo. Also well-represented is no doubt her most celebrated portrayal: Minnie in La Fanciulla del West. Being a tall and statuesque California-born blonde made Carol a physically ideal Minnie, but even moreso, it was THAT VOICE which allowed her to negotiate all of the part’s considerable vocal difficulties and made her legendary in the part. This is the first of a planned series of Neblett episodes that I hope will bring you as much delight in listening as it did me in preparing it. And in this undeniably grim period of our nation’s history, we desperately need Carol Neblett as a shining example of the brilliance of which the United States is still capable.

Countermelody is a 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 journalist 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 370. Lesbian Concentrate and Beyond (Pride 2025)



Continuing the Countermelody show of Pride for this month’s LGBTQ+ celebrations, I take a look back at the Women’s Music Movement of the mid-1970s as reflected in the 1977 Olivia Records release Lesbian Concetrate: A Lesbianthology of Songs and Poems. I present the album in its entirety, as well as providing some historical context for the release: on the history of Olivia Records as an offshoot of some earlier lesbian separatist groups; as well as the cruel and hateful legacy of Anita Bryant, who, with a swift collective kick to her rear, has recently descended to hell. Bryant coined language in her 1976 “Save Our Children” initiative in Dade Country, Florida. Such language continues to be used by ultra-right-wing Christian nationalists to this day. On a more positive note, I describe and celebrate the legacies of each of the singers, bands, and poets heard on this release, all of which also have increased resonance both politically and musically in this frought world of 2025.

“We wanted to do everything – everything – differently than what we had been told was the proper way to do things. There were some hard things. All of it was hard and all of it was wonderful at the same time.” Ginny Z. Berson, co-founder of Olivia Records in an interview with Bonnie Morris first broadcast on This Way Out Radio on 14 December 2020

Countermelody is a 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 journalist 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 369. Joséphine Baker Revisited (Live Edition)



Yesterday was a crucial celebration for all US-Americans: Juneteenth. In honor of that event and in continuing observation of Pride 2025, I offer today an episode in honor of the great Joséphine Baker (1906 – 1975). I have been an avid (not to say rabid) Baker fan for more than thirty years, so when she was inducted by the French government into the Panthéon in the fall of 2021, I took the opportunity to devote a pair of Countermelody episodes to her. This refurbished episode includes personal reminiscences about my journey on the route to full Bakermania, while the bulk of the musical content consists of possibly the most vibrant extant live recording of Joséphine Baker, which took place on 30 June 1963, the final performance of her month-long engagement at the Tivoli Varietéen in Copenhagen. I’m pretty sure it’s not currently available elsewhere on the interwebs. Joséphine Baker’s magnetism, seductiveness, self-mockery, sauciness, and sincerity are all on full display. Some favorite and/or rare Baker material rounds out the episode, including a pair of Pathé recordings made during the War, when she was an active member of the French Resistance; the soundtrack of an early sound film in which she performs her signature number, “J’ai deux amours”; a recording made in conjunction with her final performance at the Bobino in Paris in 1975 (just before her death); a 1966 live recording from one of her many appearances in Havana; and her final appearance in her native United States at Carnegie Hall on 05 June 1973, in which a laryngitic, nearly voiceless Baker delivers her artistic credo in a riveting performance of “My Way.” The episode begins with a tribute to the late Alfred Brendel.

Countermelody is a 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 journalist 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 368. Gay Eccentrics (Pride 2025)



Somewhere along the line in planning my Pride 2025 episodes, I hit upon the idea of paying tribute to Gay Eccentrics. (Maybe because I am one of them myself?) There are many mad queer geniuses in the history of music, and I have chosen today to focus on three twentieth-century case studies. First, the husband and husband team of Norman Notley (1890 – 1980) and David Brynley (1902 – 1981), musical and artistic polymaths who settled in the small Dorset village of Corfe Castle. They were both members of the innocuously-named New English Singers, which was actually an early version of the high-caliber vocal chamber ensembles in such profusion today. In recent times their archives have been digitized and exhibited at the Dorset Museum and Art Gallery, which has led to their story going viral. In 1957 while living in the US, the pair made a recording of Elizabethan Songs that is a model of its kind and is featured on the episode. Next up us Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson (1883 – 1950), much better known as Lord Berners, the quintessential upper-class British eccentric who also happened to be the leading British avant-garde composer of his day (as well as a “notorious” homosexual!) I feature an excerpt from his single opera as well as a passel of songs from his small output. Finally, we cross the Atlantic to encounter the prescience, acerbic wit and borderline insanity of Ben Bagley (1933 – 1998), the producer of off-Broadway theatrical revues and a series of recordings featuring unknown material by the top Broadway composers of the day, including fellow gay eccentrics Cole Porter and Lorenz Hart. I may be a day late with this week’s episode, but I’m definitely not a dollar short! This episode has something for everyone!

Countermelody is a 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 journalist 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 361. Russell Oberlin Revisited



I’ve been so lucky this week to cross paths with several beloved friends and colleagues, in some cases for the first time in ages. One of those friends of many years’ standing is the legendary countertenor Drew Minter, with whom I made my very first appearances on the New York concert stage… well, a few years back now! Seeing Drew made me think not only to his influence on me in my early years of singing, but also of the influence of the earliest (and still to my mind the greatest) of all American countertenors, Russell Oberlin. A few years ago, I dedicated a pair of episodes to him, and today I present to you the second of those episodes, originally fashioned exclusively for my Patreon subscribers, yet another “refurbished” Countermelody episode that now sees the light of day. I explore Oberlin’s performances of medieval and renaissance music, both with the New York Pro Musica (The Play of Daniel, Dufay, and Dowland) and with the Experiences Anonymes record label (Byrd and 13th Century French Polyphony). I also offer examples of Oberlin’s expertise in performance of baroque music, offering two Bach arias (one performed with Leonard Bernstein, the other with Glenn Gould), and several Handel selections, including a complete cantata from one of his rarer LP releases. In addition, we hear a live excerpt of his Oberon in Midsummer Night’s Dream opposite the late British soprano Joan Carlyle, as well as a surprising outing as one of the commedia dell’arte players in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, opposite the Zerbinetta of the great African American coloratura soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs. There are additional surprises along the way. The episode opens with a heartfelt tribute to Drew, my reunion with whom prompted this episode in the first place.

Countermelody is a 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 journalist 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 359. Get to Know Hugo Hasslo



The earliest selection on last week’s Elisabeth Söderström episode featured the soprano at 24 singing the title role of Madama Butterfly. In that live recording, we also heard as Sharpless her compatriot the baritone Hugo Hasslo, to whom I introduced my listeners last fall. Today I dive a little bit deeper into Hasslo’s extant recordings. Considering what a great singer he was, and how his reputation has merely grown with the passage of time, it’s shocking how rarely Hasslo recorded in the studio. Therefore the majority of this episode consists of live recordings, from as far back as Hasslo’s operatic debut in 1940 as Guglielmo under the baton of Fritz Busch, through to his performance as di Luna alongside Jussi Björling’s final operatic appearance in Sweden twenty years later. Along the way we hear excerpts from Rigoletto, Il tabarro, Yevgeny Onegin (or should I say Eugen Onegin), Il trovatore, and… Porgy and Bess (?!?!). I also include a sample of the singing of Hasslo’s teacher, the Scottish tenor Joseph Hislop to show that the apple did not fall far from the tree! Other singers appearing on the episode include Sena Jurinac, Einar Andersson, Sigurd Björling, Eric Sædén, Margareta Hallin, Arne Tyrén, Aase Nordmo Løvberg, Apollo Granforte, and a surprise visit from last week’s subject, the transcendent Elisabeth Söderström.

Countermelody is a 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 journalist 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 356. Get to Know Irina Arkhipova



Directly after the disastrous November election in the United States, I compiled a setlist for two episodes self-explanitorially entitled “Mezzos on the Verge” and “Mezzos in Extremis.” One of the featured singers was the great Russian mezzo-soprano Irina Arkhipova, whose 100th birthday on January 2 of this year was one of the few positive things to happen in January! I happened to have a number of LPs featuring Arkhipova, and this episode features material from a number of those records, plus a CD reissue from a few years back entitled “The Art of Irina Arkhipova,” which features the 1970 recording of Mussorgsky and Rachmaninov songs that the singer made in Moscow with my teacher John Wustman while they were judges in that year’s Tchaikovsky Competition. Arkhipova is also featured in songs by Tchaikovsky; Russian opera arias by Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky; and selections from both Carmen and Il Trovatore, which feature tenors Zurab Andzhaparidzye and Vladislav Piavko, the latter of whom was also Arkhipova’s protégé (and later husband).

Countermelody is a 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 journalist 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 355. John Wustman (Honor Your Mentors I)



I have been reminded over and over again in recent weeks of the preciousness of life as numerous dear friends and family members face loss of loved ones and their own life-altering health crises. This got me to thinking about how much my mentors have shaped my life. So with this latest episode I inaugurate a new Countermelody series entitled “Honor Your Mentors.”

I have already posted numerous times on the podcast about my beloved teacher John Wustman. This coming July my friend and colleague Chanda VanderHart’s monumental book Accompaniment in America: Contextualizing Collaborative Piano, co-authored with Kathleen Kelly and Elvia Puccinelli, will be published by Routledge. Chanda has put together an astonishing digital archive featuring a wealth of material related to the book: https://accompanimentinamerica.website/index.html Included in this material is an interview I did with Chanda about Mr. Wustman. Chanda has given me permission to include that interview on my podcast. This is supplemented by a sampling of (mostly) studio recordings of John featuring, among others, Régine Crespin, Carlo Bergonzi, Brigitte Fassbaender, Luciano Pavarotti, and Irina Arkhipova: truly an astonishing feast for the ears!

Additionally, I was enormously saddened last week to read of the death of Joan Caplan, my first serious voice teacher in New York, and a phenomenal singer in her own right. Joan also remained a close friend through the years. In recent years she had been living at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey. I was able to visit her there last summer and had intended to go see her again later this month. Alas, that can no longer happen, but I will also be featuring Joan in an upcoming episode in the “Honor Your Mentors” series. In her memory today, I present her in a scintillating recording of Orsini’s Brindisi from Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia.

Finally, though I’m sure no one needs to be reminded of this, please, my dears, tell all those you love how much they mean to you; don’t wait until their funerals to give them their flowers!

Countermelody is a 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 journalist 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.