Category Archives: Music for a World in Crisis Series

Episode 198. Cesare Valletti

May 26, 2023African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Tenors, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Schubert, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless Wonders, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAlessandro Scarlatti, Alexandre Dumas, Cesare Valletti, Cosi fan tutte, David Bowie, Dichterliebe, Eduard Mörike, Edvard Grieg, Eleanor Steber, Eugène Scribe, Felice Romani, Francesco Maria Piave, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt, Fritz Stiedry, Gaetano Donizetti, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Antonicelli, Giuseppe Verdi, Hector Berlioz, Heinrich Heine, Hugo Wolf, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jules Massenet, L’amico Fritz, L’italiana in Algeri, La Traviata, Leo Taubman, Les nuits d’été, Lorenzo da Ponte, Mafalda Favero, Maria Callas, Matthäus von Collin, Nicola Rescigno, Pietro Mascagni, Robert Schumann, Rosanna Carteri, Ruth and Thomas Martin, Stefano Donaudy, Théophile Gautier, Tina Turner, Tito Schipa, Vittorio Gui, Werther, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Today’s episode celebrates the Italian tenore di grazia Cesare Valletti (18 December 1923 – 13 May 2000), perhaps the last in a lineage of Italian lyric tenors. Valletti studied under his illustrious predecessor Tito Schipa and rapidly conquered first the Italian opera houses, and then the world stages, with his small-scale but superbly produced voice and his spontaneous yet exacting musicianship. From 1953 through 1960 he was a mainstay of the Metropolitan Opera and also performed at opera houses and festivals worldwide under some of the greatest conductors and at the side of the greatest singers of his day. We hear a sampling of his greatest operatic roles, including duets with Eleanor Steber, Rosanna Carteri, and Maria Callas, as well as the repertoire in which – nearly unique for an Italian singer – he excelled: art song. The combination of his Italianate timbre with his scrupulous and imaginative musicianship makes for an ineffable and deeply satisfying artistic experience. He made five LPs of recital repertoire, including two live recitals from the stage of Town Hall in New York City, excerpts of which are all offered here. The episode begins with a tribute to the beloved Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll: Tina Turner, who died on Tuesday at the age of 83.

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 support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.

Episode 197. Theatre Dreams

May 19, 2023African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Broadway, Comic Relief, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Renata Scotto, Richard Wagner, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Verismo, Voiceless Wonders, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAbbé Prevost, Alain Boublil, Alice Ripley, Arnold Schoenberg, Arrigo Boito, Arthur Endrèze, Benjamin Britten, Birgit Nilsson, Biserka Cvejić, Bohuslav Martinů, Brigitte Fassbaender, Carl Maria von Weber, Cesare Valletti, Charles Gounod, Charles Kullman, Claude Devos, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Cy Coleman, Daniel Gundlach, Der Freischütz, Der Zigeunerbaron, Deva Dassy, Dorothy Fields, Edith Mathis, Eduard Künneke, Eleanor Steber, Elektra, Emily Skinner, Ettore Panizza, Eugen Jochum, Fiddler on the Roof, Frank Porretta, Franz Allers, Frieder Weissmann, Gabriel Faure, Georg Solti, Georges Neveux, Geraint Evans, Giovanni Martinelli, Giuseppe Verdi, Grace Bumbry, Hanna Binyamini, Harold Barlow, Henri Defosse, Henri Meilhac, Hildegard Behrens, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Ira Gershwin, Iris (Mascagni), Ivo Žídek, Izhak Graziani, Jacques Brel, Jacques Offenbach, James Levine, Janet Baker, Jaroslav Krombholc, Jean Laforge, Jerry Bock, Joe Darion, Johann Strauss II, José Van Dam, Jules Barbier, Jules Gressier, Jules Massenet, Kurt Weill, La Belle Helene, Lady in the Dark, Lawrence Tibbett, Lea Dulitzkaya, Lee Venora, Leopold Ludwig, Léopold Marchand, Les Misérables, Lloyd Arriola, Lohengrin, Louis Beydts, Ludovic Halévy, Luigi Illica, Man of La Mancha, Manon, Mária Tauberová, Marie Pappenheim, Martin Isepp, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Melitta Muszely, Michel Carré, Mitch Leigh, Nello Santi, Nicolai Gedda, Oklahoma!, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otello, Patrick Baton, Philippe Gille, Pierre Monteux, Pietro Mascagni, Renata Scotto, René Leibowitz, Richard Rodgers, Richard Strauss, Richard Tauber, Richard Wagner, Robert Massard, Robert Stolz, Roland Gilbert, Romand Bussine, Roméo et Juliette, Sheldon Harnick, Shmuel Rudenski, Shraga Friedman, Spiros Argiris, Sweet Charity, The King and I, Todd Ellison, Victoria de los Angeles, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Zafrira Yaronicountermelody

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I’ve been plotting an episode on the subject of Dreams for a while. Given the profusion of music that references that altered state of consciousness, my challenge was narrowing down the topic. I chose to focus today on theater music (opera, operetta, and musicals) that references actual rather than figurative dreams. Even within these parameters, there was a plethora of material and as usual my repertoire choices are strangely and uniquely my own. So on this episode you’ll hear everything from a 1965 recording of Tevye’s Dream from Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, from the first Israeli production of the musical; Renata Scotto in late career essaying the haunted dreamscapes of Arnold Schoenberg’s monodrama Erwartung; Mattiwilda Dobbs in a rare 1952 recording of “Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben” from Mozart’s Zaide; excerpts from unusual French and German operettas featuring Robert Massard and Charles Kullman, respectively; birthday tributes to Birgit Nilsson and Richard Tauber; and the great Welsh bass Geraint Evans in a live performance of Bottom’s Dream from Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And much, much more, including a teaser of next week’s subject the Italian lyric tenor Cesare Valletti; and Janet Baker live in recital in 1966, a preview of the first in a series of bonus episodes that will feature rare LPs from my personal collection. As always, thanks for your support; enjoy!

Episode 196. Grace Bumbry In Memoriam

May 11, 2023African American Singers, Art Song, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Singers of ColorAdolf Heyduk, Antonín Dvořák, Beaumont Glass, Christian L’Egru, Christian Schubart, Erik Werba, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Rückert, Geoffrey Parsons, Georg Friedrich Daumer, Grace Bumbry, Hans Schmidt, Harry T. Burleigh, Heinrich Heine, Helmut Deutsch, Hermann Kletke, Hugo Wolf, Jakob Niklaus von Craigher, Johann Gabriel Seidl, Johann Georg Jacobi, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Brahms, Joseph von Eichendorff, Julius Mosen, Leonard Hokanson, Lotte Lehmann, Matthias Claudius, Robert Schumann, Sebastian Peschkocountermelody

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This past week the world of opera was plunged in mourning at the news of the death of the unique, the irreplaceable Grace Bumbry (04 January 1937 – 07 May 2023), an artist equal parts daredevil and refined, whose artistry enchanted us for more than sixty years. In recent months many of us anxiously awaited news of her health after she suffered a stroke last October, from which she miraculously if temporarily rebounded. Though the news of her death was therefore not unexpected, it is both momentous and sombre in that it signals the end of an era. In October I produced a pair of episodes in her honor, the second of which, published exclusively on Patreon, celebrated her prowess as a Lieder singer. As such, she carried on the tradition and bore the mantel of the great Lotte Lehmann, her teacher and mentor; Bumbry said of her: “Lotte Lehmann will always remain for me the most important person in my entire musical life.” The episode features examples of Bumbry’s Lieder singing over the course of more than forty years, with a particular focus on her rare 1976 EMI release with pianist Geoffrey Parsons of Songs by Schumann and Schubert, which is heard in its entirety. Though I am bereft at her passing, I celebrate her mastery of a subtle and refined art form which formed the cornerstone of her artistry.

Episode 194. Great Mozart Tenors

April 28, 2023African American Singers, Canadian Singers, Great Tenors, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Opera in Translation, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Voiceless Wonders, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAlex Banfield, Alfredo Kraus, Anton Dermota, Arthur Goldschmidt, Bernard Haitink, Cesare Valletti, Charles Holland, Charles Mackerras, Claude Génetay, Clemens Schmalstich, Cosi fan tutte, David Rendall, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Don Giovanni, Emanuel Schikaneder, Ernst Haefliger, Ferdinand Leitner, Ferenc Fricsay, Francisco Araiza, Fritz Wunderlich, Georg Solti, George Shirley, Gerhard Wimberger, Gösta Winbergh, Guido Cantelli, György Fischer, Hans Müller-Kray, Herbert von Karajan, Hermann Jadlowker, Idomeneo, István Kertész, Jeffrey Tate, Jerry Hadley, John Aler, John Alexander, John McCormack, John van Kesteren, Jörg Ewald Dähler, Josef Dünnwald, Joseph Rosenstock, Julius Rudel, Kálmán Pataky, Karl Alwin, Karl Böhm, Karl Erb, La Clemenza di Tito, La finta giardiniera, Le nozze di Figaro, Leontyne Price, Leopold Simoneau, Lorenzo da Ponte, Luigi Alva, Marcel Wittrisch, Margaret Price, Maria Ivogün, Mitridate, Nicolai Gedda, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Otto Ackermann, Peter Schreier, Philip Langridge, Pietro Metastasio, Pilar Lorengar, Richard Tauber, Roberta Alexander, Ryland Davies, Semyon Bychkov, Stuart Burrows, Waldemar Kmentt, Wiesław Ochman, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Zaidecountermelody

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Today’s is a mammoth episode, one of my longest ever, so I suggest you listen to it in easily digestible segments. It’s mammoth because it’s a gigantic subject: great Mozart tenors of the 20th century, covering more than 100 years of recorded documents of the finest examples of tenorial interpretations of the big Mozart operas as well as some of his lesser-known works, including his concert arias. You will be dazzled (and that is a promise and a guarantee) by performances by Fritz Wunderlich (for many of us, the ne plus ultra of lyric tenors), George Shirley, Richard Tauber, Anton Dermota, Léopold Simoneau, Nicolai Gedda, Gösta Winbergh, John McCormack, David Rendall, Peter Schreier, and countless others, including lesser-known figures such as John van Kesteren, Kálmán Pataky, and Wiesław Ochman, and duets featuring Pilar Lorengar, Leontyne Price, Roberta Alexander, and Margaret Price. I also feature a peek into the future with a special salute to the young tenor Alex Banfield, whose work has impressed me enormously. The entire episode is dedicated to the memory of my friend Jerry Hadley, one of the supreme Mozart tenors of all time.

Episode 193. Alexander Kipnis

April 21, 2023Art Song, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, SchubertAlexander Kipnis, Alexander Pushkin, Antonio García Gutiérrez, Arrigo Boito, Arthur Bergh, Arturo Toscanini, Boris Godunov, Celius Dougherty, Clemens Schmalstich, Coenraad V. Bos, Der Rosenkavalier, Der Zauberflöte, Detlev von Liliencron, Dichterliebe, Emanuel Schikaneder, Erich Ortmann, Ernst Victor Wolff, Folk Song, Francesco Maria Piave, Frank Bibb, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Schiller, Georg Friedrich Daumer, Gerald Moore, Giuseppe Verdi, Gleb Yellin, Heinrich Heine, Hermann Lingg, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hugo Wolf, Italienisches Liederbuch, J. Michel Diack, Johannes Brahms, Joseph von Eichendorff, Ludwig Rellstab, Michelangelo, Modest Mussorgsky, Nicolai Berezovsky, Paul Heyse, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann, Schwanengesang, Simon Boccanegra, Tristan und Isolde, Walter Heinrich Robert-Tornow, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Rosécountermelody

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If I were to indulge in the foolish task of dubbing certain artists the “Greatest Ever,” I would have little hesitation in naming Ukrainian-American bass Alexander Kipnis (1891–1978) “the greatest” in several categories: greatest Wagner bass, greatest low-voiced Lieder singer, just maybe even the greatest bass ever captured on recording. Though I am trying to wean myself of these designations, I have no difficulty in naming Kipnis my favorite bass. In this episode, his operatic impersonations, though legendary, are touched on but peripherally: the focus instead is on his contributions in art song, specifically Lieder. Despite his heavily-accented German (which to my ear only increases the power of his interpretations in songs like Schubert’s “Aufenthalt” or Wolf’s Michelangelo-Lieder), Kipnis was as keenly attuned to text and its musical setting than any singer of art song before or since. As usual of late in my episodes, I begin with several short contrasting examples that illustrate the “why” question: why was this artist so important, and why does he remain so? There follow a few all-too-brief examples of Kipnis in opera, including examples stretching back to his earliest recordings in 1916, when he was barely 25 years old. Then follow a further examination of Kipnis’s Lieder recordings, including a rare 1943 radio broadcast of Schumann’s Dichterliebe accompanied by Wolfgang Rosé, the son-in-law of Gustav Mahler, as well as recordings issued under the aegis of the Hugo Wolf Society and the Johannes Brahms Society, and his matchless early recordings of the songs of Franz Schubert, which were my introduction not only to Kipnis’s magisterial voice, but also the songs themselves. In all of this material, whether tender, ardent, humorous, or transcendent, Kipnis’s dignity and humanity shine through.

Episode 192. Virginia Zeani: The Soul of the Voice

April 14, 2023Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, VerismoAida, Alberto Zedda, Alexander Pushkin, Alexandre Dumas, Alfredo Simonetto, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Arrigo Boito, Aureliano Pertile, Benjamin Britten, Boris Godunov, Carlo Sabajno, Cornel Trailescu, David Belasco, Death in Venice, Don Carlo, Edward Downes, Francesco Cavalli, Francesco Maria Piave, Franz Bauer Theussl, Friedrich Schiller, Gaetano Donizetti, George Frideric Handel, Giacomo Puccini, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Gioacchino Rossini, Giulio Cesare, Giuseppe Giacosa, Giuseppe Verdi, Gloria Foglizzo, Henry Purcell, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Ion Buzea, James Bowman, Jean Bobescu, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, La Calisto, La Traviata, Leopold Stokowski, Lohengrin, Luigi Illica, Lute Songs, Lydia Lipowska, Madama Butterfly, Matthäus-Passion, Mefistofele, Melitta Muszely, Mihai Bradiceanu, Modest Mussorgsky, Myfanwy Piper, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Nicolae Herlea, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Otello, Philip Ledger, Raymond Leppard, Richard Wagner, Robert Stolz, Robert Tear, Salvadore Cammarano, Snegurochka, T.S. Eliot, The Fairy Queen, Thomas Mann, Tosca, Vincenzo Bellezza, Virginia Zeani, Walter Scott, Walther von der Vogelweide, William Shakespearecountermelody

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A number of significant classical and opera singers have died in this calendar year, and this episode pays tribute to three of them. First, James Bowman, the most significant British countertenor since Alfred Deller, who died on March 27th in his 82nd year. Second, Melitta Muszely, the Austrian jugendlich dramatisch soprano of Hungarian origin who died in her native Vienna at the age of 95 on January 18. And finally, a loss which reverberated around the operatic world with particularly poignancy and finality, the great Romanian soprano Virginia Zeani, who died on March 20 at the age of 97. While the focus of the episode is on Zeani, I also discuss the significance and contributions of Bowman and Muszely in detail, as well as offering examples of some of their best recordings. In the case of Zeani, I offer a thorough career and biographical overview, including excerpts from her rare studio recordings as well as live material from both the early and late years of her performing career. Also included are recordings by her teachers Lydia Lipowska and Aureliano Pertile, and her husband, the Italian-Russian bass Nicola Rossi Lemeni. And leave it to me to find a way of bringing three such disparate artists as Bowman, Muszely, and Zeani together at the conclusion of the episode!

Episode 191. Music for Holy Week

April 6, 2023African American Singers, Art Song, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Muriel Smith, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Voiceless WondersAlfred Zighera, Benjamin Luxon, Bernd Weikl, Betty Allen, Briana Hunter, Carlos Mena, Cesar Franck, Daniel Pinkham, Das Marienleben (Hindemith), David Porcelijn, David Rendall, David Shallon, David Willison, Dialogues des Carmélites, Diana Montague, Edith Mathis, Eduard Mörike, Ein deutsches Requiem, Elijah (Mendelssohn), Erich Itor Kahn, Eugene Holmes, Felix Mendelssohn, Florence Quivar, Francis Poulenc, François Couperin (le Grand), Frank Martin, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Schlegel, Georges Bernanos, Gerald Finzi, Gerald Moore, Gerd Albrecht, Gerd Hirtz, Gertrud von le Fort, Gioacchino Rossini, Giovanni Felice Sances, Hans Hotter, Harry T. Burleigh, Hendrik Andriessen, Henri Ghéon, Holy Week, Hugo Wolf, Hugues Cuenod, Huw Montague Rendall, James Bowman, Jean Fournet, Jennie Tourel, Johannes Brahms, Joséphine Colomb, Julia Perry, Leçons de Ténèbres, Leon Botstein, Lotte Lehmann, Maria Triptychon (Martin), Max Brod, Michel Corboz, Miroir de Peine (Andriessen), Mitsuko Shirai, Muriel Smith, Nino Sanzogno, Owain Arwel Hughes, Paul Dessau, Philippe Pierlot, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Brink, Robert Shaw, Robert Spencer, Roberta Alexander, Scipio Colombo, Sergiu Celibidache, Sheila Armstrong, Spirituals, Stabat Mater, Virgil Thomson, Virginia Zeani, Werner Krenn, William Shakespeare, William Waterhouse, Wolfgang Schneiderhancountermelody

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Welcome to all listeners both old and new to the podcast! This week I am focusing on music related to the Christian observation of Holy Week: oratorios, motets, cantatas, songs and song cycles, even operas from Renaissance to contemporary, performed by a wide range of singers. Alongside podcast favorites Jennie Tourel, Roberta Alexander, Eugene Holmes, Hugues Cuénod, Mitsuko Shirai, Muriel Smith, and others, I also feature performances by recently departed vocal giants Virginia Zeani and James Bowman (both of whom will be foregrounded in next week’s episode), as well as the sublime British mezzo-soprano Diana Montague, who celebrates her birthday this week. We also hear her husband, the magnificent tenor David Rendall, as well as their extraordinarily gifted son, baritone Huw Montague Rendall, whom I was privileged to meet in Berlin this past week. We also hear a variety of settings of the 13th century Stabat Mater text from Giovanni Felice Sances in the 17th century to the more thorny twentieth-century idiom of the Swiss Frank Martin and the African American Julia Perry. Contemplative art songs by Schubert, Wolf, Hindemith, Finzi, and Andriessen round out the episode.

Episode 189. Marni Nixon

March 24, 2023Art Song, Crossover, Full-Figured Baroque, In Memoriam, Interview, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Orchestral Songs, Pop Icons, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century MusicAlan Jay Lerner, Alfred Newman, Allegro (Rodgers and Hammerstein), An Affair to Remember, Andre Previn, Andrew Gold, Anton Webern, Armen Guzelimian, Arnold Schoenberg, Arthur Gleghorn, Audrey Hepburn, Barbara Shik, Boomerang, Chants d’Auvergne, Charles Ives, Charles Prince, Cissy Houston, Claude Debussy, Daniel Roth, Deborah Kerr, Dorothy Remsen, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emanuel Schikaneder, Ernest Gold, Frank Wedekind, Frederick Loewe, Gabriel Faure, Gary William Friedman, George Antheil, Harold Adamson, Harry Warren, Hildegard Jone, Igor Stravinsky, Jack Marshall, Jerome Kern, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Mauceri, John McCabe, Joseph Canteloube, Leo McCarey, Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Stein, Lincoln Mayorga, Lionel Newman, Lotte Lehmann, Louis Untermeyer, Mace Barrett, Margaret Whiting, Marni Nixon, Mary Poppins, Maurice Maeterlinck, Melissa Errico, My Fair Lady, Natalie Wood, Oscar Hammerstein II, Paul Verlaine, Pierrot lunaire, Richard Dehmel, Richard M. Sherman, Richard Rodgers, Robert B. Sherman, Robert Craft, Robert Stolz, Sheila Smith, Stan Keen, Stephen Sondheim, Susan Egan, Ted Thurston, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Thomas Bagwell, Tiger Haynes, Tutti Camarata, Vera Schwarz, Victor Griffin, Wesley Kuhnle, West Side Story, Will Holtcountermelody

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Today, in another of my Women’s History Month episodes, I present to you the extraordinarily versatile, even chameleon-like singer and actor Marni Nixon (22 February 1930 – 24 July 2016), who is no doubt best-known today as the so-called “Ghostess with the Mostest.” Born into a musical family in California, she became involved from an early age with the movies, and by a marvelous set of circumstances became The Voice for a number of Hollywood actresses not known for their singing voices, among them Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Her skill in matching the vocal and speech characteristics of each of these performers is exceptional, but she was so much more than that. She pioneered the work of many 20th century giants, including Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Charles Ives, and Anton Webern. She hosted a local Seattled children’s television program called Boomerang that netted her four Emmy Awards. She performed on opera stages and concert platforms around the world. She recorded widely, everything from Mary Poppins to Pierrot Lunaire, and in the mid-1970s was the first singer to perform and record Schoenberg’s cabaret songs, his so-called Brettl-Lieder, works that are now standard repertoire. She studied with Viennese soprano Vera Schwarz as well as the iconic Lotte Lehmann, and actively performed and recorded for more than 50 years. Her late career saw an extraordinary return to the musical stage, where she starred in both new work and revivals both on and Off-Broadway. Guiding us along the trajectory of her career is my good friend Thomas Bagwell, currently a coach and conductor at The Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, who was a colleague and good friend of Marni Nixon’s for the last 25 years of her life. His anecdotes and reminscences are interspersed with examples (often familiar, more often rare) of Marni’s vast recorded legacy, which give testament not only to her versatility, but to her flawless musicality and depth of expression.

Episode 188. Sarah Reese

March 17, 2023African American Singers, Giuseppe Verdi, Happy Birthday, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAndrew Schenck, Carlo Bergonzi, Carolyn Val-Schmidt, David Lawton, Ein deutsches Requiem, Giuseppe Verdi, Herbert von Karajan, Il Corsaro, Il Trovatore, Isaiah Jackson, Johannes Brahms, Knoxville Summer of 1915, Le nozze di Figaro, Prayers of Kierkegaard, Samuel Barber, Sarah Reese, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Greatness expresses itself in different ways. Sometimes in indisputable artistic talents, and other times in profound displays of humanity. And sometimes, as in the case of today’s subject, Sarah Reese, it’s both. The soprano, who just this week celebrated a landmark birthday, is a singer of rare gifts whose career encompassed some of the world’s greatest stages and concert halls who later in life returned to the region where she grew up (in Sarah’s case, South Carolina), to give back to the community as a music teacher and choir director, in which capacity she has positively impacted the lives of countless students who came into contact with her warmth, skill, and generosity of spirit. Earlier on in her personal saga, Sarah made history when in the late 1960s she was the first female Black student at Furman University in Greenville. Through her persistence, courage, and determination, she rose above the ostracism and abuse she experienced there to become enshrined as a legend, with the school’s theater recently permanently renamed in her honor. Though her voice and artistry were acknowledged worldwide, her recorded legacy is small, with only one commercial recording (Samuel Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard) which nevertheless won a Grammy award in 1993. It is our great good fortune that in recent years a number of precious live recordings have emerged that show quite clearly the range and extent of her gifts. I present all of them here on this episode: from a concert recording of Verdi’s rare 1848 opera Il corsaro co-starring legendary Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi, to a broadcast concert with the Detroit Symphony led by Isaiah Jackson in which she sings Mozart and Verdi arias, as well as Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. The episode concludes with a recently resurfaced 1988 performance of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem led by Herbert von Karajan the year before his death, one in which Sarah Reese’s heavenly soprano bestows a comforting benediction upon us all. Blessings upon this living legend, and gratitude galore!

Episode 187. Elly Ameling Sings Bach

March 10, 2023Art Song, Full-Figured Baroque, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle DropAlbert de Klerk, Cees van der Krann, Coenraad Bloemendaal, Dalton Baldwin, Edward H. Tarr, Elly Ameling, Elyakim Taussig, Eugen Jochum, Franzjosef Maier, Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Han de Vries, Hans-Martin Linde, Hanspeter Weber, Helmut Winschermann, Helmuth Hucke, Hermann Prey, Ingo Goritzki, Janet Baker, Johann Sebastian Bach, Karl Münchinger, Kurt Thomas, Matthäus-Passion, Maurice André, Moshe Hammer, Neville Marriner, Paul Steinitz, Raymond Leppard, Reinhard Peters, Richte van der Meer, Roger Birnstingl, St. Matthew Passion, Weichet nur (Wedding Cantata), William Bennettcountermelody

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An artist whose singing has been with me throughout my entire life journey is Dutch soprano Elly Ameling, who on February 8 celebrated her 90th birthday. Ameling was most celebrated as a singer of art song, and justly so, but another repertoire she performed with particular grace and aplomb was the music of the baroque, specifically the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. This, the first of a pair of Ameling episodes planned for this season, presents her exclusively in that repertoire, in live performances and recordings over the course of her career’s prime, from the mid-sixties through the mid-eighties. I have chosen to focus on three works which she performed frequently and for which we have more than one recorded example extant: Cantata 51, “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen”; Cantata 202, “Weichet nur,” the so-called Wedding Cantata; and the St. Matthew Passion. I feature extended excerpts from each of these works as well as a smattering of Ameling performances of other Bach works, as well a song once wrongly attributed to Bach, “Bist du bei mir.” Throughout this episode, Ameling’s key artistic virtues are on full display: a crystalline voice of ineffable purity; an impeccable vocal technique that encompassed long-limbed cantilena as well as rapid-fire coloratura; and a verbal acuity that, even in such technically challenging music, always put the words first and foremost. She is the ideal Bach singer, and, dare I say it, maybe the finest Bach soprano that ever lived.

Episode 186. Roberta Alexander in Opera

March 3, 2023African American Singers, BHM2023WK4, Black History Month, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Happy Birthday, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaAdam Gatehouse, Adrian de Peyer, Andrew Davis, Angels in America, Beatrice Cenci (Goldschmidt), Benjamin Luxon, Berthold Goldschmidt, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Dante Alighieri, Der gewaltige Hahnrei (Goldschmidt), Don Giovanni, DuBose Heyward, Edward Downes, Egon Wellesz, Elektra, Esa-Pekka Salonen, ETA Hoffmann, Fernand Crommelynck, Fiona Kimm, Francesca da Rimini (Rachmaninov), George Frideric Handel, George Gershwin, Gerd Albrecht, Giulio Cesare, Gregg Baker, Gwenneth Bean, Hans Aschenbach, Hans Vonk, Hermann Hesse, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Ilse Eerens, Ira Gershwin, Jacques Offenbach, James Morris, Jenůfa, Kenneth Montgomery, La Clemenza di Tito, Le nozze di Figaro, Leos Janacek, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Lorenzo da Ponte, Lothar Zagrosek, Michael Forest, Michael Schneider, Modest Tchaikovsky, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paride ed Elena, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Péter Eötvös, Philip Langridge, Porgy and Bess, Renate Behle, Richard Strauss, Robert Wörle, Roberta Alexander, Sergei Rachmaninov, Theodora (Handel), Vier letzte Lieder, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Zubin Mehtacountermelody

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Today it is with the utmost excitement that I bring you an episode devoted to one of my favorite singers of all time, soprano Roberta Alexander, who celebrates her birthday today, March 3rd! I remember first encountering this radiant voice of burnished silver back when I was in graduate school when I discovered her early recordings of art song, including albums devoted to Charles Ives and Richard Strauss. Over the course of a long and successful career she has sung in all major opera houses around the world and in concert halls under the batons of countless distinguished maestri. What is it that makes this voice so special? Alongside a rock-solid vocal technique that has allowed her to sing well into her seventies, she is also gifted with impeccable musicianship and staggering stylistic versatility. For me it is not only the unusual color of the voice, both shimmering and profound (the chiaroscuro!), but even more so, her dedication to communication through clarity of diction and razor-sharp dramatic precision that sends her into the realm of the all-time greats. This episode focuses on Roberta’s versatility and prowess on the operatic stage, featuring live and studio recordings over more than thirty years of works by composers from Handel, Gluck, and Mozart, through twentieth century masters such as Janácek, Gershwin, and Berthold Goldschmidt. We also hear an excerpt from one of Roberta’s favorites among her recordings, a rare 1982 live performance of Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder. Speaking of Lieder, an upcoming episode this spring will focus on our diva on the concert platform. It was my great honor to meet Roberta in person when she was performing in Berlin in 2022 and therefore it is also to her as a friend that I extend my heartiest good wishes for a happy birthday. I had to remind myself not to fan girl as I was recording the narration for this episode, but I’m not sure I succeeded!

Episode 184. Eugene Holmes (Black History Month 2023)

February 17, 2023African American Singers, Bel canto, BHM2023WK3, Black History Month, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Interview, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAida, Arnold Kempkens, Barbara Carter, Bonita Hyman, Charles Francis Keary, Charles Groves, Claudia Lindsey, Eugene Holmes, Francesco Maria Piave, Frederick Delius, Georges Bizet, Giorgio Aristo, Giuseppe Verdi, Günter Marx, Gwyneth Jones, Harry T. Burleigh, Hector Urbón, Heribert Klein, János B. Nagy, Joseph Rezits, Koanga, La forza del destino, Pagliacci, Paul Callaway, Riccardo Muti, Rigoletto, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Spirituals, Stephen Harrison, Victor Hugo, Yoram Davidcountermelody

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Eugene Holmes (1932 – 2007), baritone supreme, should be remembered as one of the most significant voices of the Twentieth Century and a Black singer on a par with the most revered and celebrated. Though he participated in the creation of some important work (including by Gian Carlo Menotti, Gunther Schuller, and Frederick Delius), and performed with San Francisco Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper, New York City Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera Regional Company, his career remained centered for more than thirty years at his home company, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. The rare recorded documents that we have of Eugene Holmes, including two self-produced LPs of spirituals and three different recordings of Delius’s rare opera Koanga (two of them live), reveal a voice of rare magnitude, range, power, and sensitivity, qualities which made him one of the premier Verdi baritones of his day. But due to a number of factors, including his modesty and his unwillingness to travel far from home, he did not achieve the international recognition that he deserved. I have pulled together all of the recorded material of Eugene Holmes that I could find, and present excerpts from these varied sources. Guest vocalists appearing opposite Holmes include sopranos Claudia Lindsey, Gwyneth Jones, and Barbara Carter, and tenors János B. Nagy and Giorgio Aristo. In the production of this podcast, I was greatly aided by reminiscences provided by his colleagues Bonita Hyman, the German-based African American mezzo-soprano; Stephen Harrison, the retired musical director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein; and Heribert Klein, member of the committee of UNICEF Deutschland, an organization to which Eugene Holmes was deeply committed.

Episode 183. Martina Arroyo (Black History Month 2023)

February 10, 2023African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, BHM2023WK2, Black History Month, Comic Relief, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Pop Icons, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAida, Andromache’s Farewell, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Antonio Somma, Arnold Schoenberg, Burt Bacharach, Charles Mackerras, Colin Davis, David Belasco, Don Giovanni, Donal Nold, Dorothy Maynor, DuBose Heyward, Dusty Springfield, Ermanno Mauro, Ernani, Fausto Cleva, Francesco Maria Piave, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Franz Schubert, George Gershwin, Gerd Albrecht, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Giuseppe Verdi, Günter Wand, Gurre-Lieder, Harry T. Burleigh, Hermann Hesse, Ira Gershwin, János Ferencsik, Jens Peter Jacobsen, Joaquín Nin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Brahms, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kurt Eichhorn, L’Africaine, La forza del destino, Lamberto Gardelli, Leonard Hokanson, Lorenzo da Ponte, Luciano Pavarotti, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luigi Illica, Macbeth (Verdi), Madama Butterfly, Martina Arroyo, Max Rudolf, Nicola Rescigno, Porgy and Bess, Regine Crespin, Richard Strauss, Samuel Barber, Sixten Ehrling, Spirituals, Stuart Burrows, Thomas Schippers, Turandot, Un ballo in maschera, Victor Hugo, Vier letzte Lieder, Vittorio Gui, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Last week on Feburary 2, the beloved African American soprano Martina Arroyo turned 86 years old. Although the Countermelody birthday tribute to Ms. Arroyo is a week late, it is nonetheless profoundly heartfelt. I have always valued the artistry and voice of this artist who often referred to herself as “The Other One” (because she was so frequently confused with today’s birthday diva, Leontyne Price). In preparing this episode, however, I flipped over into fan girl mode: was there anything that Martina Arroyo could not do? Of course she was celebrated as one of the premiere Verdi sopranos of her day (or, indeed, of the twentieth century), and there are ample examples on the episode that give testament to her supremacy in that repertoire. But she was also an intrepid performer of contemporary music, creating important works by both Karlheinz Stockhausen and Samuel Barber. Her performances of baroque music, while very much following an earlier style of performance practice, are vivid and insightful. Her affinity with French grand opera style is off the charts, as evidenced by an excerpt from Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine. She also could have pursued a path as a Mozart and Strauss singer, and selections by both of these composers prove her mastery of this genre as well. She also had the power to be a full-fledged dramatic soprano, as shown by her live performances of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder and the title role in Puccini’s Turandot. And yet her subtlety as a recitalist is shown in live and studio Lieder performances. And the fervor and vigor of her performance of spirituals is a thing of joy. This episode is full of surprises but one thing is not surprising at all: the degree of dedication and commitment of this artist, which continues to this day with the performance and education initiative of the Martina Arroyo Foundation. (The episode begins with a brief tribute to Burt Bacharach, who died yesterday at the age of 94.)

Episode 182. Dorothy Maynor (Black History Month 2023)

February 3, 2023African American Singers, Art Song, BHM2023WK1, Black History Month, Broadway, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicArpad Sandor, Carousel (Rodgers & Hammerstein), Cecil Cohen, Claude Debussy, Countee Cullen, David Oppenheim, Die Zauberflöte, Dorothy Maynor, Elijah (Mendelssohn), Felix Mendelssohn, Frank Black, Franz Schubert, Friederich von Florow, Friedrich von Matthisson, George Frideric Handel, George Schick, Georges Bizet, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustave Charpentier, Howard Barlow, Johann Sebastian Bach, L’enfant prodigue (Debussy), Leonard De Paur, Leopold Stokowski, Louise, Ludwig van Beethoven, Oscar Hammerstein II, Pierre Monteux, R. Nathaniel Dett, Richard Rodgers, Richard Strauss, Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Semele (Handel), Serge Koussevitzky, St. Matthew Passion, Sylvan Levin, Victor Hugo, Wilhelm Müller, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I lead off my new episodes for Black History Month 2023 with one of the most glorious voices ever captured on recordings, Dorothy Maynor (03 September 1910 – 19 February 1996), one of the most glorious lyric soprano voices ever captured on recording. Discovered by Serge Koussevitzky in the late 1930s and championed by him and a host of other conductors (including Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy), she became renowned as a recitalist but, because of restrictions of the era placed upon Black singers, never sang on any operatic stage. Nevertheless, her studio recordings of arias by Mozart, Debussy, and Charpentier are legendary. Our appreciation of Maynor the singer is greatly enhanced by the presence of live radio recordings as well as a recently-issued live 1940 song recital from the Library of Congress. It is one of the great injustices of musical history that gifted Black singers of Maynor’s caliber from that era were outrightly denied the opportunity to perform in staged opera performances at venues like the Metropolitan Opera. Dorothy Maynor nonetheless persevered and left an incredible legacy, and not just a vocal one: in 1963, the year of her retirement from singing, she founded the Harlem School of the Arts, for which, before she stepped down as President in 1979, she raised more than $2 million dollars for the construction of a new facility for the institution. She also was the first African American singer to perform at a presidential inaugural (both for Harry S. Truman in 1949 and Dwight D. Eisenhower four years later), as well as the first African American to sit on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera. This episode features Maynor in live, studio, and radio recordings of repertoire by Bach, Handel, Schubert, and Mendelssohn, as well as some of the finest recordings of spirituals ever made. Also heard are the songs of three Black composers, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Cecil Cohen, and R. Nathaniel Dett, the latter of which Maynor studied with at the Hampton Institute, whose work Maynor frequently programmed on her recitals. The episode opens with a joyous birthday tribute to next week’s subject, Martina Arroyo, whose 1974 album of spirituals was backed by the Choir of the Harlem School of the Arts conducted by Maynor herself.

Episode 181. Nicolai Gedda in Song

January 27, 2023Art Song, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century MusicAldo Ciccolini, Alexander Pushkin, Alexander Tcherepnin, Alexander Varlamov, Alexis Weissenberg, Anthony Miranda, Ben Jonson, Benjamin Britten, Charles Gounod, Dalton Baldwin, Dichterliebe, Die schöne Müllerin, Edda Moser, Edvard Grieg, Erik Werba, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert, Frederic Waldman, Gabriel Faure, Geoffrey Parsons, Gerald Moore, Gerhard Singer, Hector Berlioz, Heinrich Heine, Henri Duparc, Hermann Reutter, Jan Eyron, Jean Sibelius, Johann Mayrhofer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Leconte de Lisle, Leos Janacek, Nicolai Gedda, Nikolai Tcherepnin, Ottorino Respighi, Paul Éluard, Richard Strauss, Sergei Rachmaninov, Silvio Varviso, Spanisches Liederspiel, Théophile Gautier, Wilhelm Müller, William Faulkner, Wolfgang Sawallischcountermelody

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Today’s episode is a special request from one of my most dedicated listeners, and one with which I am happy to comply. It is already seven years this month since the death of the great Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda (11 July 1925 – 8 January 2017). One of the most cultivated singers of the twentieth century, Gedda not only had a rock-solid technique and an instantly recognizable timbre, but he was a brilliant musician and a polyglot of the first order, singing a wide range of repertoire and styles in a host of languages. He was also a prolific recording artist. Though he sang an enormous range of operatic roles, in this episode, I have decided to focus entirely on a slightly lesser-known aspect of his career: his work in art song. Gedda was a master of French style, but also celebrated for his performances of Russian music. And one of the three languages he spoke while he was growing up was German, which lends his work in that language a real authenticity as well. In listening to recordings of song repertoire, I was struck by the frequent added spontaneity and commitment of his live versus his studio performances, so the episode features a large number of selections culled from Gedda’s live recitals. Gedda is accompanied by some of the most exceptional pianists of his time: Alexis Weissenberg, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Gerald Moore, Geoffrey Parsons, Dalton Baldwin, Erik Werba, Hermann Reutter, and his compatriot and most frequent collaborator Jan Eyron. Another extraordinary aspect of Gedda’s singing was his longevity. We hear him in songs by Strauss, Berlioz, Schubert, Janáček, Duparc, Grieg, Schumann, Fauré, Respighi, and Gounod, recorded over a period of nearly 40 years. Here is another singer who was active into the twilight of his life and sang into his seventies with both the intimacy and clarion power that were his musical trademarks.

Episode 180. Anna Moffo Reappraised

January 20, 2023Art Song, Bel canto, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Richard Strauss, Twentieth Century MusicAdolf von Schack, Afro Poli, Alexandre Dumas, Alfred Grünwald, Anna Moffo, Anton Coppola, Anton Guadagno, Antonio Amurri, Arleen Augér, Berislav Klobučar, Billy Smith, Carlo Bergonzi, Carlo Felice Cillario, Charles Gounod, Don Giovanni, Emmerich Kálmán, Erich Leinsdorf, Falstaff, Fernando Previtali, Francesco Maria Piave, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Franco Ferrara, Franz Lehár, Friedrich Schiller, Fritz Löhner-Beda, Gaetano Donizetti, George Gershwin, Georges Bizet, Georges Pretre, Gerald Moore, Giacomo Puccini, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Gianni Ferrio, Gino Gorini, Giovanna d’Arco, Giuditta (Lehár), Giulio Fioravanti, Giuseppe Adami, Giuseppe di Stefano, Giuseppe Giacosa, Gräfin Mariza, Hans Carste, Hans Rosbaud, Heinrich Hart, Henri Meilhac, Henri René, I Puritani, Ira Gershwin, Jacopone da Todi, James King, Jane Berbié, John Orrick, Jules Barbier, Jules Massenet, Julius Brammer, Kurt Eichhorn, La rondine, La sonnambula, La Traviata, Lehman Engel, Leopold Stokowski, Lorenzo da Ponte, Lorin Maazel, Lucia di Lammermoor, Ludovic Halévy, Luigi Illica, Madama Butterfly, Manon, Mario Lanfranchi, Mario Rossi, Michel Carré, Miti Truccato Pace, Oliviero de Fabritiis, Oscar Straus, Paul Knepler, Peter Maag, Philippe Gille Abbé Prévost, Piero Piccioni, Piero Umiliani, Prosper Mérimée, Renato Simoni, René Leibowitz, Richard Fredericks, Richard Hundley, Richard Strauss, Roméo et Juliette, Rudolf Friml, Rudolf Schock, Salvadore Cammarano, Sergio Franchi, Sergio Lorenzi, Skitch Henderson, Temistocle Solera, The Chocolate Soldier, Tosca, Tullio Serafin, Turandot, Victor Herbert, Victorien Sardou, Vincenzo Bellini, Walter Scott, Werner Schmidt-Boelcke, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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The Italian-American lyric coloratura soprano Anna Moffo (1932-2006) is, for many, one of the great singers of the past century. My first exposure to this artist was one of two, frankly, disastrous recordings released in the mid-1970s, in which the voice was a mere shadow of its former self, and in which her vocal defects and mannerisms had overtaken the intrinsic beauty of her voice. But there are so many exceptional qualities to Moffo as an artist, musician, and media star, that I felt compelled to do a frank reappraisal of her contribution to the lyric art. And am I glad that I did! I discovered an artist of great integrity who, in her best work, attained a similar level to any of the other great singers performing during that period. Unlike any other opera singer that I can think of, she conquered three distinct markets with equal success: first in Italy (where she rose to overnight stardom in the late 1950s and went on in the 1960s to become the star of her own eponymous television series); then in the United States throughout the 1960s; and finally, in the late 1960s and 70s, in Germany. But hers is also a cautionary tale of “too much, too soon” and the potentially destructive power of the media which has significance also in today’s opera world. Throughout the episode, live and studio examples of Moffo’s work, both bad and (mostly) good over the course of more than twenty years, are offered to support my discussion of her importance and influence as an artist, one that continues to this day. Vocal guest stars include tenors Carlo Bergonzi, Rudolf Schock, Giuseppe di Stefano, and Sergio Franchi, and musical collaborators include Tullio Serafin, Gerald Moore, Lorin Maazel, Hans Rosbaud, Fernando Previtali, Lehman Engel, Oliviero de Fabritiis, René Leibowitz, Kurt Eichhorn, Berislav Klobučar, and Franco Ferrara. For those who love Moffo, for those who hate her, and for those who find themselves somewhere in between, this episode is (dare I say it?) required listening.

Episode 179. The Pop Stylings of Maria Ewing

January 13, 2023African American Singers, Black History Month, Crossover, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAngela Morley, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Barry Forgie, Billy Rose, Billy Strayhorn, Bob Merrill, Cole Porter, Cy Coleman, David Shire, Don Raye, Dorothy Fields, Edward Eliscu, George Gershwin, Gordon Rose, Harold Arlen, Harry South, Herman Hupfeld, Hugh Martin, Hughie Price, Iain Sutherland, Ira Gershwin, Jerome Moross, Jimmy Van Heusen, John LaTouche, John Wilson, Johnny Burker, Jule Styne, Ken Woodman, Kurt Weill, Kymaera, Maria Ewing, Maxwell Anderson, Neil Richardson, Norman Gimbel, Oscar Hammerstein II, Pete Moore, Ralph Blane, Richard Maltby, Richard Rodgers, Richard Rodney Bennett, Shane Hill, Simon James, Stephen Robinson, Ted Koehler, Vincent Youmanscountermelody

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A year ago, as I was preparing my memorial Countermelody episode dedicated to Maria Ewing I was struck anew at just how naturally she had mastered the often messy “crossover” genre. Perhaps that’s because she never “crossed over” at all: this material formed part of her essence. I thought it would be a lovely thing to give a more complete picture of her work as a pop singer, using three primary sources: first, her 1990 studio pop album entitled “From this Moment On,” featuring arrangements by Richard Rodney Bennett; second, a rare release entitled “Simply Maria,” which comprises a live concert she gave at the Barbican Centre in London in 10 May 1997; and third, live and studio recordings that she made in in the early 2000s with the jazz combo Kymaera, led by guitarist Simon James. The range of material is dizzying, from Broadway classics by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Jule Styne, Harold Arlen, Cy Coleman, Kurt Weill, and George and Ira Gershwin to jazz stylings by Tom Jobim, eden ahbez, and Billy Strayhorn, with more than a few surprises along the way, and her mastery of it all is exceptional, with all of the intense commitment she showed in her operatic portrayals (and none of the condescension or preciousness associated with certain other crossover artists). I’m so thrilled to share this less well-known side of one of the great operatic singing actors of our time.

Episode 178. Andrzej Hiolski

January 6, 2023Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Gustav Mahler, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Orchestral Songs, Queer Pride, Richard Wagner, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAdam Mickiewicz, Adamo Didur, Aldous Huxley, Alexander Pushkin, Alina Bolechowska, Andrea Chénier, Andrzej Boruta, Andrzej Hiolski, Arnold Rezler, Augustyn Bloch, Bohdan Wodiczko, Consuelo Velazquez, Die Teufel von Loudun, Don Carlo, Don Giovanni, Eugenia Wnukowska, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Friedrich Schiller, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Halka (Moniuszko), Heinrich Heine, Helena Christenko. Karol Szymanowski, Helmut Melchert, Henryk Czyz, Henryk Debich, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Jacek Urbaniak, Jan Chęciński, Jan Krenz, Jerzy Gert, Jerzy Kotyczka, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Jerzy Marchwiński, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Whiting, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, King Roger (Szymanowski), Konrad Bryzek, Krzysztof Penderecki, Lorenzo da Ponte, Luigi Illica, Marek Janowski, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Mieczysław Mierzejewski, Pagliacci, Paolo Tosti, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Richard Wagner, Ruggero Leoncavallo, St. Luke Passion (Penderecki), Stanisław Moniuszko, Straszny dwór (Moniuszko), Tadeusz Baird, Tadeusz Szeligowski, Tannhäuser, Tatiana Troyanos, The Devils of Loudun, Umberto Giordano, Un ballo in maschera, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Włodzimierz Lwowicz, Włodzimierz Wolski, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yevgeny Onegin, Zygmunt Krasińskicountermelody

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This week I have been tantalizing my followers with the promise of a tall, dark, handsome singer who was born on January 1. I shall keep you in suspense no longer: he is the great Polish baritone Andrzej Hiolski, born in Lvov in New Year’s Day 1922 and died in Krakow on 26 February 2000. I have known of Hiolski for years because of his association with the works of the late Krzysztof Penderecki, but I began digging deeper into his legacy a few years ago and was absolutely stunned at what I found: a singer with a near-perfect technique with a powerful voice with a slightly burred timbre characterized by both beauty, range, and subtlety of expression. I have been collecting his recordings for a few years now and have featured him at every possible opportunity on the podcast, including twice already in the current season. But this episode is devoted entirely to him and it may well serve, strange as it may seem for an artist who is so revered and treasured in his native country, as an introduction for many of my listeners to one of the great baritone voices of the twentieth century. The episode features recordings and performances, many of them exceedingly rare, ranging over more than 50 years, and includes music by Verdi, Wagner, Schubert, Mahler, Bach, Leoncavallo, Mozart, Tosti, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, and Giordano, but also a generous helping of music by Hiolski’s compatriots, including Karol Szymanowski, Frédéric Chopin, Augustyn Bloch, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Stanisław Moniuszko, Tadeusz Baird, Tadeusz Szeligowski, as well as, of course, Penderecki. Guest vocalists include the supercharged Greek-American mezzo Tatiana Troyanos and the delectable Polish soprano Alina Bolechowska, as well as the venerable Polish bass Adamo Didur, an early mentor of Hiolski’s. who now joins company with Jorma Hynninen and Gérard Souzay in the triumvirate of my favorite baritones of all time!

Episode 177. Great Singers at Twilight

December 30, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, Black History Month, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Verismo, Voiceless WondersA Little Night Music, Adelaide Hall, Adelina Patti, Alan Jay Lerner, Alban Berg, Alberta Hunter, Alexander Pushkin, Armand Silvestre, Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, Brandi Carlile, Burt Bacharach, Cesar Franck, Cole Porter, David Atherton, Duke Ellington, Eileen Farrell, Elisabeth Welch, Frank Wedekind, Franz Schubert, Freda Payne, Gabriel Faure, George Gershwin, Giuseppe Verdi, Grace Bumbry, Günter Neuhold, Hans Altmann, Hans Hotter, Harold Arlen, Harry Plunket Greene, Helen Donath, Herman Melville, Hugues Cuenod, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jeffrey Tate, Johnny Mathis, Johnny Mercer, Joni Mitchell, Jules Massenet, Karl Erb, Klaus Donath, Kurt Weill, La sonnambula, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, Lotte Lenya, Love Life (Weill), Lulu (Berg), Magda Olivero, Marco Montanari, Mark Reizen, Marlene Dietrich, Patricia Wise, Paul Gemignani, Pique-Dame, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Regina Resnik, Richard Lewis, Rita Gorr, Robert McFerrin, Rose Dobos, Stephen Sondheim, Sylvia Olden Lee, Ted Koehler, Un ballo in maschera, Vincenzo Bellini, Wilhelm Müller, Winterreise, Yevgeny Onegin, Yip Harburg, Yuri Simonovcountermelody

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For the last episode of 2022, I begin a series of episodes which was one of the reasons I began Countermelody in the fall of 2019: a celebration of great singing from great singers in the late years of their lives and careers. In the early years of the recording industry, a long-retired artist such as Adelina Patti would consent to leave recorded documents of their voices for future generations to experience. Oftentimes a cherished artist will make a guest cameo appearance at an important event (think of Leontyne Price coming out of retirement at age 74 and singing “God Bless America” at the September 30, 2001 memorial concert at Carnegie Hall). Other times, artists like Johnny Mathis, Regina Resnik, or Helen Donath, simply never retire, but continue to bestow their artistry upon us decade after decade. Sometimes, as is the case of Lotte Lenya, a performer finds herself later in her life on a mission which demands that she resume performing, in Lenya’s case, as a means of securing the musical legacy of her late husband Kurt Weill. There is also, in the case of someone like Alberta Hunter or Elisabeth Welch, the thrill of a jazz or pop artist at the end of her life experiencing a career resurgence at the end of a long life. In the classical world, artists late in their lives can still give extraordinary performances of art song, which makes fewer demands on their voices than taxing operatic roles, while allowing full display of their deepened artistry and experience. There are also operatic roles specifically designed for the more mature artist: roles like Schigolch in Lulu, or the Countess in Pique-Dame, among many others, which are sampled here in performances by Hans Hotter and Rita Gorr, respectively. There are also those rare and exceptional artists who are able to perform movingly even into their nineties, like the Ukrainian bass Mark Reizen, or the verismo soprano Magda Olivero; or after having suffered catastrophic physical setbacks, like the German tenor Karl Erb, the African American baritone Robert McFerrin, or the pop icon Joni Mitchell. These artists (along with many others) and this topic seems deeply appropriate as 2022 draws to a close and we look forward to the inevitable challenges, the blank slate, the looming horizon, of the year to come.

Episode 176. Helen Donath

December 24, 2022French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Great Baritones, Holiday Music, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Twentieth Century MusicAnna Moffo, Arabella (Strauss), August Stramm, Bernhard Klee, Carl Maria von Weber, Carl Millöcker, Carmen, Das Christelflein, Das Land des Lächelns, Der Freischütz, Die Dubarry Emmerich Smola, Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Die Zauberflöte, Edda Moser, Engelbert Humperdinck, Fidelio, Franz Lehár, Friedrich von Flotow, Gabriel Chmura, Gabriele Schnaut, George Frideric Handel, Georges Bizet, Gerd Albrecht, Giacomo Puccini, Günther Leib, Hans Pfitzner, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Heinz Geese, Heinz Wallberg, Helen Donath, Herbert Blomstedt, Herbert von Karajan, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Ivan Törzs, Jacques Offenbach, Johann Sebastian Bach, Julia Varady, Klaus Donath, Kurt Eichhorn, La Boheme, La finta giardiniera, Leonard Bernstein, Leonore (Beethoven), Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Ludwig von Beethoven, Messiah (Handel), Otmar Suitner, Otto Nicolai, Paul Hindemith, Peter Schreier, Rafael Kubelik, Reinhard Peters, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Sancta Susanna (Hindemith), Siegfried Jerusalem, Tannhäuser, Theo Adam, Weihnachtsoratorium, Werner Hollweg, Willi Boskovsky, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Gönnenwein, Wolfgang Sawallischcountermelody

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Today’s episode is a celebration of the Texas-born, German-assimilated soprano Helen Donath. Very few singers can boast of a career lasting more than 50 years which yielded such consistently superb vocalism and artistry. Donath began as a soubrette with lyric-coloratura capabilities which blossomed into a jugendlich dramatisch voice capable of successfully assuming roles in Wagner, Strauss, and Weber. Today’s episode has two “gimmicks,” the first of which is that all of the selections are sung in German, even if they were originally set in French or Italian. The second gimmick is that strewn in amongst the other selections, there is a smattering of holiday-related material including works by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Humperdinck, and Pfitzner. Other composers heard include Otto Nicolai, Friedrich von Flotow, Paul Hindemith, as well as numerous examples of Donath’s peerless Mozart singing and a generous helping of operettas by Lehár, Millöcker, and Johann Strauss II. Vocal guest stars are legion, and include Julia Varady, Siegfried Jerusalem, Anna Moffo, Peter Schreier, Edda Moser, Theo Adam, Werner Hollweg, and Günther Leib in performances conducted by Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Eichhorn, Rafael Kubelik, Herbert Blomstedt, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bernhard Klee, Otmar Suitner, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Gerd Albrecht, and Willi Boskovsky, as well as Klaus Donath, Helen’s husband since 1965.

Episode 175. The Young Fritz Wunderlich

December 15, 2022Art Song, Crossover, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Great Baritones, Holiday Music, In Memoriam, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Richard Strauss, SchubertAlcina, Alessandro Striggio, Alois Melichar, Anneliese Rothenberger, Artur Rother, August Wenzinger, Berislav Klobučar, Carl Zeller, Claudio Monteverdi, Der Vogelhändler, Die schöne Müllerin, Die schweigsame Frau, Die Zauberflöte, Emanuel Schickaneder, Ferdinand Leitner, Franz Lehár, Franz Schubert, Friederike Sailer, Fritz Wunderlich, George Frideric Handel, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Hans May, Hans Swarowsky, Helmut Krebs, Herbert Frauer, Hilde Güden, Johannes Brahms, John Aler, John Nelson, Justinus Kerner, Karl Böhm, Karl-Heinz Stolze, L’Orfeo, La Boheme, Ludwig Hölty, Luigi Illica, Madama Butterfly, Richard Kraus, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Rolf Reinhardt, Semele, Stefan Zweig, Theo Zilliken, Trude Eipperle, Werner Schmidt-Boelcke, Wilhelm Müller, Willi Stech, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I’ve heard and enjoyed many a German lyric tenor, but if there was ever a greater one than Fritz Wunderlich (26 September 1930 – 17 September 1966), I’ve never heard him! What is it about this singer, who first of all, possessed a voice of such matchless visceral beauty, and who conveyed such joy and enthusiasm in the sheer act of singing, that cannot fail to engage us. My beloved “not-boyfriend” refers to Wunderlich’s voice and artistry as possessing more “face” than nearly any other singer in history, and I do think he’s on to something. The very simplicity of his utterance conveys a sort of “Everyman” quality to everything he sang. This, alongside the precision of his delivery of text pulls the listener in and almost compels them to listen. In today’s episode, I offer recordings from the 1950s, when Wunderlich was just beginning his career. His early musical experience centered around popular music of the time, and we hear him in this repertoire, as well as operetta, Lieder, so-called “early music,” as well as the more standard operatic repertoire (Mozart, Puccini, Strauss), the majority of which were recorded before 1960. His partners in song in this episode include names both familiar (Anneliese Rothenberger, Pilar Lorengar, Hilde Güden) as well as those who are less well-remembered (Trude Eipperle, Helmut Krebs, Herbert Brauer, Friederike Sailer) who nevertheless are equally memorable. As a tribute to the season, there are a number of excerpts from Puccini’s La Bohème, the first act of which which is set, of course, on Christmas Eve. If these selections alone do not bring a smile to your face and a tear to your eye, you’d do well to check your pulse! The episode begins with a tribute to the late tenor John Aler (04 October 1949 – 10 December 2022).

Episode 174. Song of Songs

December 8, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Canadian Singers, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAntoine Brumel, Benjamin Britten, Bernard Haitink, Bertus van Lier, Chanticleer, Claudio Monteverdi, Daniel Lesur, David Willcocks, Edmund Spenser, Edward Bairstow, Eleanor Steber, Elly Ameling, Emmanuel Chabrier, Eric Ericson, Ernest Ansermet, Ernest MacMillan, Francis Quarles, Gary Schneider, Giovanni Luigi da Palestrina, Herbert Elwell, Howard Mitchell, India Adams, Irene Papas, Jack Gould, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, Jennie Tourel, Jerzy Katlewicz, John Eliot Gardiner, John LaMontaine, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kate Bush, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, Lois Marshall, Lukas Foss, Martina Arroyo, New York Polyphony, Nicholas Harsanyi, Peter Pears, Philip Langridge, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ray Martin, Stephen Cleobury, Stephen Roberts, Susan May Schneider, Suzanne Danco, Sviatoslav Richter, Vangelis, Vic Mazzy, William Waltoncountermelody

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This week is a continuation of my memorial tribute to my dear friend and colleague Susan May Schneider, who died last week after a long struggle with cancer. Susan’s husband Gary, a composer and conductor, wrote a stunning song cycle for Susan using texts from the biblical Song of Songs, and this episode is bookended with their live 2000 performance of two of those songs. I supplement this with further material which all use texts based on the Song of Songs. This includes choral works by composers from Brumel and Palestrina, Walton and Bairstow to Penderecki and Daniel-Lesur; pop songs by India Adams and Kate Bush; orchestral song cycles, cantatas, and oratorios performed by Lois Marshall, Elly Ameling, Jennie Tourel, Leontyne Price, Eleanor Steber, and Suzanne Danco; and works from such surprising compositional sources as Stockhausen and Vangelis.

Episode 173. Orchesterlieder I

December 2, 2022Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mirella Freni, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Orchestral Songs, Richard Strauss, Twentieth Century MusicAlain Lombard, Alberto Ginastera, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Alphons Diepenbrock, André Caplet, André Jolivet, Andrzej Hiolski, Antal Dorati, Antoine Golea, Antonín Dvořák, Arthur Loosli, Bernard Kruysen, Bohumil Gregor, Brian Priestman, Charles Baudelaire, Charles Panzéra, Christoph von Dohnányi, Colette Herzog, Ernst Hermann Meyer, Francisco Araiza, Frank Martin, Franz Kafka, Franz Schreker, Giuseppe Martucci, Gundula Janowitz, Gwyneth Jones, Hans Effenberger, Hans Reisinger, Helen Donath, Herbert Kegel, Hermann Scherchen, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Irene Gubrud, Jan Krenz, Jean Sibelius, Kalevala, Karan Armstrong, Karl Friedrich Henckell, Kurt Sanderling, Lorin Maazel, Louis Fürnberg, Luonnotor, Mirella Freni, Ned Rorem, Nikolaus Lenau, Othmar Schoeck, Peter Schreier, Phyllis Curtin, Piero Coppola, Rabindranath Tagore, Rémy de Gourmont, Riccardo Muti, Richard Stamp, Richard Strauss, Roberto Abbado, Rocco Emanuele Pagliara, Tadeusz Baird, Theo Adam, Theo Loosli, Walt Whitman, Willem van Otterloo, William Shakespeare, Yi-Kwei Szecountermelody

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This week is the first of a series of episodes focusing on songs with orchestral accompaniment. The genre is almost a contradiction in terms: the intimacy and textual focus of art song with the sometimes strenuous vocal demands of singing over an orchestra. The most celebrated and successful of such songs (by Berlioz, Mahler, Ravel, Barber, Strauss, and others) are heard over and over on symphonic concerts when vocal soloists are the featured guests. And rightly so, for they are among the most glorious classical music written for the human voice. Typically for Countermelody, however, today’s episode, however, will focus on repertoire and composers that are less celebrated to the point of being virtually unknown. Composers heard include Frank Martin, Alexander Zemlinsky, Jean Sibelius, Giuseppe Martucci, Franz Schreker, Othmar Schoeck, Antonín Dvořák, Alberto Ginastera, Alphons Diepenbrock and the two Andrés, Jolivet and Caplet, alongside many others, performed by such favorites as Gwyneth Jones, Phyllis Curtin, Peter Schreier, Gundula Janowitz, Yi-Kwei Sze, Mirella Freni, Francisco Araiza, Elisabeth Söderström, and Bernard Kruysen. Also heard are Helen Donath and Andrzej Hiolski, singers soon to be featured on their own episodes, alongside lesser-remembered names such as Arthur Loosli, Irene Gubrud, and Colette Herzog. Conductors include Kurt Sanderling, Antal Doráti, Herbert Kegel, Bohumil Gregor, Hermann Scherchen, and Lorin Maazel. I “guarantee” that your ears will be enchanted and your musical horizons will be expanded by this episode.

Episode 172. Ned Rorem In Memoriam

November 25, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAdolph Green, Anita Darian, Ann Schein, Betty Comden, Beverly Wolff, David Triestram, Dolores Ziegler, Donal Nold, Donald Gramm, Donald Sulzen, Eugene Istomin, Frank O’Hara, Howard Moss, John Ashbery, John Stewart, Joseph Rabbai, Kurt Ollmann, Laura Aikin, Leonard Bernstein, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Martina Arroyo, Monique McDonald, Ned Rorem, Paul Goodman, Paul Monette, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Phyllis Curtin, Regina Sarfaty, Robert Louis Stevenson, Roberta Alexander, Rufus Müller, Ryan Edwards, Sandra Walker, Steven Blier, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Walt Whitman, William Penncountermelody

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Greetings to all from my former home of Manhattan! Upon landing here a week ago, I was greeted by the news of the death of Ned Rorem, the man previously known as “America’s Greatest Living Composer,” who just last month had celebrated his 99th birthday. Though he won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1976 for his orchestral work Air Music, Rorem was most celebrated for his vocal music, in particular his art songs. In this episode, I will delve into that aspect of his output, from his earliest published work to his extraordinary late masterpiece Evidence of Things Not Seen. The episode features singers who collaborated closely with the composer, including Phyllis Curtin, Donald Gramm, Beverly Wolff, Regina Sarfaty, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Kurt Ollmann, and others. Many other singers were also drawn to Rorem’s songs, including Leontyne Price, Jan DeGaetani, Martina Arroyo, and Laura Aikin, all of whom are represented here. As celebrated as a frank and forthright diarist and essayist as he was as a composer, Rorem (like his British counterpart Benjamin Britten) had extraordinary taste in the poetry and texts he chose to set. In this episode alone, we hear compositions set to words of Sylvia Plath, Paul Goodman, Walt Whitman, Paul Monette, Theodore Roethke, Frank O’Hara, and others. The episode concludes with a tribute to another musician who died earlier the same day, the American collaborative pianist David Triestram, who accompanies his dear colleague and friend Roberta Alexander in Leonard Bernstein’s poignant and timely song “Some Other Time.”

Episode 171. November Birthday Gals

November 18, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, Canadian Singers, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Operetta, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAllen Rogers, Amelita Galli-Curci, André Kostelanetz, Andre Previn, Aniara (Blomdahl), Barbara Hendricks, Béla Bartók, Beverly Wolff, Bonnie Bramlett, Bonnie Raitt, Caterina Mancini, Chi Coltrane, Delaney Bramlett, Dora Leen, Dory Langdon Previn. kd lang, Emmerich Kálmán, Emmi Varasdy, Erik Linegren, Federico García Lorca, Felix Mendelssohn, Fernando Previtali, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schreker, Genevieve Touraine, Gerald Moore, Giuseppe Verdi, Gräfin Mariza, Harawi, Harry Martinson, Heinrich Heine, Henry Bishop, Irwin Gage, Jackson Browne, Jacques Offenbach, Joan Sutherland, Joaquín Valverde, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Prine, Joni Mitchell, Julia Hamari, Karl Engel, Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Kjerstin Dellert, La battaglia di Legnano, Lawrence Foster, Leon Russell, Louis Spohr, Lucia Popp, Malcolm Martineau, Mária Basilides, Maria Stader, Marie-Madeleine Petit, Marietta Simpson, Maurice Ravel, Michèle Command, Ned Rorem, Olivier Messiaen, Pierrette Alarie, Richard Bonynge, Robert Shaw, Salvatore Cammarano, Saramae Endich, Sylvester Stewart, Theodore Roethke, Tina Turner, Victoria de los Angeles, Werner Janssen, William Walton, William Wordsworth, Yvonne Kenny, Zoltán Kodálycountermelody

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Tomorrow morning I leave for three weeks and I’ve been desperately trying to come up with topics that would be a bit easier to produce while I’m away. What could be easier than birthdays for this month and next? Well… leave it to your intrepid producer to make that as complicated as it could be. But there’s a good reason: so many exceptional singers have birthdays this month and next! In fact, November is so chock full of such artists that I decided to focus exclusively on the Birthday Girls. And what a lineup! Iconic divas like Joan Sutherland and Victoria de los Ángeles; tragically short-lived singers like Saramae Endich and the beloved Lucia Popp; forgotten artists like Kjerstin Dellert, Caterina Mancini, and Geneviève Touraine; exceptional Black artists like Barbara Hendricks and Marietta Simpson: all are represented. And let’s not forget the pop divas, both celebrated (Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt), and less well-remembered (Chi Coltrane, Bonnie Bramlett). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So lift a glass, cut a piece of Geburtstagkuchen, and tune in to Countermelody in celebration of these exceptional women! [n.b. This episode was posted before the death of Ned Rorem, who will be properly commemorated in next week’s episode.]

Episode 170. Oralia Domínguez

November 11, 2022Art Song, Bel canto, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Mirella Freni, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAida, Albert de Klerk, Alberto Zedda, Alceste, Alcina, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Antonio Vivaldi, Arrigo Boito, Camille Saint-Saens, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Claudio Monteverdi, Das Lied von der Erde, Edmundo Baez, Eugène Scribe, Euripides, Falstaff, Federico García Lorca, Felix de Nobel, Ferdinand Lemaire, Ferenc Fricsay, Gaetano Donizetti, George Frideric Handel, George van Renesse, Georges Bizet, Geraint Evans, Gioacchino Rossini, Giovanni Francesco Busenello, Giuseppe Verdi, Guido Picco, Gustav Mahler, Hans Bethge, Henri Meilhac, Irène Aïtoff, Jean Fournet, Jean Martinon, Joan Sutherland, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, József Simándy, Juditha triumphans, Jules Massenet, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La favorita, La favorite, La Gioconda, Lamberto Gardelli, Li-Tai-Po, Ludovic Halévy, Ludovico Ariosti, Maria Callas, Martina Arroyo, Mirella Freni, Monica Sinclair, Nelly Wagenaar, Nicola Rescigno, Oliviero de Fabritiis, Oralia Dominguez, Paul Kletzki, Petite messe solennelle, Prosper Mérimée, Ranieri de’ Calzabigi, Raymond Leppard, Richard Kraus, Salvador Moreno, Samson et Dalila, Silvestre Revueltas, Victor Hugo, Vittorio Gui, Werther, William Shakespearecountermelody

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Earlier this year, in an episode entitled “Women of Color Sing Mahler,” I provided many of my listeners to their first exposure to the Mexican contralto Oralia Domínguez (25 October 1925 – 25 November 2013). Domínguez is famed for her collaborations with such musical giants as Maria Callas and Herbert von Karajan, but on her own terms, she ranks alongside those monumental true contraltos like Marian Anderson and Kathleen Ferrier. Though there is no question that she was underrecorded, she left a handful of classic commercial recordings, and a plethora of recorded live performances which an artist both technically grounded and fearless in expression, one whose legato singing exuded repose just as her phenomenal coloratura singing generates genuine excitement. I cannot say enough about this artist, who has rapidly become one of my very favorites! The episode features Domínguez in a wide range of material, from Monteverdi, Handel, and Vivaldi to the meat and potatoes roles in the standard operatic repertoire (Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Ponchielli, Saint-Saëns, Massenet) as well as less familiar fare by Michael Tippett and Mexican composers Silvestre Revueltas and Salvador Moreno. Along the way our Earth Goddess is joined by fellow singers Joan Sutherland, Martina Arroyo, Mirella Freni, József Simándy, Monica Sinclair, and, of course, Maria Callas. A bonus episode published concurrently on Patreon presents Domínguez in extended operatic scenes and further rare song material.

Episode 169. Grace Bumbry

November 4, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Crossover, French Opera, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers of Color, VerismoAlexander Schmalcz, Amilcare Ponchielli, Andrea Maffei, Andrew White, Beaumont Glass, Berislav Klobučar, Detlev von Liliencron, Francesco Maria Piave, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Rückert, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami, Giuseppe Verdi, Grace Bumbry, Gustave Charpentier, Hector Berlioz, Helmut Deutsch, Hermann Allmers, Jacques Revaux, Johann Gabriel Seidl, Johann Jacobi, Johann Mayrhofer, Johannes Brahms, John Fiore, Jules Massenet, Julius Mosen, Kenneth Collins, La Gioconda, Leonard Hokanson, Les nuits d’été, Macbeth, Michelangelo Veltri, Nabucco, Norman Bailey, Norman Newell, Oscar Wilde, Paul Anka, Renato Simoni, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Roger Webb, Salome, Shirley Verrett, Spirituals, Stefan Soltesz, Temistocle Solera, Théophile Gautier, Turandot, Umberto Balsamo, Victor Hugo, William Shakespearecountermelody

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Though the great diva Grace Bumbry has often been featured on Countermelody, I have not yet done a full episode on this incomparable artist. Today’s episode seeks to remedy that, and to celebrate a singer whose contribution and influence extends back many decades and continues to this very day. Normally when I consider an artist so well-renowned, I try to offer a perspective that sheds different light on that singer. So today’s Bumbry celebration considers three aspects of her artistry that have received somewhat less attention. While her successes in a wide range of mezzo soprano repertoire are well-known and well-documented, her soprano assumptions have been somewhat more controversial. I highlight numerous scenes and arias, including from Macbeth, Salome, Turandot, and Nabucco, in both live and studio performances, that shed light on the enormous prowess and fearlessness with which she confronted these roles. Alongside such larger-than-life impersonations are Bumbry’s intimate and detailed performances as a Lieder singer, a tribute to her training under that matchless singer and teacher Lotte Lehmann, with whom Bumbry studied at the Music Academy of the West. Recordings of art song by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss, Liszt, and Berlioz, made over the course of 45 years are also a testament to Bumbry’s vocal longevity and technical prowess. In recent years, Grace Bumbry has devoted her time to the care, nurturing, and training of young singers under the aegis of a program she has named “The Bumbry Way.” The episode closes with a definitive performance of the song “My Way,” which incorporates and encapsulates all the colors of this extraordinary singer in all her fearlessness, self-assurance, determination, vulnerability, and strength. Evviva “The Bumbry Way!”

Episode 168. The Haunted (Opera) House

October 28, 2022African American Singers, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAldous Huxley, Alejo Pérez, Anna Moffo, Antonín Dvořák, Benjamin Britten Henry James, Bernard Ładysz, Bohumil Gregor, Božena Němcová, Charles Bruck, Charles de Coster, Charles Wilson, Chester Kallman, Claudio Guastalla, Der Schmied von Gent, Die Teufel von Loudun, Doktor Faust, Emanuel Balaban, Eugene Conley, Ferruccio Busoni, Francesco Molinar-Pradelli, Franz Schreker, George Shirley, Gian Carlo Menotti, Hans Sotin, Hans Wiers-Jenssen, Hilde Güden, Horst Wilhelm, Igor Stravinsky, James Levine, Jane Rhodes, Jaroslav Kvapil, Jascha Horenstein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Corigliano, Karel Jaromír Erben, Krzysztof Penderecki, La Fiamma (Respighi), Leigh Melrose, Mack Harrell, Mara Coleva, Maralin Niska, Marek Janowski, Marie Powers, Myfanwy Piper, Ottorino Respighi, Pierre Beaumarchais, Rusalka (Dvořák). Gwendolyn Killebrew, Serge Prokofiev, Tatiana Troyanos, Teresa Stratas, The Fiery Angel, The Ghosts of Versailles, The Medium (Menotti), The Rake’s Progress, The Turn of the Screw (Britten), uvu Mpofu, Valery Bryusov, W.H. Auden, William M. Hoffman, Xavier Deprazcountermelody

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This week’s episode celebrates Halloween while at the same time initiating my new ongoing series on Twentieth Century Opera. From Dvořák’s Rusalka, premiered in Prague in 1901, through Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, premiered in New York in 1991, there is a wealth of operatic material, some barely remembered today, that touches upon various aspects of the occult, be that witches, devils, exorcisms, demonic possessions, or those that conjure the dead. Alongside the aforementioned works, this episode also features work by Benjamin Britten, Gian Carlo Menotti, Igor Stravinsky, Ferruccio Busoni, Franz Schreker, Serge Prokofiev, Ottorino Respighi, and Krzysztof Penderecki, performed by Teresa Stratas. Tatiana Troyanos, George Shirley, Anna Moffo, Mack Harrell, Maralin Niska, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Jane Rhodes, and others in performances recorded between 1949 and… nearly yesterday. Some of it is folksy, some humorous, some creepy, some horrific, but it is peopled by characters that either haunt or are haunted.

Episode 166. Dan’s Picks

October 14, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, Broadway, Canadian Singers, Eileen Farrell, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Margaret Price, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Renata Scotto, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers of Color, Sylvia Sass, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAdele Addison, Adolphe Adam, Adriana Lecouvreur, Alexander Kipnis, Alfredo Catalani, Angela Lansbury, Aribert Reimann, Arturo Basile, Brigitte Fassbaender, Carl Maria von Weber, Carlo Sabajno, Charles Gounod, Der Freischütz, Die Ägyptische Helena, Donald Pippin, Edwin McArthur, Elisabeth Rethberg, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Ferdinand Leitner, Francesco Cilea, Frank Bibb, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, Georges Pretre, Georges Thill, Gerard Souzay, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Giovanni Battista Bassani, Giuseppe Verdi, Gundula Janowitz, Heinrich Heine, Hina Spani, Hugo von Hoffmansthal, I Puritani, Il Trovatore, Jacqueline Bonneau, James Lockhart, Jephtha (Handel), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Brahms, Kirsten Flagstad, Klaus Groth, Kurt Weill, La Wally (Catalani), Lamberto Gardelli, Le Postillon de Longjumeau, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, Lodoletta (Mascagni), Ludwig Rellstab, Malcolm Sargent, Margaret Price, Maria Callas, Nicolai Gedda, Oliviero de Fabritiis, Oralia Dominguez, Paul Badura-Skoda, Pietro Mascagni, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Renata Scotto, Richard Lewis, Richard Strauss, Richard Woitach, Roméo et Juliette, Sylvia Sass, Teresa Stratas, Vincenzo Bellini, Walter Mehring, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This week I celebrated my birthday, so today is the second of this month’s birthday celebrations. A number of my listeners have been asking me for a while to post an episode featuring my favorite singers and recordings. So here it is! We lead off with a brief memorial tribute to Angela Lansbury, who died in the early California morning of my birthday. The rest of the episode features many recordings that I first got to know as I began exploring the world of great singing on records. Leontyne Price, Maria Callas, Alexander Kipnis, Elisabeth Söderström, Richard Lewis, Renata Scotto, Adele Addison, Gundula Janowitz, Margaret Price, Teresa Stratas, Gérard Souzay: all of these artists were formative figures in my early listening experience. My appreciation of some others came later: Hina Spani, Brigitte Fassbaender, Georges Thill, Sylvia Sass, Nicolai Gedda, Kirsten Flagstad. By this late date, all of them have been favorite artists of mine for decades and are represented on the episode by some of their greatest recordings. The episode concludes with a brief tribute to the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams on the occasion of his 150th birthday, also celebrated this week.

P.S. Two years ago I did another Happy Birthday To Me episode, which featured performances by some of my favorite pop divas. The episode can be found for a limited time at the top of my LinkTree chain.

Episode 164. Mabel Mercer (Season Four Premiere)

September 30, 2022African American Singers, Broadway, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAda “Bricktop” Smith, Adolph Green, Alec Wilder, Anne Caldwell, Austin C. Johnson, Betty Comden, Buddy Barnes, Carolyn Leigh, Clarence Moore, Cole Porter, Cy Coleman, Cy Walter, Du Bose Heyward, Edward Heyman, George Cory, George Gershwin, Harvey Schmidt, Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Jerry Herman, Jimmy Lyon, Joe McCarthy, Johnny Green, Julie Wilson, Kaye Ballard, Leonard Bernstein, Loonis McGlohon, Lorenz Hart, Mabel Mercer, Madame Spivy, Marie Lloyd, Marilyn and Alan Bergman, Marvin Hamlisch, Oscar Levant, Paul Simon, Ralph Burns, Ray Mayer, Richard Rodgers, Sam Hamilton, Skip Redwine, Spivy, Tom Jones, W.C. Handy, Willard Robison, William Engvick, William Roycountermelody

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Welcome to Season Four of Countermelody! My long-time listeners know a few things things about the podcast. First, the most important quality in a singer is not voice, but communicative skills. Second, I have posted episodes in the past on singers that I dub “voiceless wonders,” artists whose primary virtue is exactly that ability to convey the meaning of the words. Third, though the music I play is primarily opera and so-called classical music, I often explore genres that move outside of those boundaries. Fourth, from the very beginning of my podcasting career, I have made it a point to highlight the careers of artists of color as well as queer artists. Throughout this season of the podcast, I will also be focusing on great singers in their later years. All these aspects are in evidence in today’s subject: Mabel Mercer (1900-1984), the doyenne of cabaret. Born to a teenage mother of Welsh heritage whose father was an itinerant African American musician, Mercer first pursued a career in British music hall. From there, she made her way to Paris, where she soon became a fixture at a nightclub run by her pal Bricktop (AKA Ada Smith). As WWII loomed on the horizon, she made her way, with the help of her friend (and possible lover) the wealthy and eccentric lesbian Joe Carstairs, to New York, where she soon established herself at the pinnacle of cabaret culture by virtue of her impeccable diction, intimacy of delivery, sense of story-telling, and unbounded repertoire of upwards of a thousand songs. Most of Mercer’s recordings represent the artist well into her middle age, when her once beautiful soprano voice had become little more than a croak. And yet, perched regally on a chair at the Café Carlyle and other nightclub venues, she gave definitive performances of nearly every song she touched. The episode offers a hint of the interpretive depth displayed in repertoire ranging from the traditional Great American Songbook (especially the songs of Cole Porter) through Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. Guest artists heard include Kaye Ballard, Bobby Short, and Julie Wilson, as well as Bricktop and Madame Spivy, both nightclub hostesses and close friends of Mercer’s who were celebrated performers themselves.

Episode 163. Season Four Preview

September 23, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Great Baritones, Gustav Mahler, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Verismo, Voiceless WondersAbe Polakoff, Albert Willemetz, Alec Wilder, Alfred Heller, André Girard, André Jolivet, André Mauprey, André Messager, Andrée Esposito, Andrzej Hiolski, Anna Moffo, Arnold Sundgaard, Carl Tillius, Carol Litvin, Carol Neblett, Das Land des Lächelns, Denise Duval, Don Costa, Donal Nold, Doru Popovici, Eduard Mörike, Eleanor Steber, Enrico DiGiuseppe, Ernst Kozub, Federico García Lorca, Franz Lehár, Franz Schreker, Frasquita (Lehár), Fritz Jahoda, Gabriel Bacquier, Gerald Moore, Gerard Souzay, Gertrude Grob-Prandl, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Giacomo Puccini, Gilda Cruz-Romo, Gustav Mahler, Hans Willi Häusslein, Heinrich Isaac, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Helen Donath, Helena Christenko, Henry Wright, Hermann Scherchen, Hugo Wolf, Hugues Cuenod, Igor Kipnis, Jacques Leguerney, Jean Laforge, Jean Marietti, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, Joaquín Nin, Joel Cohen, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Judith Raskin, Julius Rudel, Kurt Ollmann, La Boheme, La Fanciulla del West, Louis Emié, Manuel Rosenthal, Marina Krilovici, Martina Arroyo, Mary Dibbern, Max Lichtegg, Meinhard von Zallinger, Michael Devlin, Milton Kaye, Nicolai Gedda, Oskar Merikanto, Pierre de Ronsard, Raymond Chevreux, Richard Volkmann, Robert Massard, Robert Schumann, Roberta Alexander, Sammy Davis Jr., Shannon Bolin, Sonny Curtis, Viktor Sund, Walt Whitman, William Ledbettercountermelody

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Today Countermelody is in limbo: balanced between Seasons Three and Four. Over the past few months I’ve been planning the course of the upcoming season and this episode consists of musical tidbits (bocconcini, if you will) of some of the singers and themed series that I am planning for Season Four. Included are retrospectives of singers Judith Raskin, Roberta Alexander, Sammy Davis, Jr., Helen Donath, Hugues Cuénod, Anna Moffo, Denise Duval, and Nicolai Gedda, all of whom are “sampled” today. I’m also planning programs on; “Great Singers We’ve Never Heard Of;” the music of Alec Wilder; the Black male singer as European émigré; “Behind the Iron Curtain;” explorations of both Orchestral Songs and Rare Twentieth-Century Operas; and “Great Singers in Old Age;” as well as, naturally, a closer examination of many of those New York City Opera divas to whom I provided an introduction last week. The new season will also be more interactive, with livestream interviews planned with various fascinating (and legendary!) figures in the world of opera and classical music. Thanks to all for your continued support, friendship, and listenership; see you next week for the debut of Season Four of Countermelody!

Episode 162. NYCO Divas: An Introduction

September 16, 2022African American Singers, Bel canto, Broadway, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Opera in Translation, Richard Strauss, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAlexander Borodin, Anne Elgar, Anton Guadagno, Ariadne auf Naxos, Arthur Miller, Benvenuto Cellini, Beverly Sills, Brenda Lewis, Camilla Williams, Carlisle Floyd, Carol Brice, Carol Neblett, Charles Gounod, Charles Wilson, Christopher Keene, Douglas Moore, Ellen Faull, Emerson Buckley, Faust, Frances Bible, Gustav Meier, Hector Berlioz, Herbert Beattie, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Jack Beeson, Johanna Meier, John LaTouche, Jules Massenet, Julius Rudel, Kenward Elmslie, Laszlo Halasz, Lillian Hellman, Lizzie Borden (Beeson and Elmslie), Lydia Ibarrondo, Manon, Maralin Niska, Marc Blitzstein, New York City Opera, Olivia Stapp, Patricia Brooks, Patricia Wells, Patricia Wise, Phyllis Curtin, Prince Igor, Regina, Richard Strauss, Robert Ward, Samuel Krachmalnick, Sarah Caldwell, Susannah, The Ballad of Baby Doe, The Crucible, Veronica Tyler, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Today is the final regular episode of Season Three of Countermelody, as well as the last of my summer series documenting musical life in New York City during the years 1950 through 1975. I am thrilled to start what I hope will be an occasional series of episodes that will drop throughout Season Four, which begins in two weeks. I present to you a small sampling of the extraordinary singing actors that peopled the stage of New York City Opera during the years in question. The most famous of these, of course, is Beverly Sills, and she is aptly represented in her most radiant early prime. But there are many other singers as well, including African American divas Carol Brice and Veronica Tyler, preceded by Camilla Williams (the first Black singer to be awarded a standing contract with a major US opera company… in 1946!). City Opera was celebrated for presenting an absolute slew of new American work in its heyday, and we hear works by Carlilse Floyd, Robert Ward, Douglas Moore, Marc Blitzstein, and Jack Beeson in performances by Phyllis Curtin, Frances Bible, Brenda Lewis, and Ellen Faull. Other divas strutting their stuff include Olivia Stapp, Johanna Meier, and the three mesdames Patricia: Brooks, Wells, and Wise. The episode is capped by some of the rarest live recordings from the stage of City Opera by three singers who made their mark during their heyday, and would be the biggest stars in the world were they singing today: Gilda Cruz-Romo, Maralin Niska, and Carol Neblett, all of whom will be featured in her own episode during Countermelody’s upcoming season. A fitting way to end Season Three, as well as a harbinger of vocal delights to come! (Next week will be a preview of the upcoming season!)

Episode 161. Janet Baker: Subject of the Queen

September 9, 2022Art Song, Bel canto, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Schubert, Twentieth Century MusicAlceste, Alexander Gibson, Benjamin Britten, Charles Mackerras, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Franz Schubert, Gaetano Donizetti, Gloriana (Britten), Hector Berlioz, Henry Purcell, Ivor Gurney, Janet Baker, Joan Cross, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Pritchard, La Mort de Cléopâtre, Maria Stuarda, Martin Isepp, Matthäus von Collin, Neville Marriner, Paul Hamburger, Pauline Tinsley, Raymond Leppard, William Plomercountermelody

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The world changed yesterday with the death of Queen Elizabeth II, whose subjects in the United Kingdom just this summer celebrated the 70th year of her reign. How do I, as a progressive (and non-British) person, neither a royalist nor an imperialist, commemorate her passing with the respect that she deserves? I found my answer, as I so often do in other of life’s conundrums, in the artistry of Janet Baker, who celebrated her 89th birthday on 17 August, and who, in her day was often known as “the English Rose.” There is something about Baker’s artistic personality: her nobility of utterance, her gravitas, her humanity, that made her a particularly striking interpreter of various queens in the operatic literature, from Alceste and Dido to Mary Stuart. And because, from the time of her Carnegie Hall debut in 1966 until her final appearance there in 1989, seven years after her official retirement from the operatic scene, she was a fixture of the New York concert scene, she also fits quite comfortably into the framework of this summer’s celebration of musical life in New York between the years 1950 and 1975. Her towering operatic performances of roles by Gluck, Donizetti, Berlioz, and Purcell, are balanced with her profoundly moving performances of music by Bach, Gurney, and Schubert. Queen Elizabeth II is further memorialized by an excerpt from the world premiere performance of Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana, composed for, and premiered six days after, her coronation in 1953.

Episode 160. Donald Gramm

September 2, 2022Art Song, Bel canto, Broadway, Comic Relief, Crossover, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century MusicAchim von Arnim, Arnold Schoenberg, Carmen, Clemens Brentano, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Donald Gramm, Donald Hassard, Douglas Moore, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Eugene Istomin, Friedrich Schiller, Fritz Reiner, George Frideric Handel, George Shirley, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, Giuseppe Verdi, Igor Stravinvsky, Il barbiere di Siviglia, John Duke, Julius Rudel, Loren Driscoll, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ned Rorem, Oscar Hammerstein II, Paul Bowles, Paul Verlaine, Richard Cumming, Richard Rodgers, Robert Craft, Roger Sessions, Sarah Caldwell, South Pacific, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Sherman, Tosca, Walt Whitman, William Murphy, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Dear ones, I present to you today the extraordinarily versatile bass-baritone and my fellow native Milwaukeean Donald Gramm (1927-1983), one of the central house singers at both the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera from the 1960s through his premature death at the age of 56. Gifted with an intrinsically beautiful voice, an impeccable technique and an expansive range, he also was a crackerjack musician whose repertoire easily encompassed musical styles from florid Baroque music through the thorniest contemporary idioms. He is probably best celebrated these days for his commitment to American art, and this episode features him singing songs by Ned Rorem, John Duke, Richard Cummings, Douglas Moore, and Paul Bowles, with a particular emphasis on texts by Walt Whitman. What is perhaps less well-remembered today is how versatile an opera singer he was, singing roles from Osmin to Scarpia, with a strong emphasis on both bel canto and buffo roles by Rossini and Donizetti. The episode also explores his collaborations with Igor Stravinsky, Glenn Gould, and, perhaps most significantly, Sarah Caldwell, another important musical figure from that era who is strongly deserving of reappraisal.

Episode 159. Forgotten Broadway II

August 26, 2022African American Singers, Broadway, Canadian Singers, Comic Relief, Crossover, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAlan Jay Lerner, Anton Coppola, Anyone Can Whistle, Cesare Siepi, Charles Strouse, Clay Warnick, Cy Coleman, David Atkinson, David Opatoshu, Dick Hyman, Dody Goodman, Donald Gramm, Dorothy Fields, Elaine Stritch, Ethel Ennis, Ezio Pinza, Fred Ebb, Frederick Loewe, Gary Geld, George Siravo, Hal Hackady, Harold Hastings, Harold Rome, Harry Guardino, Harry Pleva, Harvey Schmidt, Herbert Greene, Jack Cassidy, James Stenborg, Jane Powell, Jean Kerr, Jerry Herman, Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Van Heuse, Joan Ford, John Kander, Johnny Burke, Johnny Green, Joyce Brown, Lanny Meyers, Larry Grossman, Larry Kert, Lee Adams, Lee Remick, Lehman Engel, Leo Robin, Leonard Bernstein, Leroy Anderson, Linda Lavin, Louie Bellson, Mary Rodgers, Me and Juliet (Rodgers & Hammerstein), Melba Moore, Milton Kaye, Milton Schafer, Minnie’s Boys, Ogden Nash, Oscar Hammerstein II, Oscar Kosarin, Pat Suzuki, Pearl Bailey, Peter Udell, Rebecca Luker, Richard Rodgers, Richard Weiss, Rita Gardner, Robert Goulet, Rod Derefinko, Ron Raines, Ronny Graham, Sam Pottle, Sarah Fleming, Shannon Bolin, Sigmund Romberg, Skitch Henderson, Stephen Sondheim, Susan Johnson, Sylvan Levin, Sylvia Syms, Ted Thursday, Tom Jones, Vernon Duke, Walter Kerr, Walter Marks, William Raycountermelody

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The follow-up episode to my previous Forgotten Broadway episode is an epic one, chock full of fascinating composers, lyricists, performers and shows. We begin with a tribute to birthday boy Leonard Bernstein, a song from Peter Pan sung by gay Broadway icon Larry Kert. From there we encounter shows by Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kander and Ebb, Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields, Strouse and Adams, Jerry Herman, Stephen Sondheim, Schmidt and Jones, Vernon Duke, Mary Rodgers, Sigmund Romberg, Harold Rome and Leroy Anderson, among others, performed by Jane Powell, Pat Suzuki, Melba Moore, Rita Gardner, Jack Cassidy, Rebecca Luker, Cesare Siepi, Susan Johnson, Dody Goodman, Pearl Bailey, Ezio Pinza, Elaine Stritch, Shannon Bolin, and others. Diverse topics discussed include the Broadway revue, queer subjects and performers, and the place of performers of color on Broadway. This is a long episode that I recommend listening to in segments! And please be aware that an equally mammoth third segment on Forgotten Broadway will be published this weekend for my Patreon supporters!

Episode 158. Russell Oberlin

August 19, 2022Art Song, Full-Figured Baroque, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century MusicA Midsummer Night’s Dream, Alexander Schneider, Alfonso el Sabio, Alfred Deller, Alice Parker, Anthony Lewis, Benjamin Britten, Bernard Krainis, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Charles Bressler, Claudio Monteverdi, countertenor, Daniel Arnault, Denis Stevens, Douglas Williams, François Couperin, Georg Solti, George Frideric Handel, Godric of Finchale, Henry Purcell, Hugo Wolf, Italienisches Liederbuch, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Blow, John Dowland, John Dunstable, John Ferrante, Joseph Iadone, Leonard Bernstein, Ludus Danielis, Martha Blackman, New York Pro Musica, Noah Greenberg, Paul Maynard, PDQ Bach, Peter Schickele, Robert Shaw, Russell Oberlin, Seymour Barab, St. Godric, Stoddard Lincoln, The Play of Daniel, Thomas Dunn, Troubador songs, William Byrdcountermelody

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Hearing the voice of countertenor Russell Oberlin (1928 – 2016) as a soloist with the Robert Shaw Chorale was one of the formative experiences of my early life. I doubt that I would ever have become a countertenor myself had it not been for that beacon of a voice as my shining ideal and example. Many years after his early retirement from singing he extended kindness and generosity to me in a way that has always remained with me. Since I have begun the podcast and with rare exceptions, I generally shy away from discussing other countertenors. Today I break my silence on the topic to present to you the greatest countertenor of them all in all his uniqueness. From his early days as a founding member of the New York Pro Musica and his series of medieval and renaissance music, through his electrifying stage appearances as Oberon in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, through his standard-setting appearances in Handel and his unexpected but charming expertise as a singer of art song and reciter of poetry: all these aspects of Oberlin’s versatility and artistry are herein represented. A special vocal guest is the tenor Charles Bressler (1926 – 1996), like Oberon a founding member of the New York Pro Musica, who is heard in four duets with Oberlin. Perhaps Oberlin’s greatest achievement lies in the simplicity and nobility of his performances of the music of Henry Purcell, who is also well-represented here. This episode is a must for all lovers of great singing in general and specifically for all who want to hear what well-equalized, technically balanced and secure countertenor singing sounds like.

Episode 157. Forgotten Broadway I

August 12, 2022African American Singers, Broadway, Comic Relief, Crossover, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAdolph Green, Alan Bergman, Alfred Drake, Alice Playten, Angela Lansbury, Anton Coppola, Barbara Cook, Barbra Streisand, Beatrice Arthur, Ben Bagley, Betty Comden, Bob Merrill, Broadway, Bruce Coughlin, Buster Davis, Claibe Richardson, Daniel Gundlach, Dear World, Do I Hear a Waltz, Dolores Gray, Don Costa, Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope, Donald Pippin, Dorothea Freitag, Drat the Cat, Elisse Boyd, Ervin Drake, Ethel Merman, Flahooley, Fran Landesman, Fred Werner, Frederick Dvonch, Funny Girl, George Forrest, Happy Hunting, Harold Karr, Herbert Greene, High Spirits, Ira Levin, Jay Blackton, Jerry Herman, Jimmy Jones, John Alban Coughlan, John Williams, Jule Styne, June Carroll, Kenward Elmslie, Lehman Engel, Leslie Uggams, Lloyd Arriola, Marilyn Bergman, Matt Dubey, Maurice Levin, Micki Grant, Milton Schafer, Mimi Hines, Moises Vivanco, Murray Grand, musicals, Nancy Wilson, Peter Matz, Richard Marx, Richard Rodgers, Robert Wright, Roslyn Kind, Sally Ann Howes, Sergio Franchi, Sheldon Harnick, Shepard Coleman, Stephen Sondheim, Tammy Grimes, The Nervous Set, Tommy Wolf, Two on the Aisle, Yma Sumaccountermelody

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Today I begin Forgotten Broadway, a new miniseries within my summer series “Musical Life in New York City 1950-1975.” This wildly eclectic (some might say chaotic) program, the first of three, concerns itself with several different aspects of “forgotten” Broadway: forgotten songs, forgotten shows, and forgotten performers; as well as all imaginable combinations of the above. For instance, many might not remember the show Drat! the Cat! but will remember quite well the song “He [originally She] Touched Me.” Everyone remembers Ethel Merman and Angela Lansbury, but I would bet that fewer remember their less successful shows Happy Hunting and Dear World. This episode includes songs by Richard Rodgers, Jule Styne, Bob Merrill, Wright and Forrest, and Comden and Green, as well as lesser known composers and lyricists such as Claibe Richardson, Bill and Patti Jacob, and Ervin Drake, sung by such stalwarts as Leslie Uggams, Barbara Cook, Alfred Drake, and Barbra Streisand, as well as such blazing (but less remembered figures) such as Alice Playten, Dolores Gray, Mimi Hines, and June Carroll. Such recently departed figures as Micki Grant, Kenward Elmslie, Sally Ann Howes, and Donald Pippin also receive airplay. Part II will be published in two weeks, and Part III will soon be available as a bonus episode for my Patreon subscribers.

Episode 156. Barely Sang at the Met II

August 5, 2022Bel canto, Canadian Singers, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAlban Berg, Alberto Remedios, Alexander Gibson, Alfredo Catalani, Anne Howells, Arrigo Boito, Artur Rodzinski, Carlo Felice Cillario, Charles Bruck, Christel Goltz, Cosi fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Don Giovanni, Eberhard Wächter, Elektra (Strauss), Emanuel, Erna Schlüter, Frank Wedekind, Fromental Halévy, Gabriele d’Annunzio, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Giuseppe Patanè, Giuseppe Verdi, Herbert Häfner, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, I Masnadieri, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Ilona Steingruber, Jane Rhodes, Jean Bobescu, Joan Carden, Jorma Hynninen, Josef Greindl, Josephine Veasey, Jules Massenet, Kurt Herbert Adler, La forza del destino, Leopold Ludwig, Lorenzo da Ponte, Ludovic Spiess, Luisa Malagrida, Lulu (Berg), Manon (Massenet), Margherita Roberti, Maria Chiara, Marina Krilovici, Metropolitan Opera, Montserrat Caballé, Norma (Bellini), Okko Kamu, Oscar Wilde, Otello, Otto Wiener, Pekka Nuotio, Peter Maag, Ramón Vinay, Richard Verreau, Richard Wagner, Rudolf Moralt, Salome (Strauss), Schikaneder, Sergei Prokofiev, Shirley Verrett, Stafford Dean, Tannhäuser, The Fiery Angel (Prokofiev), Thomas Beecham, Tristan und Isolde, Vincenzo Bellini, Walburga Wegner, Wilfrid Pelletier, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This week is the conclusion of my presentation on world-class singers who made a minimal number of appearances at the Metropolitan Opera. My arbitrary parameters for this episode were singers who appeared (approximately) between the years 1950 and 1975 and sang fewer than ten performances in total at that venerable institution. Among the artists featured are the British singers Josephine Veasey and Anne Howells (both of whom we lost earlier this year), as well as Stafford Dean and Alberto Remedios; the French-Canadian tenors Léopold Simoneau and Richard Verreau; the Romanians Ludovic Spiess and Marina Krilovici; the US-American dramatic coloratura Margherita Roberti; the Australian super-soprano Joan Carden; the Italian sopranos Maria Chiara and Luisa Malagrida; the French falcon Jane Rhodes; the Austrians Eberhard Wächter and Otto Wiener; the Finnish heldentenor Pekka Nuotio; and the Germans Josef Greindl, Walburga Wegner, Erna Schlüter and Christel Goltz. Met stalwarts Monserrat Caballé, Shirley Verrett, Ramón Vinay, and Jorma Hynninen are featured as vocal guest stars; conductors include such greats as Dimitri Mitroupoulos, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Thomas Beecham, Carlo Felice Cillario, and Arthur Rodziński..

Episode 155. Barely Sang at the Met I

July 28, 2022African American Singers, Behind the Iron Curtain, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAida, Alexander Melik-Pashaev, Argeo Quadri, Arlene Saunders, Carl Maria von Weber, Charles Mackerras, Chester Kallman, Der Freischütz, Der Rosenkavalier, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Don Carlo, Eleanor Steber, Elisabeth Grümmer, Felicia Weathers, Ferdinand Leitner, Friedrich Schiller, Galina Vishnevskaya, Giacomo Puccini, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Giuseppe Verdi, Gundula Janowitz, Hugo van Hoffmansthal, Idomeneo, Igor Stravinsky, Irmgard Seefried, John Barbirolli, John Pritchard, Joseph Keilberth, Julia Varady, La Fanciulla del West, La Traviata, Leopold Ludwig, Martha Mödl, Metropolitan Opera, Nancy Evans, Nello Santi, Oskar Czerwenka, Pavel Lisitsian, Piero Cappuccilli, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, The Rake’s Progress, Thomas Schippers, Tristan und Isolde, Virginia Zeani, W.H. Auden, William McAlpine, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Wolfgang Windgassen, Wolgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Today’s brain teaser: What do world-class singers Irmgard Seefried, Virginia Zeani, Piero Cappuccilli, birthday girl Gundula Janowitz, Galina Vishnevskaya, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Felicia Weathers, Elisabeth Grümmer, Wolfgang Windgassen, Pavel Lisitsian, and Arlene Saunders, have in common? If you need a hint, it’s in the title of today’s episode: each of them sang at least one and not more than ten performances at that venerable institution, the Metropolitan Opera. These and a number of other artists will be featured on this week’s episode, to be followed by more world-class artists who, for one reason or another (though certainly not talent, skill, or ability) “barely sang at the Met.” We hear music of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Stravinsky, Wagner, Puccini, and Weber, led by conductors who either were fixtures at the Met (Thomas Schippers, Nello Santi, Dimitri Mitropoulos), appeared occasionally at the Met (Leopold Ludwig, Charles Mackerras), or never appeared there (Wolfgang Sawallisch, Ferdinand Leitner, Joseph Keilberth) or appeared there only once (John Barbirolli, who led a single gala concert there in 1940).

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 support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus cotent including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.

Episode 154. Adele Addison @ 97

July 22, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Crossover, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersA.E. Housman, Aaron Copland, Adele Addison, Albert da Costa, Andre Previn, Arthur Rimbaud, Benjamin Lees, Brooks Smith, Canterbury Tales, Celius Dougherty, Charles Munch, Claude Debussy, Dawn Upshaw, DuBose Heyward, Earl Kim, Emily Dickinson, Francis Poulenc, Frederic Waldman, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Frideric Handel, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Leonard Bernstein, Lester Trimble, Lukas Foss, Milton Katims, Paul Verlaine, Porgy and Bess, Povla Frijsh, Robert Conant, Robert McFerrin, Robert Shaw, Samuel Beckett, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Walt Whitman, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This Sunday, 24 July 2022, the great African American lyric soprano Adele Addison observes her 97th birthday. This Countermelody tribute presents this great artist in live and studio recordings during the glory years of her career, including performances conducted by three of her most important conductor collaborators, Robert Shaw, Charles Munch, and Leonard Bernstein. Addison might be best remembered today as providing the ghost voice for Dorothy Dandridge in Otto Preminger’s controversial 1959 film of Porgy and Bess, but her greatest artistic achievement undoubtedly centers on her concert and recital work. Among countless world premieres in which she participated, the most significant was probably the Gloria of Francis Poulenc, first heard in Boston in January 1961. Other contemporary composers represented in this episode are Aaron Copland, Lester Trimble, Lukas Foss, and Benjamin Lees; Addison’s exceptional performances of Handel, Bach, Mozart, and Debussy are also featured. Vocal guest stars include Robert McFerrin, with whom she duets in an excerpt from Porgy; the eminent recitalist Povla Frijsh, who was her voice teacher and coach; and Dawn Upshaw, probably her most renowned student. Please join me in celebrating the long life and legacy of this exceptional artist and teacher.

Episode 153. Eleanor Steber I

July 15, 2022Bel canto, Broadway, Crossover, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Interview, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Twentieth Century MusicAlban Berg, Alexandre Dumas, Arabella, Astrid Varnay, Cosi fan tutte, David Belasco, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Edwin Biltcliffe, Eleanor Steber, Enzo Viaro, Eric Coates, Ernani, Fausto Cleva, Frederick Weatherly, Fritz Busch, Fritz Stiedry, Georg Büchner, George London, Giuseppe Antonicelli, Giuseppe di Stefano, Howard Barlow, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, I Puritani, Il Trovatore, James A. Bland, James Agee, Jean Madeira, Joseph Keilberth, Jussi Bjorling, Karl Böhm, La Fanciulla del West, La Traviata, Lohengrin, Madama Butterfly, Mario del Monaco, Max Rudolf, Naughty Marietta, Nicholas Harsanyi, Percy Faith, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Risë Stevens, Royden Barrie, Rudolf Kempe, Samuel Barber, Victor Herbert, Victor Hugo, Vincenzo Bellini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wozzeckcountermelody

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July 17 is the 108th birthday of Eleanor Steber, surely one of the all-time greatest singers that the United States has ever produced (as well as one of the most versatile and technically-accomplished!) In long overdue Countermelody tribute to this exceptional artist, I present the first of two very special episodes honoring Eleanor. After the “usual” career overview featuring mostly live highlights from her operatic appearances all over the world, I turn the stage (or in this case the mic), over to my dear friend Michelle Oesterle, founder and conductor of the Manhattan Girls Chorus, who was also Eleanor Steber’s stepdaughter. As such she spent time (especially in the summer months) with her father and Eleanor at Melody Hill, Eleanor’s estate on Long Island. She provides us with an unparalleled intimate portrait of Eleanor as woman and as singer and describes the profound influence that Eleanor had in her life, as well as the characteristics that combined to make her the profoundly appealing and moving interpreter that she was. She also addresses the white elephant in the room, that is, Eleanor’s alcoholism, and makes a plea for tolerance and understanding vis-à-vis this serious disease. The Steber tribute will continue with a further episode sometime in the next month. For now, let us raise our glasses (of sparkling mineral water), in tribute to this phenomenal artist, the like of which we will never see again. Musical selections range from Victor Herbert to Alban Berg and everything in between. Thank you, Michelle, and evviva Eleanor!

Episode 152. Patricia Neway

July 8, 2022Art Song, Broadway, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoA Hand of Bridge (Barber), Arnold Black, Arnold Voketaitis, Carlisle Floyd, Carlo Maria Giulini, Carousel (Rodgers & Hammerstein), Christoph Willibald Gluck, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Dietrich Buxtehude, Franca Duval, Francis Poulenc, Frederick Dvonch, Genia Las, George Bernanos, Gian Carlo Menotti, Iphigénie en Tauride, Israel Citkowitz, Jack Elliott, James Joyce, Jerome Kern, John Gruen, Joseph Machlis, Julius Rudel, Lehman Engel, Maria Golovin (Menotti), Norman Treigle, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Patricia Neway, Peter Herman Adler, Regina Sarfaty, Richard Cross, Richard Rodgers, Robert Colston, Rosemary Kuhlmann, Ruth Kobald, Samuel Barber, The Consul (Menotti), The Sound of Music (Rodgers & Hammerstein), Thomas de Hartmann, Vladimir Golschmanncountermelody

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Today begins a new summer series on Countermelody, celebrating mid-century music-making in New York City between the years 1950 and 1975. We begin with a celebration of Patricia Neway (1919-2012), one of the towering figures of the operatic – and Broadway – stages. Two of her greatest assumptions, in fact, took place on the Broadway stage: Magda Sorel in Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera The Consul, which premiered on Broadway in 1950, and the Mother Abbess in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final stage music, The Sound of Music, for which Neway was awarded the 1960 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Neway combined an unusual voice of startling, sometimes raw, power, with an acting ability rarely seen, especially on the operatic stage. Neway’s range easily encompassed contralto roles as well as dramatic soprano parts. This episode features audio excerpts from rare kinescopes of her performances of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites as Menotti’s Maria Golovin, as well as her galvanizing portrayal of Magda Sorel from a 1960 film. She also displays her stunning musical versatility in music by Buxtehude, Barber, Gluck, and the late Carlisle Floyd, as well as settings by Israel Citkowitz, John Gruen, and Thomas de Hartmann of texts by James Joyce from a rare 1959 recording. In addition, I dispel forever the fake news, all pervasive claims to the contrary, that Patricia Neway and someone named Frances Breeze, an exact contemporary of Neway’s, are one and the same person.

Episode 151. Cole Porter [Pride 2022]

June 28, 2022African American Singers, Broadway, Comic Relief, Crossover, Great Baritones, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAlfred Drake, Annie Lennox, Bobby Short, Buddy Barnes, Cesare Siepi, Cole Porter, Cy Walter, Don Ameche, Donald Pippin, Eddie Ward, Eileen Farrell, Elisabeth Welch, Ethel Merman, Frances Langford, Fred Astaire, Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Merrill, Hutch (Leslie Hutchinson), Janet Blair, Johnny Green, Johnny Mathis, Jonathan Cohen, Joséphine Baker, Julie Wilson, Kaye Ballard, Kiss Me Kate, Lena Horne, Leo Reisman, Leslie Hutchinson, Lisa Kirk, Mabel Mercer, Nelson Eddy, Oscar Peterson, Patricia Hodge, Patricia Morison, Paul Weston, Pembroke Davenport, Percy Faith, Peter Matz, Roland Shaw, Skip Redwine, Tommy Dorsey, Virginia Bruce, William Roycountermelody

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Because I’m still on the road, I’m posting an old bonus episode in place of a new one this week, and I’m posting it early. This was originally published about two years ago, in tandem with an episode that did on Cesare Siepi, which highlighted Easy to Love, his 1958 album of Cole Porter songs. Among my listeners, most of whom adored that episode, there were a few naysayers, including my own not-boyfriend, who felt that Siepi did not do justice to Porter’s insouciant wordplay. So I decided, as one of my first bonus episodes, to offer an “antidote” to Siepi’s song stylings. This is the episode that resulted. It features a wide range of performers, from Mabel Mercer to kd lang (many of them coincidentally queer), offering their own distinctive take on Porter’s brilliant output. Many of the songs are offered in contrasting versions, including Fred Astaire singing “Night and Day” in his original recording from the 1930s, followed by his 1950s version with a jazz combo led by Oscar Peterson. Or Ethel Merman singing her original recording of “I Get a Kick out of You” from the time of the original production of Anything Goes, followed by her infamous version decades later from The Ethel Merman Disco Album. Please enjoy and I’ll see you again at the end of next week.

Episode 150. Francis Poulenc and Pierre Bernac [Pride 2022]

June 24, 2022Art Song, Great Baritones, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersBanalités (Poulenc), Bernard Kruysen, Chansons villageoises (Poulenc), Charles d’Orléans, Charles Munch, Claude Debussy, Darius Milhaud, Denise Duval, Dichterliebe (Schumann), Emmanuel Chabrier, Éphraïm Mikhaël, Ernest Chausson, Fiançailles pour rire (Poulenc), Francis Poulenc, François Villon, Genevieve Touraine, Guillaume Apollinaire, Heinrich Heine, Hugues Cuenod, Johann Sebastian Bach, Léo Latil, Louise de Vilmorin, Maurice Fombeure, Mélodies passagères (Barber), Paul Éluard, Pierre Bernac, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Casadesus, Robert Schumann, Roger Désormière, Samuel Barber, Trois ballades de François Villon (Debussy)countermelody

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Something about this week’s episode has really gotten to me. I guess I’m just madly in love with the melodies of Francis Poulenc, and as a result, increasingly in love with the artistry of Pierre Bernac. These two formed an artistic partnership similar in intensity to that shared by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, except that in the case of the Gallic couple, this alliance did not include a romantic element. In spite of that, the pair achieved an artistic intimacy that is sometimes almost painfully honest. Maybe it’s that part of their story that so moves me: that two gay men, neither one sexually involved with the other, still achieved, on an altogether different plane, the deepest kind of intimacy. This episode features performances of the duo in melodies by Poulenc set to texts by Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Éluard and Louise de Vilmorin, as well as songs by Chabrier, Debussy, Chausson, and Samuel Barber. We also hear Bernac performing Bach and Schumann in collaboration with Robert Casadesus, Charles Munch, and Roger Désormière; and Poulenc accompanying singers Denise Duval, Hugues Cuénod, Geneviève Touraine, and Bernard Kruysen in both live and studio recordings. The episode features extensive discussion, mostly from Bernac’s book on Poulenc and his songs, of Poulenc’s devotion to poetry and his very particular compositional method of getting to the heart of a poem.

Episode 148. Judy Garland @ 100

June 9, 2022Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century MusicAdolph Green, Alan Jay Lerner, Arthur Schwartz, Barbra Streisand, Betty Comden, Bob Merrill, Bobby Cole, Bronislaw Kaper, Burton Lane, Carl Sigman, Carolyn Leigh, Charles Chaplin, Cole Porter, Cy Coleman, David Lee, Gene Palumbo, Geoffrey Parsons, George Forrest, Gilbert Bécaud, Gus Kahn, Harold Arlen, Harry Robinson, Howard Dietz, Ira Gershwin, Jack Yellen, Judy Garland, Jule Styne, Julia Ward Howe, Larry Conley, Liza Minnelli, Lorenz Hart, Max Meth, Milton Ager, Mort Lindsey, Norrie Paramor, Richard Rodgers, Robert Wright, Roger Edens, Ted Koehler, Tony Osborne, Walter Jurmann, Willard Robison, Yip Harburgcountermelody

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On Friday 10 June 2022, Judy Garland celebrates her 100th birthday. My Pride 2022 series kicks off with a close examination of Judy’s status as gay icon, as well as my claim that Garland was, is, and remains the world’s greatest entertainer of all time. As always with Countermelody, the proof is in the performances, and I share a generous sampling of recordings, primarily from the final years of Judy’s life, that bolster that claim. Included are performances of songs by Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, Ted Koehler, Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Jule Styne, Burton Lane, Alan Jay Lerner, Cole Porter, Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh, Gilbert Bécaud, Wright and Forrest, Schwartz and Dietz, Charles Chaplin, and others, in live recordings from The Judy Garland Show, which ran for a single season in 1963-64; live concert performances from New York, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Philadelphia, and Copenhagen; and a smattering of rare studio recordings. I also discuss the impact of Judy’s enormous talent impact on my own life, as well as her still-substantial numbers of worldwide fans. Vocal guest stars include two other classic gay icons, Barbra Streisand, and Judy’s own daughter, Liza Minnelli.

Episode 147. The Young Gabriel Bacquier

June 3, 2022Art Song, French Opera, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Mirella Freni, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Twentieth Century MusicAlain Vanzo, Alberto Erede, André Gide, André Rivoire, Ariettes oubliées (Debussy), Armand Silvestre, Arrigo Boito, Benjamin Godard, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Ciboulette (Hahn), Claude Debussy, Darius Milhaud, Don Giovanni, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, Eugène Cools, Félix Nuvolone, Fernando Previtali, Francis Poulenc, Franz Lehár, Gabriel Bacquier, Gabriel Faure, Georges Bizet, Giuseppe Verdi, Henri Duparc, Jacques Houtmann, Janine Ervil, Jean Laforge, Jean Lahor, Jésus Etchéverry, Johann Strauss II, Johann Strauss Sr., Le nozze di Figaro, Les pecheurs de perles, Lorenzo da Ponte, Manuel Rosenthal, Maurice Maeterlinck, Maurice Ravel, Mirella Freni, Orphée et Eurydice, Otello (Verdi), Paganini (Lehár), Paul Morand, Paul Verlaine, Pelleas et Melisande, Renate Holm, Reynaldo Hahn, Robert de Flers, Robert Desnos, Serge Baudo, Sigmund Romberg, Silvio Varviso, The Desert Song (Romberg), Tosca (Puccini), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yvonne Gallcountermelody

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Two years ago last month, the great French (bass-)baritone Gabriel Bacquier died just four days short of his 96th birthday. At that time I offered a brief memorial tribute which opened my eyes to aspects of his artistry and voice with which I had been previously unfamiliar. Like his near-contemporary, the Italian baritone Tito Gobbi, Bacquier was one of the supreme actors of the operatic stage, whose voice coarsened somewhat over the course of his long career, even as his mastery as an actor and interpreter increased. By the time he retired, his repertoire consisted almost entirely of buffo parts. But in the earliest years of his career (and also like Gobbi), he possessed a baritone of velvety beauty that might surprise those who know only his later comic roles. This episode, which commemorates the second anniversary of Bacquier’s death as well as his (posthumous) 98th birthday, focuses on the three different musical genres in which, in those early years, from 1953 through 1968, he excelled in equal measure: opera, of course, but also mélodie and operetta. The operatic portrayals represented include the title roles in Don Giovanni and Orphée et Eurydice; Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de perles; the Count in Le nozze di Figaro; Iago in Otello; Golaud; and his incomparable Scarpia, which he sang opposite every great Tosca of the 1960s with the exception of Callas. Complementing these live and studio recordings are recordings of melodies by Duparc, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc; and operetta arias by Sigmund Romberg, Franz Lehár, Johann Strauss II, and Reynaldo Hahn, all deliciously sung in French. Vocal guest stars include Mirella Freni; Alain Vanzo; Bernard Demigny; Janine Ervil; Yvonne Gall, with whom Bacquier studied at the Conservatoire de Paris; and the late Renate Holm, the renowned German soubrette who died in April at the age of 90. In all this repertoire, Bacquier, who insisted on the appellation “acting singer” rather than “singing actor,” displays his commitment to clear yet full projection of text, which serves as a mirror into the music and not the other way around.

Episode 146. Women of Color Sing Mahler

May 26, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, BHM2023WK2, Gustav Mahler, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicBernard Haitink, Carol Brice, Christoph von Dohnányi, Das Lied von der Erde, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Die chinesische Flöte, Florence Quivar, Frieder Weissmann, Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich Rückert, Fritz Reiner, Gustav Mahler, Hans Bethge, Hans Knappertsbusch, Jessye Norman, Kindertotenlieder, Leonard Bernstein, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Lucretia West, Marian Anderson, Oralia Dominguez, Paul Kletzki, Pierre Monteux, Roberta Alexander, Wang Wei, Zubin Mehtacountermelody

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Say their names: In Uvalde: Nevaeh Bravo, Jackie Cazares, Makenna Lee Elrod, Jose Flores, Eliana Garcia, Irma Garcia, Uziyah Garcia, Amerie Jo Garza, Xavier Lopez, Jayce Luevanos, Tess Marie Mata, Miranda Mathis, Eva Mireles, Alithia Ramirez, Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, Maite Rodriguez, Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, Layla Salazar, Jailah Nicole Silguero, Eliahana Cruz Torres, Rojelio Torres. In Buffalo: Celestine Chaney, Roberta A. Drury, Andre Mackniel, Katherine Massey, Margus D. Morrison, Heyward Patterson, Aaron Salter, Geraldine Talley, Ruth Whitfield, Pearl Young. All gunned down by young men who should have had no access to an assault weapon in the first place. I have no meaningful response to such cruel slaughter. When I am in the most profound mourning, I turn to the composers whose music directly confronts that despair. Today that composer is Gustav Mahler. Since the victims were almost exclusively people of color, today for solace I turn to the extraordinary voices of women of color singing the music of Mahler. Roberta Alexander, Marian Anderson, Carol Brice, Oralia Dominguez, Jessye Norman, Florence Quivar, Shirley Verrett, Lucretia West provide balm for the depths of despair that we are all feeling right now. They are joined on the podium by some of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century: Leonard Bernstein, Christoph von Dohnányi, Bernard Haitink, Paul Kletzki, Hans Knappertsbusch, Erich Leinsdorf, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Monteux, Fritz Reiner, and Frieder Weissmann.

This episode is also offered in memory of and in gratitude for the life of the great Lucretia West, who died on 21 February 2022 at the age of 99.

Episode 145. Teresa Berganza In Memoriam

May 20, 2022Art Song, Bel canto, Full-Figured Baroque, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Mirella Freni, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Twentieth Century MusicAlexander Gibson, Alfonso X El Sabio, Ataúlfo Argenta, Benito Lauret, Carlo Maria Giulini, Carmen (Bizet), Cosi fan tutte, El Puñao de Rosas, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Ettore Gracis, Federico Moreno Torroba, Felix Lavilla, Franco Bonisolli, Frauenliebe und -leben, Frederic Mompou, Gabriel Bacquier, Georg Solti, Georges Bizet, Gioacchino Rossini, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Hans Rosbaud, István Kertész, Joaquín Turina, José Serrano, La Cenerentola, La Chulapona, La Clemenza di Tito, Las Hijas del Zebedeo, Le nozze di Figaro, Lola Rodríguez Aragón, Lorenzo da Ponte, Los Claveles, Luis Antonio García Navarro, Manuel de Falla, Maria Callas, Medea (Cherubini), Mirella Freni, Nicola Rescigno, Pilar Lorengar, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Ricardo Requejo, Robert Schumann, Ruperto Chapí, Siete canciones populares españolas, Stabat Mater (Pergolesi), Teresa Berganza, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Zarzuelacountermelody

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A week ago today the beloved and revered Spanish mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza, died at the age of 89. This episode pays tribute to her artistry through the exploration of her operatic roles, from Neris in Medea opposite Maria Callas, through her matchless Mozart and Rossini portrayals, through her fascinating and highly individualized portrait of the title heroine of Bizet’s Carmen. Special emphasis is given to her performance of Spanish music, from the zarzuelas of Ruperto Chapí and Federico Moreno Torroba, to art songs of Manuel de Falla and Fredric Mompou. Vocal guest stars include Mirella Freni, Pilar Lorengar, Lola Rodríguez Aragón, Franco Bonisolli, and the incendiary Callas herself, an early mentor and supporter of Berganza. I began the preparation for this episode with an incomplete appreciation of Berganza’s voice and artistry, but she won me over and I am now, even if belatedly, a huge fan.

Episode 144. Mad about Mesplé

May 13, 2022Art Song, Comic Relief, Crossover, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Richard Strauss, Twentieth Century MusicAlain Vanzo, Aldo Ciccolini, Ambroise Thomas, André Messager, Ariadne auf Naxos, Armand Silvestre, Arnold Schoenberg, Bruno Amaducci, Charles Chaynes, Charles Gounod, Claude Debussy, Dalton Baldwin, Don Procopio, Erik Satie, Fiançailles pour rire, Francis Poulenc, Fritz Kreisler, Gabriel Bacquier, Gabriel Faure, Gabriel Tacchino, Georges Bizet, Georges Pretre, Gilbert Amy, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Hamlet (Thomas), Hugo von Hoffmansthal, Jacques Offenbach, Jane Berbié, Janine Reiss, Jean Cocteau, Jean Moréas, Jean-Claude Hartemann, Jean-Pierre Marty, La Dame de Monte-Carlo, Les trois valses, Louis Ganne, Louise de Vilmorin, Mady Mesple, Maurice Maeterlinck, Michel Dens, Michel Legrand, Michel Plasson, Michel Trempont, Mignon (Thomas), Orphée aux Enfers, Oscar Straus, Peter Maag, Pierre Dervaux, Reynaldo Hahn, Richard Strauss, Rigoletto, Stéphane Mallarmécountermelody

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Two years ago this month, the world lost the great French soprano Mady Mesplé at the age of 89. Celebrated as the finest French coloratura of her era (and one of the best examples ever of that dying breed), Mesplé was officially diagnosed in 1996 with Parkinson’s, which had already gravely affected her health for years. For me there is a personal connection here, as next week it is eleven years since my own father died of the same disease. The focus this week, however, is on not on Mesplé’s disease, but her extraordinary vocalism, musicianship, and versatility. Not only was she unmatched in the operatic repertoire for which she was justly celebrated, she was also a mistress of the mélodie, a charming interpreter of French operetta, and a fearless interpreter of contemporary repertoire. This episode examines her contributions in all of those genres, as well as celebrating her delicious expressions of musical humor, and her surprising depth, even profundity, in examining the darker recesses of human experience. On this episode, Mesplé is aided by fellow singers Gabriel Bacquier, Michel Dens, Jane Berbié, Alain Vanzo, and Michel Trempont; pianists Aldo Ciccolini, Jeanine Reiss, Dalton Baldwin, Gabriel Tacchino, and Michel Legrand; and conductors Georges Prêtre, Pierre Dervaux, Michel Plasson, Jean-Pierre Marty, Gilbert Amy, and Jean-Claude Hartemann.

Episode 143. Pelléas Part Deux

May 6, 2022French Opera, Great Baritones, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAndré Vessières, Armin Jordan, Camille Maurane, Claude Debussy, Claude Dormoy, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Erna Spoorenberg, Ernest Ansermet, François Loup, Françoise Ogéas, Gabriel Bacquier, George London, George Shirley, Gerard Souzay, Henri-Bertrand Etcheverry, Huw Montague Rendall, Irene Joachim, Jacques Jansen, Janine Micheau, Jean Fournet, Leïla ben Sedira, Mady Mesple, Maurice Maeterlinck, Michèle Command, Micheline Grancher, Pelleas et Melisande, Pierre Boulez, Roger Désormière, Roger Gosselin, Serge Baudocountermelody

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Today I conclude my examination of my favorite opera, Claude Debussy and Maurice Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande, with an expanded roster of singers which includes return visits from some of last week’s interpreters (Camille Maurane, Gabriel Bacquier, Gérard Souzay, Françoise Ogéas, Jacques Jansen, and Michèle Command) alongside other, equally magnificent singers (George Shirley, Janine Micheau, George London, Elisabeth Söderström, Henri-Bertrand Etcheverry, Irène Joachim, André Vessières, and others) under the batons of Jean Fournet, Pierre Boulez, Armin Jordan, as well as last week’s master helmsmen Roger Désormière and Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht. I also foreground the young lyric baritone Huw Montague Rendall, who just last season sang his first Pelléas and who has already earned a place for himself among these other great artists. My further discussion of the opera includes discussions of Wagner, Mussorgsky, Edgar Allan Poe, and toxic masculinity, as each pertains to this piece. So many listeners wrote to tell me how last week’s episode changed their mind about this opera. Evidently I’ve done my job well. We need fewer Pelléas haters out there, and more, many more, Pelléas lovers!

Episode 142. The Thrill of Pelléas

April 29, 2022African American Singers, French Opera, Great Baritones, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAndré Messager, Ange Flégier, Armand Narçon, Camille Maurane, Charles Panzéra, Claire Croiza, Claude Debussy, Claudio Abbado, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Félix Vieuille, Françoise Ogéas, Gabriel Bacquier, Georges Thill, Georges Truc, Georgette Leblanc, Gerard Souzay, Germaine Cernay, Hector Dufranne, Jacques Jansen, Jean Périer, Jean-Paul Jeannotte, Jeanne Gerville-Réache, John Ranck, José Van Dam, Jules Massenet, Maggie Teyte, Maria Ewing, Mary Garden, Maurice Maeterlinck, Michèle Command, Paul Cabanel, Paul Verlaine, Pelleas et Melisande, Piero Coppola, Reynaldo Hahn, Roger Désormière, Sapho (Massenet), Serge Baudo, Suzanne Danco, Vanni-Marcoux, Véronique (Messager)countermelody

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In (relative) relief over the recent French election result, I kick off my miniseries devoted to French singers and French music. Today’s episode will be the first of two devoted to my favorite opera, Claude Debussy and Maurice Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande, which has enchanted, fascinated, and, yes, thrilled me since I was ten years old. If, like me, you adore this opera, then this episode is obviously for you. If you are among the many naysayers out there who find Pelléas to be boring, this episode is even more for you, because it puts the lie to the old saw that this masterpiece is static and motionless. Going back to near the dawn of recorded sound, I offer extant examples of the creators of the principal roles, Mary Garden, Hector Dufranne, Jean Périer, Jeanne Gerville-Réache, and Félix Vieuille. I also feature performances by other figures associated with the opera in its first decades of performance: Maggie Teyte, Charles Panzéra, Germaine Cernay, Claire Croiza, Vanni-Marcoux, Jacques Jansen, Paul Cabanel, and Armand Narçon, most of whom are featured on early recordings of the opera from the 1920s, and from its first complete recording led by Roger Désormière in war-torn Paris in 1941. From the next generation of great Debussy interpreters, I also present Suzanne Danco, Camille Maurane, Françoise Ogéas, Gérard Souzay, and Jean-Paul Jeannotte in various live performances led by the legendary conductor Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, and from more recent decades, performances by José van Dam, Michèle Command and the late Maria Ewing and Gabriel Bacquier led by Claudio Abbado and Serge Baudo. These artists all are keenly connected to both the words and drama, and wring out the passion, playfulness, and despair to be found in this work, which represents to me the perfect fusion of words, music and drama. Prepare to have your preconceptions challenged as I step into the world of Pelléas, that dramatic fusion of sunlight and shadow, which will continue next week with recorded performances by even more great singers and conductors.

Episode 140. Universal Passion

April 14, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Canadian Singers, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Holiday Music, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAdele Addison, Alexander Young, Andrzej Hiolski, Arvo Pärt, August Wenzinger, Barthold Heinrich Brockes, Benjamin Luxon, Brockes-Passion (Handel), Christus am Ölberge (Beethoven), Daniel Pinkham, Das Marienleben, David Willison, Edda Moser, Eduard Mörike, Elzbieta Szmytka, Eric Tappy, Erich Itor Kahn, Ernst Haefliger, Eugen Jochum, Eugene Ormandy, Florence Quivar, Francis Poulenc, Franco Caracciolo, François Couperin, Frank Martin, Franz Crass, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Schlegel, George Frideric Handel, Georges Pretre, Gilbert Kalish, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Golgotha (Martin), Gundula Janowitz, Hannu Holma, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, Heinrich Schütz, Henryk Czyz, Herbert von Karajan, Hugo Wolf, Hugues Cuenod, Irmgard Seefried, Irwin Gage, Jan DeGaetani, Jennie Tourel, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Shirley-Quirk, Jorma Hynninen, Judith Raskin, Jukka Vaari, Julius Baker, Karol Szymanowski, Kristina Boerger, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leçons de Ténèbres, Lotte Lehmann, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lukas-Passion (Penderecki), Maria Stader, Maria Triptychon (Martin), Marie-Lise de Montmollin, Matthäus-Passion, Maureen Lehane, Meriel Dickinson, Muriel Smith, Passio (Pärt), Paul Hindemith, Peter Pears, Peter Schreier, Philippe Huttenlocher, Pierre Mollet, Rainer Maria Rilke, Regine Crespin, Richard Lewis, Robert Bloom, Robert Faller, Robert Shaw, Roger Norrington, Rolf Apreck, Rudolf Jürgen Bartsch, Rudolf Mauersberger, Simon Rattle, Spanisches Liederbuch (Wolf), Spirituals, St. John Passion, Stabat Mater (Pergolesi), Stabat Mater (Poulenc), Stabat Mater (Szymanowski), Tauno Satomaa, Teppo Lampela, Theo Adam, Topi Tuuli Lindeberg, Wally Stämpfli, Walter Berry, Wolfgang Schneiderhancountermelody

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For Christians, this week is probably the most central to the theology of their faith, focusing as it does on the story of the Passion of the Christ. My dear friend, the choral conductor and singer Kristina Boerger posted a fascinating meditation this week about her “complicated” relationship with this theology, and how the performance of music for Holy Week over the years has given her insight into some universal tenets about human nature and behavior. She very kindly agreed to read her essay for me to use as the basis of this week’s podcast, which features music written for, and associated with, the Passion. Composers featured include, from the Baroque era, Couperin, Schütz, Handel, and Bach (with Pergolesi right on the cusp); from the 19th century, Beethoven, Schubert, and Wolf; and from the 20th century, Hindemith, Szymanowski, Poulenc, Penderecki, Frank Martin, and Arvo Pärt. Featured singers include Régine Crespin, Irmgard Seefried, Peter Schreier, Gundula Janowitz, Richard Lewis, Florence Quivar, Andrzej Hiolski, Judith Raskin, Jorma Hynninen, Margaret Marshall, Benjamin Luxon, Muriel Smith, Walter Berry, Edda Moser, and Adele Addison, plus further encounters with several of the Swiss singers we explored last week (Hugues Cuénod, Maria Stader, Eric Tappy, Pierre Mollet, and Ernst Haefliger). Whether you are Christian, agnostic, atheist, Muslim, Jew, or fall into a different category altogether, there will be something here for you of value in this episode.

The Countermelody podcast is 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 support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.

Episode 139. Swiss Misses and Misters

April 8, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Canadian Singers, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Voiceless WondersAbbé Prevost, Albert Wolff, Alessandro Striggio, Arthur Honegger, Charles Gounod, Charles Munch, Charles Panzéra, Claudio Monteverdi, Edith Mathis, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Eric Tappy, Erika Burkhart, Ernest Ansermet, Ernest Bloch, Ernst Haefliger, Fernando Corena, Francis Poulenc, Frank Martin, Gabriel Faure, Giorgio Favaretto, Gloria Davy, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hans Münch, Heinz Rehfuss, Henri Meilhac, Hermann Hesse, Hermann Lingg, Hermann Suter, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hugues Cuenod, Jakob Stämpfli, James Walker, Janine Micheau, Jean Binet, Jean Cuttat, Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, Jean Fournet, Jean Lemaire, Johannes Brahms, Jörg Wyttenbach, Jules Barbier, Jules Massenet, Karl Böhm, Kurt Widmer, Libero de Luca, Lisa Della Casa, Louis Quilico, Ludwig Hölty, Magdeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Manon (Massenet), Marko Rothmüller, Michel Carré, Michel Corboz, Michio Kobayashi, Norma Procter, Paul Claudel, Philippe Gille, Pierre Aegerter, Pierre Mollet, Richard Strauss, Rudolf Kelterborn, Theo Altmeyer, Ursula Buckel, Wolfgang Schneiderhancountermelody

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A few months ago, David and I paid a visit to Zurich. The weather was glorious, we ate well, saw interesting theater, and I found a great used record store that was probably the one inexpensive place in the entire city. I had been thinking of doing an episode on Swiss singers ever since I started the podcast nearly three years ago and this experience provided the needed impetus to put this together. It helps that, to paraphrase the bigot, “Some of my favorite singers are Swiss.” Because of the unique polyglot nature of the country, there are many different stylistic trends to be found in Swiss music and Swiss singers. As with my recent episode on Ukraine, I decided to foreground not just the singers, but also the composers, of the featured country. So not only do we get to experience the singing of such favorites as Lisa Della Casa, Charles Panzéra, Ernst Haefliger, Heinz Rehfuss, Hugues Cuénod, and Eric Tappy (with a special nod to Gloria Davy, Ira Malaniuk, and Maria Stader, all naturalized Swiss citizens), but we hear the music of Ernest Bloch, Othmar Schoeck, Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin, Hermann Suter, and others. This is just a dip of the toe into the pure waters of Swiss music and singers: episodes on individual favorites will no doubt follow in due time!

Episode 137. Ukrainian Singers and Composers

March 26, 2022Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAlbert Krywolt, Alexander Kipnis, Alexander Orlov, Alfredo Catalani, Anatoliy Solovyanenko, Anatoly Kotcherga, Andrij Dobriansky, Antin Rudnitsky, Arrigo Boito, Arthur Bergh, Avraham Kook, Bela Rudenko, Bogdan Lepky, Bohdan Wesolovsky, Boris Gmyrya, Boris Khaikin, Boris Lyatoshinsky, Carlo Barrera, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitriy Zaghul, Dmytro Hnatiuk, Elena Ruszkowska, Eugenia Miroshnychenko, Galina Nikolaneko, George Frideric Handel, George Tremblay, Giuseppe Verdi, Ira Malaniuk, Ivan Kotlyarevsky, Ivan Kozlovsky, Jacob Orlov, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Leonid Glibov, Lev Lepky, Luthando Qave, Lydia Lipkovskaya, Lyudmila Alexandrova, Maksym Rylsky, Maria Sokil, Mark Ermler, Mark Reizen, Matalya Pasichnyk, Mikhail Donets, Mikhail Dulov, Misha Raitzin, Modest Menzinsky, Modest Tchaikovsky, Mykhailo Petrenko, Mykola Arkas, Mykola Kondratyuk, Mykola Leontovych, Mykola Lysenko, National Choir of Ukraine “Dumka”, Neeme Järvi, Nina Matyienko, Pavel Muravsky, Pavlo Hunka, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Reinhold Glière, Salomea Krushelnytska, Shmerke Kaczerginski, Stefa Turchak, Taras Shevchenko, Teresa Arkel, Ukrainian Folk Music, V.A. Levitov, Valentin Sylvestrov, Vasily Baryinsky, Vladimir Khyostin, Volodymyr Sirenko, Yevhen Stankovych, Yuri Mazurok, Yuriy Mynenko, Zoya Gaidaicountermelody

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Here finally is my long-promised and long-overdue episode on great Ukrainian singers. Because I am so historically oriented, I begin the episode at the dawn of recorded sound and present singers from the early twentieth century all the way through to the present day. The first voice heard is the Ukrainian-Jewish bass Alexander Kipnis, still after all these years the noblest voice that I have ever encountered. There follow Teresa Arkel, Salomea Krushelnytska, Elena Ruszkowska, Lydia Lipovska and the extraordinary heldentenor Modest Menzinsky: all voices from the distant past, though much renowned in their day. Along with the exploration of Ukrainian singers (including Boris Gmyria, Ivan Kozlovsky, Yuri Mazurok, Mark Reizen, Misha Raitzin, Ira Malaniuk, Paul Plishka, Yuriy Mynenko, Anatoly Kocherga, and Bela Rudenko, among many others), I also provide a tip-of-the-iceberg introduction to the (for me, as I suspect for many of us) nearly unexplored world of Ukrainian composers, including Reinhold Glière, Mykola Lysenko, Yevhen Stankovych, Mykola Leontovych, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Vasyl Barvinsky, Boris Lyatoschinsky, Mykola Arkas, and Valentin Sylvestrov, their work often bolstered by the powerful poetry of that 19th century bard and figurehead of Ukrainian independence, Taras Shevchenko. Some of the greatest discoveries for me in preparing this episode were the tenor Anatoliy Solovyanenko and the baritones Mykola Kondratyuk and Dmytro Hnatiuk. I trust you will have your favorites as well. I offer this episode in tribute to, and in solidarity with, the people of Ukraine. 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 support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season. Resources for learning more about Ukrainian music: Myron Yusypovych’s website on Ukrainian composers The Ukrainian Art Song Project Natalya Pasichnyk’s documentary Ukrainian Rhapsody: A Journey into Ukrainian Classical Music Viktor Ostafeychuk’s astonishing YouTube channel, featuring many historical live performances from the Kiev Opera Ukrainian Vinyl, another invaluable YouTube channel, with rare and priceless recordings

Episode 135. A Woman’s Winterreise

March 11, 2022Art Song, Canadian Singers, Lieder, Margaret Price, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, SchubertAlice Coote, Anton Kuerti, Aribert Reimann, Brigitte Fassbaender, Christa Ludwig, Coenraad V. Bos, Elena Gerhardt, Erik Werba, Franz Schubert, Hartmut Höll, James Levine, Julius Drake, Lois Marshall, Lotte Lehmann, Margaret Price, Mitsuko Shirai, Paul Ulanowsky, Thomas Dewey, Wilhelm Müller, Winterreise, Wolfram Riegercountermelody

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Today in honor of Women’s History Month and the people of Ukraine, I present a compendium of eight different Liedersängerinnen singing Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise, set to poems by Wilhelm Müller. When I am in despair, I turn to Schubert, who, even in such a bleak piece as Winterreise, offers incomparable insight and empathy into our shared humanity. Though it is often held that this is a cycle that should sung exclusively by men, these eight women put the lie to that faulty premise. Featured singers are Lois Marshall, Brigitte Fassbaender, Lotte Lehmann, Elena Gerhardt, Christa Ludwig, Margaret Price, Mitsuko Shirai, and Alice Coote. Pianists are Paul Ulanowsky, Erik Werba, James Levine, Hartmut Höll, Julius Drake, Coenraad Bos, Aribert Reimann, Wolfram Rieger, Anton Kuerti, and Thomas Dewey. This is an episode that I have been planning for some time, and with so many people forced to take precarious and life-threatening winter journeys, there was no time like the present than to share this music, and these singers, with you. Warning: This is at least a six-hanky episode!

Episode 134. Legacy (Black History Month 2022 Postlude)

March 4, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, BHM2023WK4, Black History Month, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Queer Pride, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAdele Addison, Alan Curtis, Alfred Bachelet, Antonietta Stella, Antonín Dvořák, Aubrey Pankey, August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Béatrice et Bénédict, Bernard Greenhouse, Betty Allen, Betty Davis, Bohumil Gregor, Carmen Balthrop, Carolyn Watkinson, Charles Groves, Charles Jennens, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Clamma Dale, Claude Frank, Claudia Lindsey, Cynthia Haymon, Dagmar Průšová, Dorothy Maynor, Eight Songs for a Mad King, El Cimarrón (Henze), Ellabelle Davis, Erich Itor Kahn, Esteban Montoya, Eugène Adénis-Colombeau, Franz Schubert, Franz von Schober, Frederick Delius, George Frideric Handel, Gioacchino Rossini, Giulio Caccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Grace de la Cruz, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Gwendolyn Walters, Handel and Haydn Society, Hans Werner Henze, Harry T. Burleigh, Hector Berlioz, Heinrich Heine, Helen Colbert, Herbert von Karajan, Hubert Reichert, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Iphigénie en Aulide, Jean Baptiste Racine, Jean-Guy Bailly, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Jerzy Lefeld, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Brahms, John Reilly, Joseph-Marie Canteloube, Josephine Veasey, Judas Maccabaeus (Handel), Julius Eastman, Kjell Olsson, Koanga (Delius), L’incoronazione di Poppea, Laurence Hope, Leonard Bernstein, Louise Parker, Marian Anderson, Marius François Gaillard, Marvin Hayes, Marvis Martin, Matthäus-Passion, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Maurice Abravanel, Messa da Requiem (Verdi), Messiah (Handel), Paul Hindemith, Peter Maag, Peter Maxwell Davies, Rhea Jackson, Robert Bloom, Seiji Ozawa, Seth McCoy, Simone Treillard, Spirituals, Thomas Morell, Thompson Stone, Walt Whitman, Warren Jones, William Pearson, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This is the second part of my final episode of Black History Month 2022, continuing the exploration of the legacies of more than two dozen mostly underrecorded African American artists. Each piece of this aural mosaic fills in gaps in the recorded history of these artists. After opening memorial tributes to Josephine Veasey, Antonietta Stella, and Betty Davis, the episode is broken into several sections: first, recordings of Baroque music by Aubrey Pankey, Carmen Balthrop, Adele Addison, Betty Allen, Seth McCoy, Marvin Hayes, and a rare live recording by Marian Anderson, whose 125th birthday was observed this past week. There follow recordings of concert repertoire sung by Dorothy Maynor, Louise Parker, and Grace de la Cruz, with William Pearson and Julius Eastman leading us briefly into the bizarre world of the extended vocal techniques of the 1960s. There follow recorded performances of art song by Helen Colbert, Rhea Jackson, John Riley, Clamma Dale, Ellabelle Davis, Marvis Martin, and Cynthia Haymon, whereupon the episode concludes with some rare performances of operatic repertoire with Gwendolyn Killebrew, Claudia Lindsey, Dagmar Průšová, and Gwendolyn Walters, capped by an exquisite a cappella performance of “A City Called Heaven” by the great Mattiwilda Dobbs.

Episode 133. Never Forget (Black History Month 2022)

February 26, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, BHM2023WK4, Black History Month, Broadway, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless Wonders1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (Bernstein & Lerner), Aida, Alan Jay Lerner, Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev), Anne Brown, Betty Allen, Bruce Hubbard, Charles Holland, Charles Lloyd Jr., Charles Marshall, Clarence Cameron White, Cole Porter, David Allen, Dennis Russell Davies, Die Zauberflöte, Don Shirley, Edward H.S. Boatner, Edwin Markham, Ella Lee, Eloise Uggams, Eugene Holmes, Eugene Ormandy, Evelyn Dove, Everyman Opera Company, Fernando Previtali, Florence Cole-Talbert, Giuseppe Verdi, Harold Arlen, Harry T. Burleigh, Hattie King Reavis, Helen Thigpen, Horst Roos, Howard Swanson, Il Trovatore, Inez Matthews, Isaiah Jackson, James McCracken, Jessye Norman, John C. Payne, Johnny Mercer, Jonathan Brice, Joseph Crawford, Kenneth Spencer, La Verne Williams, Leonard Bernstein, Leonard De Paur, LeVern Hutcherson, Lorenzo Fuller, Luther Saxon, Martha Flowers, Otto Mortensen, Pagliacci, R. Nathaiel Dett, Robert Frost, Roland Hayes, Ruby Elzy, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Sarah Reese, Serge Prokofiev, Spirituals, Theresa Green Coleman, Todd Duncan, William Leonard King, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I bid a lingering farewell to Black History Month 2022 with the first of a two-part episode featuring singers, each of whom left a relatively small but invaluable recorded legacy. I begin with soloists from the Leonard de Paur Chorus, and continue with earliest recorded examples, more than a century old, of African American singers. I follow with a series of singers, each of whom made a mark in varied productions of Porgy and Bess, but all of them singing other material: by Mozart, Arlen, Bernstein, Cole Porter, Howard Swanson, and a US workers’ song translated into German. I conclude with a trio of exceptional Verdi sopranos of whom you may not yet have heard. Among the singers heard today are Charles Holland, Luther Saxon, Eugene Holmes, John C. Payne, Harry T. Burleigh, Evelyn Dove, LeVern Hutcherson, Inez Matthews, Todd Duncan, Florence Cole-Talbert, Kenneth Spencer, Martha Flowers, Bruce Hubbard, Helen Thigpen, Ella Lee, Ruby Elzy, Theresa Green Coleman, Edward Boatner, Betty Allen, and Sarah Reese. Prepare to have your horizons expanded and your consciousness raised!

Episode 129. Leontyne Price in Concert (Black History Month 2022)

February 11, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, BHM2023WK2, Black History Month, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAda Negri, Adolf Friedrich von Schack, Armand Silvestre, Charles Baudelaire, Claude Debussy, Clemens Brentano, David Garvey, Du Bose Heyward, Eduard Mörike, Emily Dickinson, Francis Poulenc, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Rückert, Gabriel Faure, George Gershwin, Hector Berlioz, Hermit Songs (Barber), Howard Swanson, Hugo Wolf, Igor Stravinsky, Ira Gershwin, James Agee, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John La Montaine, Knoxville Summer of 1915, Langston Hughes, Lee Hoiby, Leontyne Price, Les nuits d’été, Lev Mei, Ludwig Rellstab, Margaret Bonds, Matthäus von Collin, Ottorino Respighi, Paul Éluard, Porgy and Bess, Richard Dehmel, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Samuel Barber, Serge Rachmaninov, Spirituals, Théophile Gautier, Victor Hugocountermelody

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The great Leontyne Price, soprano par excellence and beacon to a world that desperately needed (and still needs) her, turned 95 this week. In celebration of her birthday, I chose to offer a less well-known and celebrated aspect of her artistry: Leontyne Price as an interpreter of art song, mélodie, and Lieder. The selections, both live and studio recordings, range over the course of her more than 40-year career, and include selections by Howard Swanson, as well as Samuel Barber and Lee Hoiby, both of whom crafted music with her specific voice in mind. Also included are melodies by Francis Poulenc, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Claude Debussy; art songs by Respighi and Rachmaninov; Lieder by Wolf, Schubert, Schumann, and Richard Strauss; followed by a pair of spirituals arranged by Margaret Bonds. And, because this is Leontyne Price singing in concert, we must conclude, as she always did, with a performance of “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. I also relate several brief stories which relate how I, in my youth, fell under the power of the voice of Leontyne Price. Fond birthday greetings to this extraordinary artist and woman! Long Live the Queen!

Episode 128. Leslie Uggams (Black History Month 2022)

February 9, 2022African American Singers, Black History Month, Broadway, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Singers of ColorAdolph Green, Alan Bergman, Andy Gibb, Bee Gees, Belford C. Hendricks, Betty Comden, Buster Davis, Carole King, Carousel, Cy Coleman, Dale Hawkins, Dorothy Fields, Ervin Drake, Ethel Waters, Frank DeVol, Fred Barovick, Fred Nerman, Gerry Goffin, Glen D. Hardin, Glenn Osser, Hallelujah Baby!, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Hello Dolly!, Her First Roman, Ivo Robić, Ivy Hunter, Jackie DeShannon, Jerry Herman, Jerry Leiber, Jimmy Bowen, Jimmy Holiday, Jimmy McHugh, John Lennon, Johnny Mercer, Jule Styne, La Cage aux Folles, Larry Collins, Leslie Uggams, Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand, Mike Stoller, Noel Sherman, Oscar Hammerstein II, Paul McCartney, Paul Whiteman, Peter Matz, Peter Moesser, Randy Meyers, Richard Rodgers, Richard Rose, Scott Davis, Sing Along with Mitch, Stevie Wonder, Sweet Charity, Ted Koehler, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Tom Delaney, Wayne Moorecountermelody

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I would bet (though I can’t guarantee it) that I was one of a very small number of white 8-year-old Wisconsin boys who, on Sunday nights in the summer of 1969, tuned in faithfully to watch every single episode of the short-lived variety series, The Leslie Uggams Show. Ever since encountering her on that groundbreaking show, I have loved Ms. Uggams: her combination of vivacious high spirits, powerhouse vocalism, and personal style and beauty has always enchanted me. Her performing career began long before I was born, when she appeared as a child star on various television competitions and series, later creating television history in the early sixties as a star of Sing Along with Mitch. Later she starred in a central role in 1977’s Roots, the miniseries that changed the face of television. Her popularity continues to the present day, with her appearances in such series as Empire and such films as the Deadpool franchise. Some of her more recent fans may not realize that she was also a vital performer in musicals and theatre, including her Tony-Award-winning performance in Hallelujah, Baby! in 1968 and performances in regional theatre of some of the most iconic female starring roles, including Mama Rose, Dolly Levi, and Mame Dennis. In this episode feature her in sung performances over the course of more than 60 years with special focus on her recorded work from the late 1960s. Whether you are an old or a new fan, I hope that you will be as beguiled by Leslie Uggams as I always have been.

Episode 127. Maria Ewing in Memoriam (Black History Month 2022)

February 4, 2022African American Singers, Bel canto, Black History Month, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Gustav Mahler, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Richard Strauss, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAndrew Davis, Antonio de Almeida, Bernard Haitink, Bob Merrill, Carl Orff, Carmen, Carol Neblett, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Claude Debussy, Claudio Abbado, Claudio Monteverdi, Dale Duesing, Dennis Bailey, Dido and Aeneas, Dmitri Shostakovich, Don Giovanni, Elizabeth Collier, Eric Tappy, Francis Poulenc, François Le Roux, Funny Girl, George Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gustav Mahler, Harold Arlen, Henri Meilhac, Henry Purcell, Horst Stein, Iain Sutherland, Idomeneo, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Jacques Offenbach, James Levine, Jean Cocteau, Jean Rigby, Jerome Kern, John Pritchard, John Wilson, Jule Styne, Jules Massenet, Kurt Masur, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La Périchole, La voix humaine, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Le nozze di Figaro, Leonard Slatkin, Lorenzo da Ponte, Ludovic Halévy, Marc Soustrot, Maria Ewing, Maurice Maeterlinck, Maurice Ravel, Myung-Whun Chung, Nahum Tate, Oscar Hammerstein II, Oscar Wilde, Patrick Devin, Pelleas et Melisande, Raymond Leppard, Richard Hickox, Richard Rodgers, Richard Rodney Bennett, Richard Strauss, Romano Gandolfi, Ruggero Raimondi, Salome, Shane Hill, Shéhérazade, Siegmund Nimsgern, Simon James, Simon Rattle, South Pacific, Sylvain Cambreling, Ted Koehler, Tosca, Tristan Klingsor, Werther, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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The exceptional, distinctive Maria Ewing died of cancer on January 9 at her home outside of her native Detroit at the age of 71. Even before her death, I had been planning an episode on Maria Ewing, who last fall received an enormous amount of press as the mother of actor and director Rebecca Hall, whose latest film, Passing, was hitting the screens in a big way. The film is about two light-skinned Black friends in the 1920s, one of whom makes the conscious decision to present as white. The implication in much of the press was that Maria Ewing had done the same and was being taken to task for having done so. In actuality, Maria Ewing spoke frequently about her father’s apparent African American roots, and never actively tried to hide her (at times murky) family history. But, I submit to you, this is not the real story. In this episode, the first of my Black History Month 2022 series, I attempt to present as full a musical portrait of the artist as possible, allowing listeners to experience the unique musical and dramatic genius (and I use the term advisedly) of this fascinating artist. Few singers can survive comparison with Maria Callas. Maria Ewing, for all her demonstrable flaws, was one of the few artists that merit such a comparison. In this episode we hear Ewing in a wide range of material, from Purcell’s Dido to Puccini’s Tosca, with a nod to her two most famous roles, Carmen and Salome; an emphasis on both her Mozart portrayals and a focus on her aplomb with French music; and a sampling of her flair for pop music and jazz. I also discuss her sometimes controversial vocalism and role assumptions which in turn led to her blanket dismissal by her detractors. But in the end, it is her fascinating combination of carnality and innocence which made her unique. I remain, as I always have been, a devoted member of Club Ewing. This is a long-overdue Countermelody tribute to a unique and irreplaceable singer.

Episode 126. Canadian Singers of Art Song (Great Canadian Singers)

January 28, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Black History Month, Canadian Singers, Great Baritones, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAllen Rogers, Antonin Kubalek, Arthur Honegger, Bernard Diamant, Bruno Reibold, Carl Loewe, Carmen, Catherine Robbin, Claude Debussy, Claude Savard, Claudio Monteverdi, Colette Boky, Darius Milhaud, Das Marienleben, David Garvey, Die schöne Müllerin, Donald Bell, Erich Kästner, Frances James, Frank Valentin Van der Stucken, Franz Schubert, Franz von Bruchmann, Franz von Schober, Gaston Germain, George Brough, George London, George Shirley, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Gianni Maffeo, Gino Quilico, Glenn Gould, Godfrey Ridout, Guy Bourassa, Henri Duparc, Henri Sauguet, Irene Jessner, James Milligan, Jaroslav Vogel, Jean-Paul Jeannotte, Jeanne Landry, John Newmark, John Wustman, Joseph Rouleau, Judith Forst, Jules Massenet, Jürgen Jürgens, Karl Weigl, Kurt Weill, L’Orfeo (Monteverdi), La Fanciulla del West, Leo Taubman, Leopold Simoneau, Lotte Lehmann, Louise de Vilmorin, Maria Ewing, Mario Bernardi, Maureen Forrester, Max Jacob, Michael McMahon, Mouvements de Coeur (song cycle), Nigel Rogers, Oskar Morawetz, Owen Dodson, Paul Hindemith, Pierre Bédat de Monlaur, Pierrette Alarie, Portia White, Rainer Maria Rilke, Raoul Jobin, Reynaldo Hahn, Richard Strauss, Richard Verreau, Richard Woitach, Robert Fleming, Roxolana Roslak, Stéphane Mallarmé, Teresa Stratas, Théophile Gautier, Victor Braun, Visions infernales, Wilhelm Müller, William Blake, Winterreise, Zubin Mehtacountermelody

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After two weeks of so-called “deep dives” into the careers and recordings of Lois Marshall and Jon Vickers – two of the greatest Canadian singers – this week I offer a potpourri episode of great Canadian singers singing art song. Contemporary Canadian art song, mélodie, and Lieder: it’s all here, and sung by a bevy of Canadian beauties of all vocal categories: among others, sopranos Irene Jessner, Pierrette Alarie, and Teresa Stratas; mezzo-sopranos Maureen Forrester, Portia White, and Catherine Robbin; tenors Léopold Simoneau, Raoul Jobin, and Richard Verreau; baritones Victor Braun, Gino Quilico, and James Milligan; and bass-baritones George London, Joseph Rouleau, and Donald Bell. They perform work of Schubert, Loewe, Strauss, Weill, and Hindemith, Duparc, Debussy, Milhaud, Honegger, and Sauguet, as well as Canadian composers Oskar Morawetz, Godfrey Ridout, and Robert Fleming, accompanied by John Newmark, John Wustman, Allen Rogers, Glenn Gould, and others. The episode begins with tributes to two recently deceased singers: the early music tenor Nigel Rogers and the Verdi baritone Gianni Maffeo, as well as a teaser on next week’s episode on the extraordinary Maria Ewing. “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!”

Episode 125. Jon Vickers (Great Canadian Singers)

January 21, 2022Art Song, Canadian Singers, Eileen Farrell, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Renata Scotto, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Schubert, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAn die ferne Geliebte, Andrea Chénier, Benjamin Britten, Brigitte Fassbaender, Bruno Bartoletti, Carmen, Colin Davis, Das Lied von der Erde, Dido and Aeneas, Die Walküre, Eileen Farrell, Ernest MacMillan, Fidelio, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Henry Purcell, Herbert von Karajan, Joan Caplan, Joan Carlyle, Jon Vickers, Kenneth Patchen, Leo Barkin, Leonie Rysanek, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luigi Cherubini, Maria Callas, Medea (Cherubini), Messiah (Handel), Nicola Rescigno, Otello, Otto Klemperer, Pagliacci, Renata Scotto, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Richard Woitach, Rudolf Kempe. Salome, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Srul Irving Glick, Tosca, Tristan und Isolde, Tullio Serafin, Umberto Giordano, Wilhelm Müller, William Steinberg, Winterreisecountermelody

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Our series saluting great Canadian singers continues with a tribute to one of the greatest singers I have ever seen in performance, the Saskatchewan-born tenor Jon Vickers. Not only was he a profoundly imaginative and creative singing actor, he was also one of the most problematic personalities to appear on the operatic stage in the second half of the twentieth century. I discuss many of the controversies surrounding Vickers the man, in particular his virulent homophobia and sexism, while still giving full attention to his unmatched artistry. I feature both live and studio recordings over the course of his entire career, encompassing both opera and art song, focusing on what are probably his four greatest operatic roles: Florestan, Otello, Peter Grimes, and Tristan. Vocal guest stars include Maria Callas, Eileen Farrell, Joan Carlyle, Leonie Rysanek, and Renata Scotto; conductors include Colin Davis, Otto Klemperer, Tullio Serafin, Rudolf Kempe, Nicola Rescigno, William Steinberg, and Herbert von Karajan.

Episode 123. Lois Marshall (Great Canadian Singers)

January 7, 2022Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Gustav Mahler, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAchim von Arnim, Acis and Galatea, Adalbert von Chamisso, Ah Perfido!, Anne Frank, Anthony Bernard, Anton Kuerti, Benjamin Britten, Brian Priestman, Chansons de Bilitis, Claude Debussy, Clemens Brentano, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Eduard Grikurov, Eduardo Pedrazolli, Ernest MacMillan, Folk Songs, Franz Schubert, Frauenliebe und -leben, George Frideric Handel, George van Renesse, Giacomo Puccini, Glenn Gould, Grace Bumbry, Gustav Mahler, Healey Willan, Heinrich Heine, Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Dryden, John Weldon, Joseph Haydn, Judy Loman, La Clemenza di Tito, Lois Marshall, Ludwig van Beethoven, Manuel de Falla, Maureen Forrester, Orford String Quartet, Oskar Morawetz, Ottorino Respighi, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Pierre Louÿs, Pietro Metastasio, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Robert Bloom, Robert Burns, Robert Schumann, Tannhäuser, The Creation (Haydn), The Fairy Queen, Thomas Moore, Turandot, Weldon Kilburn, Welford Russell, Wilhelm Müller, Winterreise, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yehudi Wynercountermelody

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Today is my first episode of the New Year, and the first in my three-part series this month on Great Canadian Singers. It is my contention that my first subject, Lois Marshall (1925-1997), is one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. If you haven’t heard of her (which is entirely possible, given the vagaries of posthumous fame and reputation), you are in for an enormous treat. Possessed of a rare musical scrupulousness, an interpretive honestly, directness, and integrity, as well as a finely-honed dramatic sensibility, Lois Marshall, in a better world, would have graced the world’s operatic stages. Alas, she was stricken with polio as a child, and though she managed to gain the ability to walk, staged opera was a genre which she only rarely attempted. Yet she worked with the world’s greatest conductors, among them Toscanini, Stokowski, and Beecham, and was a recitalist celebrated the world over. This episode offers an extended yet partial glimpse of the range and variety of her artistry, and includes recordings of arias by both Purcell and Puccini (the title role of Turandot!), Bach and Beethoven, as well as a dazzling array of recital repertoire from Debussy to folk song arrangements. Fellow Canadians Maureen Forrester and Glenn Gould are also featured. In my opinion, this artist is ripe for rediscovery, and I hope that you will join me on this extraordinary journey into the life and career of Lois Marshall.

Episode 122. Auld Acquaintance II

December 30, 2021African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Gustav Mahler, Holiday Music, Ileana Cotrubas, Lieder, Margaret Price, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Richard Wagner, Singers of Color, Sylvia Sass, Twentieth Century MusicAlberta Hunter, Antal Dorati, Anton de Ridder, Armand Silvestre, Barry McDaniel, Benjamin Britten, Bethany Beardslee, Bruno Reibold, Carl Loewe, Carol Brice, Christa Ludwig, Christine Andreas, Christmas music, Daniel Saidenberg, David Garvey, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Die tote Stadt, Die Walküre, Edda Moser, Edvard Grieg, Eide Norena, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Erik Werba, Ernesto de Curtis, Folk Songs, Francis Lopez, Francisco Araiza, Franz Lehár, Gabriel Faure, Garrick Ohlsson, Gilbert Price, Giuseppe Verdi, Grace Williams, Gustav Mahler, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Hans Schmidt, Henry Lemarchand, Hermann Reutter, Igor Gorin, Ileana Cotrubas, Ivan Törzs, James King, James Lockhart, Jean Lemaire, Johann Gabriel Seidl, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Joséphine Baker, Judith Raskin, Karl Dankwart Zwerger, Karl Weigl, Konrad Ragossnig, Lamberto Gardelli, Lawrence Brown, Magda Olivero, Margaret Price, Mel Powell, Muriel Smith, Norman Johnson, Otto Julius Bierbaum, Owen Williams, Paul Robeson, Peter Knight, Peter Schreier, Richard Müller-Lampertz, Richard Wagner, Rigoletto, Robert Hanell, Robert Helps, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Spirituals, Sylvia Sass, Thomas Carey, Tony Taño, Vincenzo Bellini, W.H. Auden, William Warfieldcountermelody

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