Category Archives: Singers in Old Age

Episode 303. Everything Must Change

October 31, 2024African American Singers, Black History Month 2024, Forgotten Divas, Great Baritones, Great Contraltos, In Memoriam, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAlexander Saint Charles, Benard Ighner, Benard Ito, Benny Carter, Bob Cooper, Bob Daugherty, Byron Olson, Carl Schroeder, Carmen McRae, Charly Zastrow, Dizzy Gillespie, Ed Howard, Everything Must Change, Frank Rololino, George Mesterhazy, Jack Sheldon, Jimmy Cobb, June Christy, Ken Barnes, Kunihiko Murai, Lalo Schifrin, Lou Levy, Marlena Shaw, Minako Yoshida, Nina Simone, Oleta Adams, Paul van Kessel, Peggy Lee, Quincy Jones, Randy Crawford, Sarah Vaughan, Shelly Manne, Shirley Bassey, Shirley Horhn, Steve Williams, Susumu Arima, Walter Bookercountermelody

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Something a little outside of the normal scope of Countermelody for today’s episode:

Earlier this year I published a bonus episode on the fascinating singer/songwriter Benard Ighner (1945-2017) and his modern-day standard “Everything Must Change,” which I re-present today. The song has had a profound effect on me ever since I heard the version by the great Oleta Adams on her 1990 solo debut album, Circle of One. At the time I assumed that Oleta herself had written it, but I came to discover that it was penned by Ighner and first recorded by Quincy Jones on his 1974 album, Body Heat, and that since then many, many pop and jazz singers of the past fifty years have covered the song. All these different versions have both delighted and fascinated (as well as occasionally mystified and frustrated) me. The song itself is both fatalistic and hopeful, which is exactly the place I find myself as Election Day in the US approaches. Intrigued by both the song and its composer, I dug deeper and discovered all I could about Benard Ighner. An autodidactic musical polymath, Ighner rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest pop and jazz musicians of his time, and not just the hundreds of singers and instrumentalists who have jumped on the “Everything Must Change” bandwagon! This song brings out either the very best or the very worst of those who interpret it. In choosing my favorite versions, I have veered toward those who embrace understatement rather than vocal caterwauling and children’s choruses. The episode begins with examples of Ighner’s early work from the late sixties and early seventies, including pseudonymous encounters with Dizzy Gillespie (as Benard Ito) and Lalo Schifrin (as Alexander Saint Charles); proceeding through songs he wrote and produced for Shirley Bassey, Marlena Shaw, and Carmen McRae; as well as two excerpts from his solo album, a one-off 1978 Japanese release entitled Little Dreamer. We then hear ten different versions of the song, including, among others, Nina Simone, June Christy, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Minako Yoshida (sung to her own Japanese translation), a recent magisterial live performance by Oleta Adams, and, even Ighner himself, who, alongside his other many musical talents, possessed a velvety baritone voice of exceptional beauty, poise, and power.

May this episode provide hope, courage, and insight for all of those who do believe that we can overcome the mad popularity-contest antics of this election cycle and lean toward a future in which morality and hope can still prove to be guiding principles.

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.

Episode 301. Christa Ludwig Sings Lieder

October 25, 2024Art Song, Crossover, Gustav Mahler, In Memoriam, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Schubert, Singers in Old AgeAchim von Arnim, Adolf Friedrich von Schack, Andrew MacDonald, Charles Spencer, Christa Ludwig, Clemens Brentano, Daniel Benjamin, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Erik Werba, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Rückert, Friedrich von Schlegel, Geoffrey Parsons, George Scherer, German folksongs, Gustav Mahler, Hermann Allmers, Hermann Lingg, Irwin Gage, James Levine, Johannes Brahms, Joseph von Eichendorff, Leonard Bernstein, Matthäus von Collin, Peter Alexander, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Wilhelm Adolf Lindau, Wilhelm Müller, Winterreisecountermelody

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Since Christa Ludwig’s death more than three and a half years ago, her reputation has only increased. A significant portion of that reputation rests on her prowess as a singer of Lieder, a repertoire she took quite seriously and on which she focused a good deal of her performing career, especially in later years. At the time of her death, I published two episodes in her honor, the second, a bonus one, focusing on her work as a recitalist. That episode, which I reframe and re-present today, includes a full program of Lieder in mostly live performances between 1961 and 1993. She sings songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, as well as a selection of German folksongs from a German television 1978 program hosted by the enormously popular Schlagertenor Peter Alexander. She is accompanied by Leonard Bernstein, Erik Werba, Irwin Gage, Geoffrey Parsons, and James Levine.

Episode 295. Requiescat

October 6, 2024Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, Broadway, Forgotten Divas, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Pop Icons, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Verismo, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAntonio García Gutiérrez, Antonio Votto, April Cantelo, Benjamin Britten, Bob Wilson, Bruce Blunt, Carlo Pepoli, Celestina Casapietra, Christine Weidinger, Corneliu Murgu, Daphne, David Belasco, David Hemmings, David Willcocks, Deborah Roberts, Edo de Waart, Edward Heyman, Elena Mauti-Nunziata, Eric Crozier, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Fernández Shaw, Frank Eyton, Gaetano Donizetti, George Frideric Handel, Georges Bizet, Georges Rodenbach, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gregorio Allegro, Grigoire Iosub, Herbert Kegel, I Puritani, Il Trovatore, Ivor Gurney, Janis Paige, Jodie Devos, John Dryden, John Fletcher, John Luther Long, Johnny Green, Josef Gregor, Julius Korngold, Karan Armstrong, La jolie fille de Perth, La vida breve, Laurence Equilbey, Le nozze di Figaro, Lohengrin, Lorenzo da Ponte, Lucine Amara, Madama Butterfly, Manuel de Falla, Margaret Cable, Maria di Rohan, Max Rudolf, Miguel Gómez-Martínez, Nicolas Krüger, Paul Schott, Peter Phillips, Peter Warlock, Philip Heseltine, Pierre Beaumarchais, Reinhard Peters, Richard Bonynge, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Robert Sour, Rosemary Barnes, Roy Campbell, Ruth Hesse, Salvadore Cammarano, Sanda Şandru, Sesto Bruscantini, St John of the Cross, The Little Sweep, The Tallis Scholars, Vincenzo Bellini, Walter Scott, William Mathias, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Today on Countermelody is the first of two memorial episodes paying tribute to singers that we’ve lost just in the past few months. Applying the completely arbitrary rubric of gender, today I am focusing on sopranos (with two mezzo-soprano interlopers); my next episode will carry the memorial torch for all the male singers who’ve recently died. Today’s subjects ranged in age from only 35 to nearly 102 at the time of their deaths, and from Broadway star to early music singer: Jodie Devos, April Cantelo, Lucine Amara, Celestina Casapietra, Christine Weidinger, Elena Mauti Nunziata, Deborah Roberts, and Sanda Şandru; lower-voiced interlopers include Janis Paige, Margaret Cable, and Ruth Hesse. If you know some of these names, you know that you will be some mellifluous serenading; if you don’t, prepare yourself for a wide range of music from Renaissance polyphony to American pop standards, with operatic selections ranging from Donizetti to Falla.

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.

Episode 292. Ian Partridge Revisited

September 24, 2024Art Song, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century MusicAlfred Hepworth, Andrew Pearmain, Anner Bylsma, Arnold Bax, Benjamin Britten, Benjamin Kennard, C. Armstrong Gibbs, Carl Maria von Weber, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Christopher Wellington, Clifford Benson, David Parkhouse, Dennis Nesbitt, Dietrich Kessler, Fiona MacLeod, Francis Pilkington, Franz Mayrhofer, Franz Schubert, George Malcolm, Gerald Finzi, Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt, Henri Duparc, Henry Purcell, Hilaire Belloc, Ian Partridge, Ivor Gurney, Jaap Schröder, Jakob Lindberg, James Atkins, Jean Lahore, Jennifer Partridge, Jillian Amherst, John Dowland, John Keats, John Pritchard, Joseph von Eichendorff, Jukka Savijok, Karl Gottfried von Leitner, Konrad Ragnossig, Len Vorster, Lennox Berkeley, Lord Berners, Louis Spohr, Ludwig Tieck, Margaret Field-Hyde, Matthäus von Collin, Michael Dussek, Nancy Neild, Nicholas Busch, Peter Warlock, Philip Heseltine, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Dering, Robert Bridges, Robert Schumann, Stanley Hoogland, Thomas Dekker, Varier Cardnell, Vera Beths, Walter de la Mare, Wilfred Gibson, William Fuller, William Sharpcountermelody

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David and I leave tomorrow on a short jaunt to London, my first visit there in absolute ages. As a result, I have had my favorite British singers very much in mind. In 2023, the quintessential British tenor Ian Partridge celebrated his 80th birthday, and in hono(u)r of that occasion, I produced a pair of Countermelody episodes in tribute to his exquisite artistry. Today’s episode is a refashioning of the bonus episode I produced at that time, which I entitled “Evening with Partridge,” since all of the selections reference evening or nighttime in some fashion, with additional emphasis on the themes of moonlight and The Wanderer. One might also note how the clarity of Partridge’s voice and the precision of his diction make a marvelous contrast with the half-shades of the evening. I have put together an episode which features all types of song, in musical styles from Baroque to contemporary: orchestral song, songs with guitar and lute accompaniment, and art songs with piano in English, German, and French, one of them even self-accompanied! May this episode also bring joy and satisfaction to my devoted listeners and supporters, and encourage you to further explore this esteemed gentleman, one of my favorite singers of all time.

Episode 281. La Scottissima

August 19, 2024Bel canto, French Opera, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Tenors, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Renata Scotto, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Opera, Verismo, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAlfredo Kraus, Amilcare Ponchielli, Andrea Maffei, Angelo Campori, Antonio García Gutiérrez, Antonio Somma, Antonio Tonini, Arnold Schoenberg, Arrigo Boito, Charles Duveyrier, Claudio Abbado, David Belasco, Didier Gold, Don Giovanni, Emidio Mucci, Erwartung, Ettore Caimi, Eugène Scribe, Eve Queler, Felice Romani, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Francis Poulenc, Fulvio Vernizzi, Gaetano Donizetti, George Schick, Giacomo Puccini, Gioavacchino Forzano, Giuseppe Adami, Giuseppe Giacosa, Henri Meilhac, Henri Murger, I vespri siciliani, Il tabarro, Il Trovatore, James Levine, Jean Cocteau, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, John Alexander, John Luther Long, John Wustman, Jon Vickers, Josep Pons, Jules Massenet, Julius Rudel, L’elisir d’amore, La Boheme, La Gioconda, La voix humaine, Licinio Refice, Lodoletta, Lorenzo da Ponte, Lucia di Lammermoor, Luciano Pavarotti, Luigi Illica, Macbeth, Madama Butterfly, Manon, Marie Pappenheim, Mercedes Llopart, Nello Santi, Norma, Otello, Ouida, Philippe Gille, Pietro Mascagni, Renata Scotto, Riccardo Muti, Salvadore Cammarano, Sixten Ehrling, Spiris Argiris, Suor Angelica, Tatiana Troyanos, Un ballo in maschera, Vasile Moldoveanu, Victor Hugo, Vincenzo Bellini, Walter Scott, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I began work on this episode on the one-year anniversary of the death of Renata Scotto, perhaps the most beloved of my many dearly-loved divas. But I have been thinking about and planning it ever since August 16, 2023. Now I am collected my thoughts on what made Scotto, in my opinion, one of the greatest artists of the past century. I break down her main repertoire into three groups (bel canto, Verdi, and verismo [including, however incorrectly, Puccini]); I describe her artistic and vocal training and her development into a powerful singing actress; I play her in duet with some of her most significant colleagues (including a few surprises); I assess her greatest roles and some of her surprising late-career assumptions; and I consider some of her most daring career risks (and the resultant flops and triumphs, sometimes in the same role!) I draw on a deep pool of mostly live recordings that reveal Scotto’s musical and dramatic intelligence as I describe my own encounters with her live in performance, both in person and on the television screen. Throughout I have tried my best to capture the individuality and the fearlessness of the singer who most deeply influenced and affected me as my musical tastes were forming: La Scottissima, my diva.

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 277. Benjamin Luxon In Memoriam

August 4, 2024Art Song, Broadway, Comic Relief, Crossover, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Great Tenors, Ileana Cotrubas, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Orchestral Songs, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartA Shropshire Lad, A.E. Housman, Alan Rowlands, Alban Berg, Alexander Gibson, Alexander Pushkin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Andre Previn, Arrigo Boito, Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, Arthur Sullivan, August Strindberg, Benjamin Beilman, Benjamin Britten, Benjamin Luxon, Bill Crofut, Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Chris Coletti, Chris de Burgh, Christina Rossetti, David Cullen, David J. Grossman, David Willison, Demian Austin, Die schöne Müllerin, Eberhard Büchner, Edith Sitwell, Enoch Arden, Eugene Onegin, Façade, Falstaff, Folk Songs, Frances Egerton, Frank Morelli, Franz Schubert, Frederick Moyer, Friederich Rückert, Galina Vishnevskaya, George Butterworth, George Frideric Handel, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Henry James, Herman Hupfeld, Hugo Wolf, Ian Rosenbaum, Igor Stravinsky, Ileana Cotrubas, Inn-Hyuck Cho, Janet Baker, Jill Gomez, John Ireland, John Parry, John Poole, John Pritchard, Kindertotenlieder, Kitty Black, Klaus Tennstedt, L’histoire du soldat, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Le nozze di Figaro, Leonard Bernstein, Lorenzo da Ponte, Michael Flanders, Miss Julie, Modest Mussorgsky, Moses Mendes, Mstislav Rostropovich, Myfanwy Piper, Oscar Hammerstein II, Owain Arwel Hughes, Owen Wingrave, Peter Gilbert-Dyson, Pierre Beaumarchais, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Hickox, Richard Rodgers, Richard Strauss, Robert Tear, Solomon, Songfest, Songs and Dances of Death, The Soldier’s Tale, The Sorceror, Vilem Tausky, W.S. Gilbert, Wilhelm Müller, William Alwyn, William Blake, William Shakespeare, William Walton, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wozzeck, Yevgeny Onegincountermelody

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Last week on July 25th, the music world was saddened by the death of the Cornish baritone Benjamin Luxon at the age of 87. I began collecting recordings of this exceptional artist a few years ago with the intention of producing an episode in his honor at some point. Here is that episode, albeit a posthumous effort now. In an episode I produced in the first few months of Countermelody in 2019, I featured the French baritone Gérard Souzay and called him “a modern troubadour.” There are very few singers of recent years to whom one could accurately apply that appellation, but Ben Luxon is emphatically one of them. Music and words simply flowed out of him, and he sang with equal aplomb in an extraordinary number of different styles: opera, oratorio, art song, Broadway, crossover, and, perhaps most immediately and delectably, folk. In opera alone his range was exceptional, covering key roles in Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Berg, and Britten, who wrote the title role of his television opera Owen Wingrave expressly for Luxon. In song as well he covered a vast array of repertoires, including Russian, German, and British (including Victorian ballads), including, again, many contemporary composers. Luxon’s career hit a snag in the late 1980s, when he first began experiencing hearing loss which eventually resulted in him putting a stop to his singing career. But he hardly retired: moving to the Berkshires, he became actively involved in the artistic life of the region, and founded a theatre troupe, the Sandisfield Players, while continuing to give poetry readings and spoken word performances. The program today attempts to recreate his profound versatility, and range from folk song to pop song; from orchestral song cycles to world premiere creations; art songs by Hugo Wolf, Mussorgsky, George Butterworth, Schubert, and John Ireland; to late career narration and poetry projects. Collaborators include artists such as Benjamin Britten, Bill Crofut, Galina Vishnevskaya, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Tear, Janet Baker, Seiji Ozawa, Ileana Cotrubaș, Jill Gomez, Klaus Tennstedt, Mstislav Rostropovich, and his most frequent recital collaborator, pianist David Willison.

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 274. Odetta (Listeners’ Favorites)

July 22, 2024African American Singers, Black History Month, Black History Month 2024, Great Contraltos, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Spirituals, Twentieth Century MusicAbdul-Malik, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Armando Manzanero, Arthur Freed, Berisford “Shep” Shephard, Bill Lee, blues, Bob Dylan, Buck Clayton, Buster Bailey, Dick Wellstood, Folk Songs, Forrest Tollis, gospel music, Harlem Boys Choir, Herb Hall, Huddie Ledbetter, John Lennon, Labi Siffre, Larry Mohr, Leadbelly, Leonard Gaskin, Liam Clancy, Mark Carpentieri, Nacio Herb Brown, Odetta, Panama Francis, Paul McCartney, Protest Songs, Randy Newman, Robert Cosbey Jr., Tedell Saunders, Vic Dickenson, Woody Guthriecountermelody

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The United States seems (if this could be possible) even more divided and challenged than it did a week ago. In spite and even because of that, I am continuing my salute to the truly great Americans in our shared past to provide us with inspiration and courage in the challenging days to come. Today I repost an episode that I initially presented on June 18, 2021, the first observance of Juneteenth as a national holiday. It honors the great folk singer and civil rights icon Odetta (1930-2008). The breadth of her influence and the scope of her accomplishment should be trumpeted from the rooftops. From her first appearance on primetime national television opposite Harry Belafonte, to her prominence as the artist at the forefront of the folk music revival, to the importance of her music as a centerpiece to the Civil Rights Movement, to her additional contributions to blues and gospel music (and even, less expectedly, jazz and soul), Odetta Felious Holmes remains one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. Not only was Odetta an important cultural icon, she possessed one of the most striking contralto voices in the history of recorded sound, and thus is an appropriate entry in my Great Contraltos series. This episode celebrates the entirety of her cultural contribution from her first recording in 1954, to one of her final live performances, in a wide-ranging portrait celebrating the significance of an artist who, for once, merits the designation “cultural icon.”

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 270. Eleanor Steber Revisited

July 5, 2024Art Song, Bel canto, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, NYCO Divas, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Orchestral Songs, Queer Pride, Rescue Mission, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Verismo, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAl Goodman, Al Vann, Alexandre Dumas fils, Alfred Bachelet, Allen Rogers, Augustus Toplady, Barron Smith, Bernard Zaslav, Brian Sullivan, Buddy DeSylva, Carlo Gozzi, Carlo Zangarini, Cesare Sterbini, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Claude Debussy, David Belasco, David Broekman, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Dimitri Mitropoulos, DuBose Heyward, Édouard Guinand, Edwin Biltcliffe, Eleanor Steber, Eugène Adénis-Colombeau, Francesco Maria Piave, Francis Scott Key, Frank Loesser, Frederick Flaxington Harker, Fritz Stiedry, George Gershwin, Giacomo Puccini, Gian Carlo Menotti, Giangiacom Guelfi, Gioachino Rossini, Giovanni Battista Guarini, Giuseppe Adami, Giuseppe Verdi, Guelfo Civinini, Hector Berlioz, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hugo Wolf, Igor Kipnis, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ira Gershwin, James Melton, Jean-Philippe Rameau, John Stafford Smith, Juan López de Úbeda, Jussi Bjorling, L’enfant prodigue, La Fanciulla del West, La Traviata, Les nuits d’été, Lilla Kalman, Lohengrin, Maytime (Romberg). Harold Barlow, Nelson Eddy, Oklahoma!, Oscar Hammerstein II, Paul Heyse, Pembroke Davenport, Pierre Beaumarchais, Porgy and Bess, Renato Simoni, Richard Rodgers, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Rida Johnson Young, Robert K. Evans, Robert Katscher, Rosalind Elias, Rupert Brooke, Samuel Barber, Sigmund Romberg, Sonya Monsoff, Spanisches Liederbuch, Sterling Hunkins, Théophile Gautier, Thomas Hastings, Turandot, Vanessa (Barber), Where’s Charley?, Wilfrid Pelletier, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I sat in my apartment in Berlin on the Fourth of July wondering how, after the events of this past Monday, I can possibly pay tribute to our nation as it “celebrated” its birthday. Then it hit me: since I would never in a million years produce an episode of patriotic musical material, why not pay tribute to a great American singer instead? I had already been planning an upcoming bonus episode on ELEANOR STEBER, the singer I consider to be one of the greatest (if not the greatest) soprano that our country has ever produced! Nearly two years ago, with the help of my dear friend Michelle Oesterle, who was Eleanor’s step-daughter, I produced an episode dedicated to her; today’s episode will not delve so much into the (still-controversial) person that Eleanor was, but rather offer a cross-section, over the course of more than 40 years, of the wide variety of styles and repertoire in which Steber excelled. Who else could traverse a range of repertoire from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Mozart, Rameau to Wagner, Berlioz to Romberg with such ease and joyful authority? Not only do I explore her longevity, I explore her unparalleled prowess as a vocal technician; as well as her well-documented bad treatment by the Metropolitan Opera and its then-general manager, Rudolf Bing. I also look at the recordings that Steber and her then-husband, Michelle’s father, produced on their own ST/AND label in the early sixties, and then hear Steber sing some quintessentially American music from classic musicals. Along the way, I consider some serious topics, including betrayal, alcoholism, and the power of embedded memory. Finally, I consider the possibility that Eleanor Steber’s celebrated portrayal of Minnie in La fanciulla del West might just offer a possible solution for the divisiveness and political turmoil in which our country currently finds itself. Featured guest singers on the episode include Nelson Eddy, Brian Sullivan, Rosalind Elias, and Jussi Björling; musical collaborators include Dimitri Mitropoulos, Igor Kipnis, Allen Rogers, Fritz Stiedry, and her frequent concert and radio collaborators Howard Barlow and Edwin Biltcliffe.

Episode 269. Alberta Hunter

June 27, 2024African American Singers, Black History Month, Black History Month 2024, Broadway, Comic Relief, Forgotten Divas, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Spirituals, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAaron Bell, Al Casey, Al Hall, Al Matthews, Alberta Hunter, Allie Moore, Benjamin Frankel, Bessie Smith, Billy Butler, Budd Johnson, Buster Bailey, Butch Miles, Carl Falck, Charles Shavers, Clarence Williams, Cliff Jackson, Connie Kay, Darnell Howard, Doc Cheatham, Eddie Heywood Jr., Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, Frank Wess, Gerald Cook, Henri Varna, Irving Berlin, J.C. Higginbotham, J.C. Johnson, Jack Jackson, Jackie Williams, James Bunting, James P. Johnson, Jasper Taylor, Jimmy Archey, Jimmy Lewis, John Hammond, Leroy Jones, Lew Pollack, Lil Armstrong, Lovie Austin, Mike Jackson, Norris Turney, Paul Francis Webster, Pops Foster, Radio Parade of 1935, Richard Jones, Rudolf Sieczyński, Sam Clanton, Sidney de Paris, Vic Dickenson, Vincent Scotto, Vishnu Wood, W.C. Handy, Wally Richardson, Wellman Braud, Zutty Singletoncountermelody

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Please join me today for this overview of the roller coaster career of Alberta Hunter (01 April 1895 – 17 October 1984), a jazz legend whose surprising and extraordinary life was shaped by a voice that simply personified the Blues. Early in her life, around the time she was 15, she fled her native Memphis for Chicago, where, with tenacity, grit, and ambition, she became the darling of the night club circuit, performing sometimes under tommy-gun-adjacent circumstances. She soon made her way to Broadway and, following the lead of her compatriots, Joséphine Baker, Adelaide Hall, Florence Mills, and Elisabeth Welch, to Paris and London, where she was the toast of the town and appeared as Queenie opposite Paul Robeson in the original London production of Show Boat. Later during and after World War II she became a fixture of the USO circuit. Following the death of her mother, she abandoned her performing career and took up nursing in her sixties. After her enforced retirement twenty years later, through a set of freaky coincidences, she made a miraculous return to live performing at the age of 82 and became an overnight sensation, the toast of three continents. She always returned to her ongoing residency at a club in the Village called The Cookery, the venue where the final chapter of her career began. She continued to perform and record until shortly before her death just before her 90th birthday. Though she lived her life discreetly and never came out overtly, she nevertheless was involved with women throughout her life and formed her strongest emotional and romantic bonds with them. Sassy, raunchy, and gritty on the surface, Hunter possessed a voice and ingratiating style of such honesty, humor, and character, that masked a modesty hidden beneath that brash exterior, and a musical sensibility that dazzles with its ease, subtlety, and complexity. Featured musical excerpts, both studio and live, extend over more than 60 years and include collaborations with such jazz giants as Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, Lovie Austin, Charlie Shavers, and producer John Hammond and includes a clip from her appearance in the British film Radio Parade of 1935.

Episode 260. Robert McFerrin Revisited

May 2, 2024African American Singers, Black History Month 2024, Claudia Muzio, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, SpiritualsAida, Alfred Hay Malotte, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Avery Robinson, Bobby McFerrin, Giuseppe Verdi, Hall Johnson, Harry T. Burleigh, Marl Young, Norman Johnson, Robert McFerrin, Spirituals, Sylvia Olden Lee, Vincenzo Bellezza, William Grant Still, William Lawrencecountermelody

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In the very first season of Countermelody I presented an episode which featured both Lawrence Winters and Robert McFerrin, two of the most significant baritones of the twentieth century, and both trail-blazing African American singers. Last week I revisited the life, career, and recordings of Lawrence Winters, and this week, as a companion to that episode, I present today his contemporary Robert McFerrin (19 March 1921 – 24 November 2006), the first African American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. He made his first appearance with the company as Amonasro in Aida on Thursday January 27, 1955, twenty days after Marian Anderson’s legendary debut there. McFerrin sang only ten performances of three roles under the banner of the Met, eight of them in the house, and two on tour. His final performance there, also as Amonasro, took place almost exactly two years after his debut there. Five months later in June 1957, McFerrin went into the studios of Riverside Records, and, accompanied by the pianist Norman Johnson, and over the course of two days, recorded this legendary album of spirituals, his only solo album, which is heard in its entirety in this episode. I am not alone in considering this a classic of the genre. My presentation of all fourteen tracks of this album is supplemented by three recordings that McFerrin made in 1946 for the short-lived Sunbeam Records label, the brainchild of composer and arranger Marl Henderson Young, who provides the accompaniments. At the other end of the spectrum is a guest appearance that McFerrin, Sr. made on a 1990 recording by his son, superstar singer, composer, and arranger Bobby McFerrin. I also feature a recently unearthed live recording of McFerrin singing Amonasro live in Napoli in 1956, as well as a moving recording of McFerrin performing live in Washington DC in 1995, after having suffered a debilitating stroke that left him virtually unable to speak. Nevertheless, the song, however compromised, was still in his heart.

Episode 258. (Frank) Lopardopalooza

April 18, 2024Bel canto, Forgotten Divas, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Tenors, Interview, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers in Old Age, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAlberto Zedda, Alexandre Dumas, Andrew Davis, Antonio García Gutiérrez, Antonio Somma, Arrigo Boito, Ascher Fisch, Bruno Campanella, Carl Orff, Carmina Burana, Cesare Sterbini, Cosi fan tutte, Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Don Giovanni, Donald Runnicles, Eugène Scribe, Felice Romani, Francesco Maria Piave, Frank Lopardo, Gaetano Donizetti, Georg Solti, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Giuseppe Verdi, Henri Murger, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il Turco in Italia, Ion Marin, Jean-François Bayard, John Fiore, Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, Kathleen Kim, La Boheme, La fille du regiment, La Traviata, Lorenzo da Ponte, Lucia di Lammermoor, Luigi Illica, Marco Armiliato, Messa da Requiem (Verdi), Michel Trempont, Pierre Beaumarchais, Riccardo Muti, Robert Spano, Robert White, Salvadore Cammarano, Seiji Ozawa, Semiramide, Simon Boccanegra, Sondra Radvanovsky, Un ballo in maschera, Verónica Villarroel, Walter Scott, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Today I present to you the American lyric tenor Frank Lopardo, who from 1984 through 2014 appeared in all the major opera houses of the world, celebrated particularly for his Mozart and Rossini roles. Too often today these superb singers even from the recent past are forgotten by today’s audiences, and my listeners know that it is always a mission of mine to celebrate great artists who, for whatever reason, are not in the forefront of the public’s awareness. In Frank’s case, I suggest it has absolutely nothing to do with his stellar voice and astounding technique. Some singers are content to do their job and live their lives and serve the music and the art form to the best of their considerable abilities without engaging in antics or self-destructive behavior. A quick glance at Frank’s accomplishments and the musicians with whom he collaborated makes it immediately clear that his career unfolded naturally and organically at the highest levels. Today’s episode explores the infinite variety of Lopardo’s artistry and his impeccable musicianship and technique, which aided him in his pursuit of always discovering new aspects of the central roles in his career. Conductors with whom he collaborated (and as heard on the episode) include Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, Ion Marin, Riccardo Muti, Robert Spano, and the late Seiji Ozawa. While Lopardo was never tempted to move outside the natural confines of his lyric voice, he did in the final years of his career, move into some of Verdi’s larger lyric tenor parts, in operas like Un ballo in maschera and Simon Boccanegra, both of which are sampled here. We also hear Frank in duet with some of his favorite colleagues, including memorable Chilean sopranos Verónica Villarroel and Cristina Gallardo-Domâs. It was all I could do not to entitle this episode Lopardopalooza, ‘cause that’s exactly what it is!

Episode 256. Mari Lyn’s Golden Treasury of Chutzpah (Alternate Universe Bel Canto III)

April 1, 2024Alternate Universe Bel Canto, Comic Relief, Forgotten Divas, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Interview, Needle Drop, Singers in Old Age, Verismo, Voiceless WondersBelgravia Philharmonia Symphonica Orchestra, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Golden Treasury of Song, Howard Salat, Mari Lyn, Marilyn Sosman, Natalia de Andrade, Thomas Bagwellcountermelody

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Many of my listeners look forward with eager anticipation to my annual April Fool’s episodes, and today’s packs a particularly powerful punch! A few months back my friend Thomas Bagwell, a perpetual friend of the podcast, told me he had a dub of a rare recording on Philips Records [sic] by the New York-based soprano Mari Lyn, well known as the Singing Hostess of the 1980s public access cable television program The Golden Treasury of Song. On the spurious LP she sings Verdi and Puccini arias accompanied (sort of) by her artistic collaborator Howard Salat (of the Local 802) leading the “Belgravia Philharmonia Symphonica Orchestra” [sic]. If any of you remember Ms. Lyn from my previous Alternate Universe Bel Canto episodes, you will know that she packs a vocal punch that can leave you reeling (and your ears ringing!) I actually convinced Thomas to get on the horn with me yesterday from Copenhagen and we recorded a spirited conversation in which we discuss everything from Easter bonnets to theater organs to cranky Unitarians to defective blenders to aging ingénues to Lee Press-On Nails to Oscar the Grouch to Queens, Europe to the power of parlando before we get down to the true business of the day: singing the praises of our alternate universe diva, Marilyn Sosman (known to vocal aficionados the world over as Mari Lyn), she of the indestructible vocal bands, lofty wigs, and life-affirming (and -altering) costume jewelry. This whimsical episode strips Mari Lyn of her wigs, gowns, and accountrements (in a figurative sense only) leaving her only with her most powerful asset: that legendary Sherman tank of a voice. Armed with that voice, she refashions some of the most popular arias of Verdi and Puccini, and, thanks to her imaginative use of the Italian language; her refusal to conform to the strait-jacket of the printed page; and her idiosyncratic use of pitch, rhythm, and vocal color; renders them unrecognizable in the process. Not only is the music transformed, but so are we, her fans, who listen on in horrified fascination at what she will think of next. Evviva Mari Lyn!

Episode 251. Jeremy Osborne Introduces Igor Gorin (Listeners’ Favorites)

March 18, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, Broadway, Crossover, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Interview, Lieder, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Richard Wagner, Singers in Old Age, Singers of ColorAdolf Baller, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Sarti, Antonio Vivaldi, Attila (Verdi), Avodath Hakodesh (Bloch), Daniel Strahilevitz, Donald Voorhees, Ernest Bloch, Francis Poulenc, Fritz Kreisler, Gaetano Donizetti, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Henry Penn, Howard Barlow, Idabelle Firestone, Igor Gorin, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Irving Berlin, Jeremy Osborne, Johann Sebastian Bach, Maria di Rohan (Donizetti), Max Rabinowitsch, Maximilian Pilzer, Mischa Spoliansky, Modest Mussorgsky, Nathaniel Shilkret, Pagliacci, Richard Wagner, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Russian Folk Songs, Stella Roman, Wilfred Pelletier, William G. Jamescountermelody

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Today’s segment in the Great Baritones division of my Listeners’ Favorites series is introduced by my friend, baritone Jeremy Osborne, like me an American expat in Berlin. In the nearly ten years that I have known him, Jeremy has developed into a fine singer of both opera and art song. Through talent, determination, and hard work, Jeremy is forging a well-deserved place for himself in the music world. The singer he has chosen to introduce on this episode is the the great Ukranian-American baritone Igor Gorin (1904-1982). Jeremy shares with us the story of how he first became acquainted with Gorin’s exceptional talent. and the context in which he, like me, was bowled over by the sheer beauty of his voice. If one made such ranking lists, in fact, we would probably both place him near the top of a “Most Beautiful Baritone Voices Ever” list. Gorin’s is a fascinating life story, beginning in pre-Soviet Ukraine and moving back and forth from Vienna to the United States until finally, with forged documents, he emigrated to the US and became a naturalized citizen. Through a series of happy circumstances, he became one of the top US radio stars of the 1930s and 1940s and eventually appeared as well on early television broadcasts. A career in regional opera resulted, which reached its apex with starring roles at Lyric Opera of Chicago and a single appearance at the Metropolitan Opera at the age of 59. This episode features live, radio, and studio performances by Gorin in opera, operetta, Broadway, and folk and art songs over a period of nearly 40 years, including a live late career performance of Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh, in which he returned to his cantorial roots. Whether you, like Jeremy, are already a passionate devotee of this artist, or if this is your first encounter with him, you are in for a treat.

A bonus episode on Igor Gorin on my Patreon page, produced at the time this episode was first heard more than three years ago, includes complete performances of two constrasting song cycles by Modest Mussorgsky, The Nursery and the Songs and Dances of Death.

Episode 250. Julian Long Introduces Jorma Hynninen (Listeners’ Favorites)

March 13, 2024Art Song, Crossover, Finnish Opera, Great Baritones, Gustav Mahler, Happy Birthday, Interview, Lieder, Listeners' Favorites, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Pop Icons, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century MusicCesare Bixio, Die schöne Müllerin, Eduard Mörike, Eliahu Inbal, Erik Bergman, Ernst Josephson, Franz Schubert, Fredrik Pacius, Gustav Mahler, Heikki Sarmanto, Hugo Wolf, J.H. Erkko, Jean Sibelius, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Jorma Hynninen, Jorma Panula, Julian Long, Kalevi Kiviniemi, Kiril Kozlovsky, Kullervo Karjalainen, Leif Segerstam, Markku Johansson, Oskar Merikanto, Pentti Koskimies, Ralf Gothoni, Robert Schumann, Selim Palmgren, Soile Isokoski, Taneli Kuusisto, Toivo Kuula, Väino Hannikainen, Wilhelm Müller, Yrjö Kilpinencountermelody

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(Leavin’ on a jet plane this afternoon, so posting a day or so early!)

It is a wonderful thing when friends share a favorite singer. Such is the case with my friend of long-standing, Julian Long (once one reaches a certain age, one no longer uses the term “old friend”). As part of this month’s series of Listeners’ Favorites episodes, Julian has been kind enough to record a new intro for a Countermelody episode that I posted three years ago as a birthday tribute to the marvelous Finnish baritone Jorma Hynninen, who on April 3 will celebrate his 83rd birthday. Unlike me, Julian heard Hynninen many times in both opera and, especially, recital. This episode focuses on Hynninen’s prowess as a singer of art song, beginning with some choice German Lieder recordings, but ultimately focusing on the songs of his native Finland. We hear Hynninen in performances across the span of his entire career, from 1968 through 2015. Needless to say, their great compatriot Jean Sibelius is foregrounded, but, there are a surprising number of fascinating composers in this magisterial country whose work also rewards exploration. If the music of Oskar Merikanto, Yrjö Kilpinen, Erik Bergman, Selim Palmgren, Fredrik Pacius, Väino Hannikainen, Taneli Kuusisto, or Toivo Kuula is not familiar to you, prepare to be delighted, surprised, and moved by the depth and variety of their creation. Soile Isokoski also joins Hynninen in an excerpt from the cantata Der Ochs und sein Hirte by Hynninen’s multi-talented pianist Rolf Gothóni, who is heard in many of the selections. The program concludes with Hynninen’s perusal of both pop standards and tango, both sung in Finnish. Don’t mind Julian and me as we go off to individually nurse our mutual crush!

Episode 247. Sarah Pillow Introduces Eileen Farrell (Listeners’ Favorites)

March 5, 2024Art Song, Broadway, Comic Relief, Crossover, Eileen Farrell, French Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Lieder, Listeners' Favorites, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Richard Wagner, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaAdolph Green, Alec Wilder, André Kostelanetz, Andre Previn, Betty Comden, Buddy DeSylva, Charles Fox, Claude Debussy, Depuis le jour, Die Walküre, Dory Langdon, Dory Langdon Previn, Dory Previn, Edvard Grieg, Eileen Farrell, George Gershwin, Gian Carlo Menotti, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustave Charpentier, Harold Arlen, Helen Traubel, House of Flowers, Ira Gershwin, James Agee, Johnny Mercer, Jule Styne, Knoxville Summer of 1915, La forza del destino, Leonard Bernstein, Londonderry Air (Danny Boy), Loonis McGlohon, Lorenz Hart, Luther Henderson, Marc Wagnon, Maurice Ravel, Milton Rogers, Mitchell Parish, My Funny Valentine, Norman Gimble, On the Town, Oscar Hammerstein II, Peer Gynt, Percy Faith, Peter DeRose, Renato Cellini, Richard Rodgers, Richard Wagner, Robert Farnon, Robert Katscher, Samuel Barber, Sarah Pillow, The Consul, The Lamp Is Low, Tony Green, Truman Capote, Victor Herbert, William Engvick, William Lawescountermelody

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My dear friend and colleague soprano Sarah Pillow introduces one of her favorite Countermelody programs, which I repost as the first of this month’s Listeners’ Favorites episodes. Since Sarah is herself an enormously eclectic singer, it’s entirely fitting that she should choose to foreground Eileen Farrell. The American dramatic soprano Eileen Farrell (1920–2002) was one of the finest and most versatile singers the United States has ever produced. Her singing career lasted more than fifty years, and this episode covers the entire chronological range of that career, from her early work as a radio singer in the 1940s to her final pop albums in the 1990s. While the episode focuses on her crossover work (and includes work by, among others, Harold Arlen, Jule Styne, Alec Wilder, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, as heard on two of her lesser-known pop albums with Percy Faith and the late André Previn), we also sample her opera and concert work, with examples from Verdi and Wagner to Debussy and Charpentier, to Barber and Menotti. A late reunion with her favorite conductor Leonard Bernstein caps the episode. In all her singing Farrell combines ease of delivery and a relaxed, insouciant response to the words and music with a vocal and interpretive precision that inevitably strikes a bullseye. Bow down to the Queen of Crossover, nay, the Queen of Song!

Episode 243. Ethel Ennis (BHM 2024)

February 21, 2024African American Singers, Black History Month, Black History Month 2024, Broadway, Forgotten Divas, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century MusicAbie Baker, Arthur Herzog Jr., Benny Goodman, Bernard Ighner, Billie Holiday, Billy Taylor, Buddy DeSylva, Dave Wolpe, Eddie Briggs, Ethel Ennis, Frank Churchill, George Duvivier, George Gershwin, Gladys Shelley, Hank Jones, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Jerry Bock, Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Van Heusen, Jimmy Wells, Johnny Burke, Kenny Clarke, Larry Morey, Lew Brown, Lewis Gensler, Lorenz Hart, Mark Russell, Neal Hefti, Oscar Hammerstein II, Osie Johnson, Ray Henderson, Richard Rodgers, Robert Haynes, Ryan Diehl, Sheldon Harnick, Sid Bass, Sid Feller, Slam Stewart, Stef Scaggiari, Walt Namuth, Yip Harburgcountermelody

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Today’s “Forgotten Diva” takes us outside of the realm of opera and into the rich musical field of jazz. I have been in musical heaven the past few days as I’ve been savoring the output of the great Ethel Ennis (28 November 1932 – 17 February 2019). In her native Baltimore she was known as the “First Lady of Jazz,” and while this might cause some persons to look askance at such a claim, I can only say that they have not yet sampled the vocal, musical and interpretive majesty that is Ethel Ennis! Because of her superlative gifts, worldwide fame kept nipping at her heels, and yet she had no interest in being “famous.” She just wanted to make music, and that’s exactly what she did, remaining in the city of her birth, where she performed regularly at certain clubs, including one she and her husband Earl Arnett ran in the 1980s called “Ethel’s Place.” She had recording contracts with both Capitol Records and RCA, for whom she released some monumental albums in the 1950s and 1960s, and later in her career, as her artistry become more refined, burnished, and inward-looking, she also recorded a number of spectacular live recordings on small, independent labels. Recordings sampled on this episode cover the musical gamut from the Great American Songbook to quirky non-standards, to contemporary pop. If you hear Ethel Ennis interpret just one song, I predict that you will become an immediate fan for life.

Episode 242. Damon Evans Introduces George Shirley (Listeners’ Favorites IX)

February 19, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Black History Month, Black History Month 2024, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, Interview, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Queer Pride, Renata Scotto, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This week I present a Countermelody mini-series paying tribute to three great African American artists who were born in Baltimore. First up is the eclectic, versatile, and prodigiously talented Damon Evans, who introduces the latest Listeners’ Favorites episode, a tribute to an idol we both treasure, the phenomenal and pathbreaking George Shirley, who on April 18 will celebrate his 90th birthday. Damon chose to do his introduction as an interview, so as a prelude to the main episode, my listeners get to hear one amazing tenor sing the praises of another one!

George Shirley is one of the most versatile tenors of the second half of the twentieth century, and a pathbreaker as the first African American tenor to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. I first encountered him through his matchless portrayal of Pelléas in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande opposite Elisabeth Söderström. But his Mozart is equally celebrated: the podcast also features live and studio recordings of George Shirley as Tamino (opposite Judith Raskin), Don Ottavio, Ferrando (opposite Leontyne Price), as well as his extraordinary Idomeneo. Extant live performances of George Shirley including assumptions of roles as diverse as Don José (opposite Shirley Verrett), David in Die Meistersinger, Pinkerton (opposite the late Renata Scotto in an incandescent early performance of one of her greatest roles), Mephistopheles in Busoni’s Doktor Faust, and even Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos. All of these are included in the episode, as are rare recordings of art songs and spirituals from throughout his career. Raise a glass to the great George Shirley and join me in thanking him for having shared so generously with us his extraordinary artistic gifts!

Episode 238. Delcina Stevenson (BHM2024)

February 2, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, Black History Month, Black History Month 2024, Broadway, Crossover, Forgotten Divas, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Verismo, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAida, Alessandra Marc, Alexander Pushkin, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Armen Guzelimian, Auguste Mariette Bey, Camille du Locle, Claudio Guastalla, David Atkins, Delcina Stevenson, Dina van Driesten, Edward Boatner, Eugene W. Hancock, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustave Charpentier, Hans Wiers-Jenssen, Heinrich Heine, Jean Périsson, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Shore, La Fiamma (Respighi), Louise (Charpentier), Maurice Jarre, Oscar Wilde, Ottorino Respighi, Péchés de vieillesse, Robert Bass, Sergei Rachmaninov, Sharon Davis, Spirituals, Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd, T.K. Wang, Tania Agins, Ted Puffer, Vincent Mitzelfelt, William Pillin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I am so grateful to all the listeners who did introductions to their favorite episodes last month. It provided me with a little bit of needed breathing space and now I am back raring to go with my first new episode for 2024, just in time for Black History Month 2024! There is a secondary theme for this month which is “Forgotten Divas,” a favorite topic of mine at any time of year. The term “forgotten” needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because these women are anything but forgotten among those who experienced their singing, teaching, or friendship live and in person. Nevertheless, for want of a better term (Divas Who Deserve to Be As Well-Remembered as Any of Their More Famous Counterparts seems a little wordy), I’ll stick with the designation I chose.

Today’s artist is the only “Forgotten Diva” who is still with us, soprano Delcina Stevenson, born 29 September 1933, so this enables me to also “give flowers” (to coin a present-day term I actually like) to her directly. She was born in Kansas and graduated from Kansas University. After moving to California in 1960, she coached and studied with Lotte Lehmann, Gwendolyn Koldofsky, Martial Singher, and William Vennard, and was a protégée early in her career of Kurt Herbert Adler at the San Francisco Opera. She has lived and performed around the world, primarily in California, New York, and Germany. She possessed one of the most exquisite lyric soprano voices I have ever heard, one which never aged, but simply grew more lush and voluminous. The musical excerpts I have compiled feature her in live and studio recordings from over the course of more than 30 years, ranging Mozart to Sondheim to Rossini, in which that voice is on shimmering display. I am thrilled to introduce (or reintroduce) her to you.

Episode 236. Howard Hart Introduces Christa Ludwig (Listeners’ Favorites VII)

January 23, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, Broadway, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Interview, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Orchestral Songs, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAlban Berg, Charles Spencer, Christa Ludwig, Cosi fan tutte, Das Lied von der Erde, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Fidelio, Franz Schubert, Gioacchino Rossini, Gloria Davy, Gundula Janowitz, Gustav Mahler, Gwyneth Jones, Herbert von Karajan, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Jonathan Alder, Karl Böhm, Karl Richter, La Cenerentola, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Ludwig, Lohengrin, Lovro von Matačić, Ludwig van Beethoven, Reri Grist, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Victoria de los Angeles, Walter Berry, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wozzeckcountermelody

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My friend and fellow opera podcaster Howard Hart introduces the first of this week’s Listeners’ Favorites episodes, my 2021 tribute to the superb zwischenfach singer Christa Ludwig, who died nearly three years ago. Ludwig was a singer whose repertoire centered around the great German composers but who also sang Verdi and French repertoire with stunning results; a mezzo-soprano who was unparalleled in Wagner, Mahler, and Brahms, but who also sang the great soprano heroines of Richard Strauss; a Lieder singer of great perception and textual acuity whose supple technique nonetheless was centered on legato singing: the greatness of this artist simply cannot be overestimated. I focus on the key composers (Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Wagner) and conductors (Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, and Leonard Bernstein) with whom she was most closely associated, while also examining some roles that might surprise you: Cenerentola, Amneris and Marie in Wozzeck. Vocal guest stars include Gloria Davy, Victoria de los Ángeles, Reri Grist, Gundula Janowitz, Gwyneth Jones, and Ludwig’s one-time husband Walter Berry. Thank you, Howard, for lending your enthusiasm and passion to my podcast in your introduction of one of your (and my) favorite singers.

Episode 225. Joya Sherrill

November 29, 2023African American Singers, Behind the Iron Curtain, Black History Month, Comic Relief, Interview, Mezzo Madness, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicA Drum Is a Woman, Barney Bigard, Benny Goodman, Billy Strayhorn, Bob Russell, Doc Pomus, Don George, Duke Ellington, Ernie Harper, Harold Ashby, Ian Grant, Irving Gordon, Irving Mills, Jack Scholl, Jimmy Jones, John Lamb, Johnny Hodges, Joya Sherrill, Lionel Rand, Luther Henderson, M.K. Jerome, Mack David, Manny Kurtz, Mort Shulman, René Hall, Sam Woodyardcountermelody

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This week’s episode is the first in what I hope will be a series featuring vocalists who performed with Duke Ellington, Today’s artist is the playful and sophisticated Joya Sherrill (20 August 1924 – 28 June 2010) who, by a series of happy “accidents,” became one of the best-remembered and most enduring of Ellington’s songsters while still a teenager. For she was not only a musically- and vocally-gifted singer, she was also a lyricist and composer. She herself composed the lyrics to the Billy Strayhorn classic “Take the ‘A’ Train,” as well as another Ellington standard, “Kissing Bug,” she also was the first singer to record “I’m Beginning to See the Light” and numerous other Ellington and Strayhorn standards. Though she left the Ellington Orchestra before 1950, she continued to appear with them in various projects, including his 1957 television extravaganza A Drum Is a Woman (alongside soprano Margaret Tynes), and My People, his 1963 extravaganza commemorating the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation. She also performed with the Benny Goodman Orchestra on their 1962 tour of Russia, and was the first African American host of a children’s television program, Time for Joya (later renamed Joya’s Fun School) which began in 1970 and ran in reruns until 1982 on local New York television. In this endeavor she was assisted by another powerhouse Black musician, Luther Henderson, who also arranged and conducted her altogether individual 1959 studio album, Sugar and Spice, which put a sophisticated spin on old Mother Goose rhymes. As late as 1994 she continued to perform and record the music of Duke Ellington and others. Here is an artist whose combination of élan and exuberance is well worth rediscovering and celebrating.

Episode 223. Chouxbert vs. Shubertsky (Schubert in French and Russian)

November 14, 2023Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Great Baritones, Great Tenors, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Orchestral Songs, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Voiceless WondersAbram Makarov, Antoine Bélanger, Boris Gmyrya, Camille Maurane, Charles Panzéra, Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, Claude Pascal, David Lerner, Die schöne Müllerin, Eugene Goossens, Feodor Chaliapin, Flore Wend, Franz Schubert, Georges Thill, Germaine Martinelli, Gustave Samazeuilh, Henri-Bertrand Etcheverry, Ivan Kozlovsky, Jean Doyen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lev Ostrin, Lev Sibiriakov, Lily Bienvenu, Ludwig Rellstab, Madeleine d’Aleman, Mark Reizen, Matvei Sakharov, Maurice Chassang, Natalia Rozhdestvenskaya, Naum Walter, Nina Dorliak, Ninon Vallin, Pavel Lisitsian, Piero Coppola, Piotr Nikitin, Raoul Barthalay, Samuil Samosud, Sergei Lemeshev, Sergey Gorchakov, Sviatoslav Richter, Vanni-Marcoux, Wilhelm Müller, Winterreisecountermelody

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A few weeks ago I finally found a copy of a rare recording by one of my favorite singers, the baryton martin Camille Maurane (1911 – 2010) in which he sings Schubert songs in French. Inspired and fascinated by this record, I began exploring recordings of other native French-language singers (including Ninon Vallin, Charles Panzéra, Georges Thill, Vanni-Marcoux, and Germaine Martinelli) singing the melodies of my favorite composers. Further on, I stumbled across a similarly wide variety of Russian-speaking singers (including Ivan Kozlovsky, Mark Reizen, Pavel Lisitsian, Sergei Lemeshev, Nina Dorliak, and Feodor Chaliapin) also putting their individual stamp on the songs of Schubert in their native tongue. Along the way, we also discuss certain quintessential vocal types in both the French (the baryton martin, the falcon) and Russian (the lyric tenor, the “slavic” soprano and bass) national styles. This episode, far from being a mere “gimmick” allows us also to examine the joys of old-fashioned art song performance, and how all these characteristics combine to provide a new perspective on the music of one of the greatest German-language composers.

Episode 212. Ian Partridge

August 31, 2023Art Song, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century MusicArnold Bax, Arnold Schoenberg, Benjamin Britten, Brian Etheridge, Bruno Turner, Charles Spinks, Christopher Bishop, Christopher Wilson, Claudio Monteverdi, Colin Davis, Colin Tilney, David Willcocks, Detlev von Liliencron, Edward Shanks, Eric Crozier, Ernest Ansermet, Franz Schubert, Fredegond Shove, Frederick Delius, George Frideric Handel, Georges Bizet, Grayston Burgess, Hector Berlioz, Heinrich Schütz, Henry Purcell, Hermannus Contractus, Hugh Bean, Ian Partridge, Ivor Gurney, Jakob Lindberg, James Griffett, Janet Craxton, Jennifer Partridge, Jill Gomez, Johann Mayrhofer, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Jürgen Jürgens, Kevin Smith, Les Troyens, Louis Halsey, Michael Dussek, Moritz Horn, Nigel Rogers, Norman Walker, Ottavio Rinuccini, Paul Beier, Peter Warlock, Philip Heseltine, Philip Sidnely, Pierre Boulez, Pro Cantione Antiqua, Prunella Scales, Queen Victoria, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Burnett, Roger Norrington, Russell Burges, Saint Nicolas, The Fairy Queen, Thomas Beecham, Thomas Betterton, Thomas Campion, Thomas Ford, Walter Scott, William Byrd, William Hunt, William Shakespearecountermelody

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Ian Partridge, the quintessential English lyric tenor, celebrated his 85th birthday in June. I may be a few weeks late in celebrating that event, but my enthusiasm and admiration for this singer has remained at a consistent level ever since I first discovered his voice on a recording of songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Partridge, in fact, has left a vast recorded legacy, including work as both a solo concert artist and recitalist and as a member of such distinguished choral groups as Pro Cantione Antiqua, the Wilbye Consort, and the Louis Halsey Singers. His solo repertoire ranged from 11th century plainsong to the thornier musical 20th century idioms of Schoenberg and Britten. This episode samples the vast array of that recorded legacy, including examples from the Baroque period by Bach, Schütz, Handel, and Monteverdi; through art songs by Schubert, Brahms, Fauré, Bax, Gurney, and Warlock. We also hear him live from Covent Garden in his sole operatic role, the Carthaginian poet Iopas in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, and in lute songs and consort music by Campion and Byrd. In all these performances the voice is produced with such ease, the tone so pure and ethereally beautiful, yet never faked or “finessed,” while the interpretations themselves, no matter the musical style, are full of depth, integrity, and subtlety. Here is an enormously satisfying artist who embodies integrity and dedication to his craft. Guest stars include Jill Gomez, Nigel Rogers, Pierre Boulez, Benjamin Britten, Colin Davis, Ernest Ansermet, Norman Walker, Prunella Scales, and the tenor’s sister, pianist Jennifer Partridge, with whom he gave over 400 song recitals.

Episode 207. Henry Wright and Pals

July 28, 2023African American Singers, Broadway, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Pop Icons, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAcey Prince, Alexander Borodin, Alfredo Bracchi, Anthony Newley, Arthur Rebner, Augusto Martelli, Bataille-Henri, Bill Evans, Biri, Bruno Martelli, Buddy Johnson, Cole Porter, Das Land des Lächelns, Dorsey Burnett, Duke Ellington, Eddie Cooley, Ennio Neri, Erich Korngold, Erich Werner, Francesco Specchia, Franco Calabrese, Franz Lehár, Frasquita, George Forrest, Gianfranco Intra, Gianni Ravera, Giovanni D’Anzi, Giulio Libano, Henry Defreyn, Henry Glover, Henry Wright, Irving Mills, Jimmy Kennedy, Joe Osborn, John Davenport, Johnny Mercer, José María Lacalle García, Joseph Kosma, Juan Tizol, Kismet, Lady Gaga, Leslie Bricusse, Little Willie John, Louis Lemarchand, Mario Buzà, Mario Cenci, Miguel Fleta, Mina, Nathaniel Shilkret, Nolan Lewis, Peggy Lee, Percy Faith, Peter Alexander, Peter Knight, Petula Clark, Ray French, Richard Tauber, Richy Nelson, Robert Stolz, Robert Wright, Romano Mussolini, Sinéad O’Connor, Titus Tee Turner, Tony Bennett, Tony Dallara, Tullio Romano, Vittorio de Sica, Vittorio Mascheronicountermelody

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Today’s episode is first and foremost a tribute to a forgotten African American trailblazer, the pop singer Henry Wright, born in 1933, who, in the late fifties, claimed Italy as his adoptive country after touring there as a vocal soloist with Lionel Hampton. With a voice as suave and seductive as any of the great crooners of the 1950s and 1960s, Henry Wright first came to international prominence as the voice on the record to which Sophia Loren performed her legendary striptease in the 1962 film Ieri, oggi, domani [Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow]. He went on to make a great impact on Italian pop music throughout the 1960s. Your fearless podcaster discovered this fascinating singer almost by accident sometime in the past year and he (that is, I) have been collecting his rare and valuable recordings which I am thrilled to share with my listening public. Many of these songs exist in earlier versions, either from the Great American Songbook, from Italian films, from early American singers of R&B, from Italian pop stars of the 1950s, even from Viennese operetta! So I had the idea of playing those original versions alongside Henry Wright’s recordings. Thus you will encounter singers like Ricky Nelson, Peggy Lee, Tony Dallara, Peter Alexander, Mina, Petula Clark, Vittorio de Sica (who in his acting days was an Italian matinee idol!) and even opera legends Miguel Fleta and Richard Tauber. It’s a fascinating episode (if I do say so myself!) and I am thrilled beyond words to introduce the seductive, charming, compelling Henry Wright to my listeners. The episode begins with memorial tributes to recently departed pop music greats Tony Bennett and Sinéad O’Connor.

Episode 205. Eileen Farrell: Bach/Pop

July 13, 2023Broadway, Canadian Singers, Crossover, Eileen Farrell, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century MusicAlec Wilder, Andre Previn, Bach Aria Group, Bart Howard, Bernard Greenhouse, Bob Merrill, Earl Schuster, Eileen Farrell, Erich Itor Kahn, Frank Brieff, Funny Girl, Gay Paree, Harold Arlen, Harry Shulman, I Married an Angel, Joe Wilder, Johann Sebastian Bach, Jule Styne, Julius Baker, Loonis McGlohon, Lorenz Hart, Luther Henderson, Maurice Wilk, Morgan Lewis, Nancy Hamilton, Norman Farrow, Paul Ulanowsky, Percy Faith, Pete Stowe, Richard Rodgers, Robert Bloom, Robert Farnon, Samuel Baron, Terry Peoples, The Wizard of Oz, Yip Harburgcountermelody

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Eileen Farrell (13 February 1920 – 23 March 2002) was one of the finest and most versatile singers that the United States has ever produced. She began her career as a radio singer, the star of her own program, Eileen Farrell Sings, which ran from 1941 to 1945, which offered a wide range of music from the pop songs of the era to opera. In the 1950s and early 1960s Farrell was involved with the legendary Bach Aria Group, originally founded in 1946 by scholar and philanthropist William H. Scheide, which consisted of a quartet of singers (which in Farrell’s time included tenor Jan Peerce, alto Carol Smith, and bass Norman Farrow) and a group of the most gifted instrumental soloists of the era (including oboist Robert Bloom, flautist Julius Baker, and violinist Maurice Wilk). Alongside their pathbreaking performances, they made a series of celebrated recordings for RCA and American Decca, excerpts of which are heard on this episode. Though Farrell had a huge voice, it was well-suited to the music of Bach, which she performed with suppleness, flexibility, poise, and power. Farrell may have been but a reluctant opera star, but her most long-lasting musical love was probably the Great American Songbook. Years beyond her official retirement, indeed well into her 70s, she continued to record both standards and less-familiar material, and her recordings of pop songs from the 1960s through the 1990s – buoyant, playful, perceptive, often heartbreaking and always deeply musical – form a substantial component of her recorded legacy. In this episode I contrast her performances of these two disparate styles of music, recorded over the course of forty years, to shed light on her continuing supremacy among American sopranos.

Episode 201. Britten – Pears (Pride 2023)

June 16, 2023Art Song, Comic Relief, Drag Performance, Great Tenors, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Queer Pride, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaA Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Shropshire Lad, A.E. Housman, Aaron Copland, Adrian Mitchell, Alexander Pushkin, Anton Friedrich Reil, Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, Charles Dibdin, Claudio Arrau, Colin McPhee, Curlew River, Death in Venice, Dichterliebe, E.M. Forster, Eric Crozier, Francis Quarles, Frank Bridge, Franz Schubert, Gabriel Faure, Georg Friedrich Daumer, George Crabbe, Glenda Jackson, Gustav Holst, Heather Harper, Heinrich Heine, Herman Melville, Humbert Wolfe, Johannes Brahms, Kanze Jūrō, La bonne chanson, Leslie Woodgate, Liebeslieder-Walzer, Meredith Davies, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Montagu Slater, Myfanwy Piper, On this Island, Paul Verlaine, Peter Grimes, Peter Pears, Peter Warlock, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reginald Goodall, Richard Peaslee, Robert Schumann, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Stevie Smith, Sumidagawa, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Mann, W.H. Auden, War Requiem, Wilfred Owen, William Butler Yeats, William Plomer, William Shakespeare, Winter Words, Yevgeny Onegin, Zorian String Quartetcountermelody

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Today’s episode explores the lives and loves of two of the most significant figures in twentieth century music: Benjamin Britten, the dean of British composers and the tenor Peter Pears, his partner, lover, inspiration and muse for nearly forty years. When as a lost young gay boy I first encountered their music-making I intuited that these two men were lovers, that they represented a way forward for me out of a lonely and forlorn childhood. Whether in the many songs and cycles that Britten fashioned for him or the operatic roles, beginning with the title role of Peter Grimes, that were tailor-made for him, Pears remains the ideal interpreter of his partner’s music, possessed as he was of a distinctive (some would say peculiar) voice, supple, reedy yet surprisingly powerful, along with pinpoint musical precision, plangent expressivity and dramatic aptitude. The episode features excerpts from many of Britten’s most explicitly gay compositions, surprising for a man living in Britain while sex between men was still illegal, including the operas Peter Grimes, Curlew River, Billy Budd, and Death in Venice and his settings of poetry by Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Auden, and Francis Quarles. We also hear Pears and Britten in live and recorded performance of songs and arias by other composers, including composers Britten revered (Schumann, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Frank Bridge), and those of whose music he was much less fond (including Vaughan Williams and Brahms). The episode contains more biographical information than your typical Countermelody episode, and does not shy away from some of the thorniest questions that one must confront when discussing these two controversial figures. But in the end it is first and foremost a celebration of the music Britten and Pears made together and the love they shared for 40 years. The episode begins with a heartfelt (and heartbroken) tribute to the great Glenda Jackson, who died this week at the age of 87.

Episode 200. Whole Lotta Lotte (Lehmann!)

June 9, 2023Art Song, Giacomo Puccini, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Orchestral Songs, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, VerismoAlfred Maria Willner, Amin Maalouf, Anne Sofie von Otter, Arabella, Arturo Toscanii, Astrud Gilberto, Ben Johnson, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Christian Karlsen, Christian L’Egru, Das Wunder der Heliane, Der Rosenkavalier, Die tote Stadt, Eduard Mörike, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ernő Balogh, Fidelio, Franco Alfano, Franz Lehár, Franz Schubert, Franz von Schober, Georg Philipp Schmidt von Lübeck, Georg Szell, George Szell, Giacomo Puccini, Giovacchino Forzano, Giuseppe Adami, Hans Müller-Einigen, Hermann Weigert, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hugo Wolf, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Sonnleithner, Kaija Saariaho, Käte Heidersbach, Käthe Heidersbach, Klaus Growth, Kurt Robitschek, Lotte Lehmann, Ludwig van Beethoven, Manfred Gurlitt, Paul Ulanowsky, Rainer Maria Rilke, Renato Simoni, Richard Jäger, Richard Strauss Heinrich Hart, Richard Tauber, Richard Wagner, Robert Bodanzky, Robert Schumann, Robert Stolz, Suor Angelica, Turandot, Walter Wanderley, Wilhelm Müllercountermelody

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Today we observe a significant event in the history of Countermelody, namely, our 200th episode! I decided that there was no better way to celebrate than to devote a full episode to the great Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976), who vies with Claudia Muzio as one of my two favorite singers of all time. Lehmann was originally a conservatory flunkie, but somehow got her act together to become one of the most expressive and imaginative singers, both of opera and of art song, that ever lived. From the first time I heard this warm, enveloping voice allied to a theatrical, emotional style of delivery, I was in love. Though I have frequently featured her in individual cuts on the podcast, this is the first time she has been featured on her own episode. She is heard in live, studio, and radio recordings made between the years 1916 and 1958, all of which reveal her in all aspects of her sublime artistry and in the company of some of the greatest artists of her era, from Arturo Toscanini to Richard Tauber to George Szell, to her preferred accompanist, Paul Ulanowsky. Choosing the selections for this week’s program was like reencountering an old friend. The episode begins with a brief tribute to the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who died a week ago at the age of 70 and to the evocative singer Astrud Gilberto, who died this past week at the age of 83.

Episode 199. Tina and the Expats

June 2, 2023African American Singers, Black History Month, Broadway, Crossover, In Memoriam, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Queer Pride, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAdelaide Hall, Al Green, Ann Peebles, Arthur Freed, Barbara Ruskin, Barrett Strong, Beauty Milton, Bertice Reading, Betty Dorsey, Billy Sherrill, British Electric Foundation, Cher, Claus Doll, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Donna Gaines, Donna Summer, Duke Ellington, Elisabeth Welch, Erwin Halletz, Felicia Weathers, Fred Neil, Galt MacDermot, Gene McFadden, Gerome Ragni, Harold M. Kirchstein, Heaven 17, Ike Turner, Irving Gordon, Irving Kahal, Irving Mills, J.C. Johnson, Jacques Brel, James Rado, Jimmy Kennedy, John Lennon, John Whitehead, Joséphine Baker, Jürgen Phil, Keith Mansfield, Ken Leray, Leon Huff, Lotar Olias, Manos Hadzidakis, Michael Carr, Nacio Herb Brown, Nina Simone, Norman Whitfield, Olive Moorefield, Peter Knight, Peter Lahn, Pierre Spiers, Ralf Cromy, Roger Desbois, Roger Spooner, Salena Jones, Sammy Fain, Steve Gillette, Sylvia Robinson, Tammy Wynette, Tina Turner, Vickie Henderson, Walter Brandin, Zack Laurencecountermelody

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If you’re like me (and I hope that, at least in this way, you are!) you have adored Tina Turner since you first became aware of her. In my case, it was circa 1971, seeing her perform “Proud Mary” on television. At the time I was a pretty snooty (and snotty) kid much more prone to Mahler and Britten than I was to pop music. But something about Tina got to me. And when, against all odds, her star rose again in the 1980s, I was once again drawn into her orbit. So when she died last week in Switzerland, aged 83, I was really thrown for a loop. For a week I racked my brains about how I could pay proper tribute to a figure who, as one of the biggest pop stars in the world, not only changed the face of music, but also of our culture in general. Normally I prefer to stay focused on an artist’s work, but in Tina’s case, her compelling personal story also commanded attention, and in a way the two are inseparable. As much as we rightly revile Ike Turner for his inexcusable abuse and torture of his wife and everyone else around him, he was also a musical innovator in the rock ‘n’ roll scene and one who, one hopes at least, recognized the genius of Anna Mae Bullock, whom he plucked from obscurity to assume the persona of his wife and co-creator. Even if his contributions are now irreparably tainted, it was Tina who was the lifeblood of that duo, and who became known as the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. In my podcast I often focus on US artists, predominantly those of color, who chose to relocate to Europe and forge careers there. I have devoted a lot of time, space, and research to the Black opera singers who came here, but there is an equally fascinating story to be told about the pop singers of many eras and genres, who also chose to make Europe their home. Though this episode focuses primarily on Tina and some of the less-explored material throughout her career, I seek to contextualize her by also discussing the many African American singers, from Adelaide Hall to Joséphine Baker, from Donna Summer to Dee Dee Bridgewater, who either spent formative time in Europe or settled there permanently. Along with the aforementioned favorites, I also focus on lesser-known artists such as Beauty Milton, Vickie Henderson, Betty Dorsey, Salena Jones, and Bertice Reading (my latest mega-discovery). It has been cathartic and inspirational for me to create this episode; I hope it provides a similar experience for you.

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 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 190. Make Your Own Kind of Music: Verdi Edition

March 31, 2023Bel canto, Comic Relief, Giuseppe Verdi, Mezzo Madness, Needle Drop, Queer Pride, Singers in Old Age, Voiceless WondersAida, Alberto Paoletti, Alternate Universe Bel Canto, Barry Mann, Cass Elliot, Cynthia Weil, Domingos Monteiro, Gino Sarri, Giuseppe Verdi, Grazi Barbosa, Howard Salat, Il Trovatore, Joe Raposo, Julie Andrews, La forza del destino, La Puma Opera Company, La Traviata, Luigi Ricci, Make Your Own Kind of Music, Mari Lyn, Natalia de Andrade, Olive Middleton, Sylvia Sawyer, The Golden Treasury of Song, The Howard Salat Quartet Local 802, Un ballo in maschera, Wingcountermelody

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It’s time for my fourth annual April Fools Day episode! The first one that I published exactly four years ago, entitled Alternate Universe Bel Canto, has proven to be one of my most popular, and one that was the gateway episode for many of my most devoted listeners. Furthermore, this one came specifically at the request of one of my newest Patreon supporters (hint, hint to those of you who are not yet supporting the podcast there!) Instead of an overview of all those “outsider music” opera singers out there, I have chosen to focus in on three sopranos in particular whom I find to be the most original, entertaining: Mari Lyn (AKA Marilyn Sussman), Olive Middleton (AKA Olive Townend), and Natália de Andrade. Each of these women created her own platform. Mari Lyn was the Singing Hostess of the 1980s New York-based cable network series The Golden Treasury of Song. After a career in the 1920s singing roles such as Musetta under Thomas Beecham at Covent Garden, British soprano Olive Middleton became, much later in life, the lead diva of New York’s La Puma Opera Company, giving quixotic performances with that company well into her seventies (and well past her vocal expiration date!), performances that gained her a fanbase that included lead singers of the Metropolitan Opera as well as the fussiest of opera queens. And the Portuguese soprano Natália de Andrade (my favorite!) gained fame and notoriety in her native country and beyond for her self-financed recordings, particularly the late-career ones published in the 1980s, which gained her the grudging respect given to those most deluded of holy fools. And lest one think that this episode deals only with sopranos, I also give a nod to the raucous-voiced American mezzo-soprano Sylvia Sawyer, who appeared in the 1950s on complete opera recordings issued on the Capitol Records label and produced, incredibly, under the auspices of the Rome Opera. To be clear: though I find each of these deluded divas to be, each in her own distinctive way, hilarious, in the end, each of them earns my respect for her enterprising undertakings, her firm belief in her own talent, and her unique approach to tuning, phrasing, and language, here perpetrated exclusively on the music of Giuseppe Verdi, who must surely be turning over in his grave right about now!

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 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 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 149. Music Black and Queer

June 17, 2022African American Singers, BHM2023WK2, Black History Month, Drag Performance, Interview, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Queer Pride, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAgustín Lara, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Billy Preston, Billy Strayhorn, Bobby Short, Carmen McRae, Carolyn Franklin, Charlie Shavers, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Esquerita, Frankie "Half-Pint” Jaxon, Gladys Bentley, Irving Berlin, Irving Mills, Jackie Shane, Jacques Prévert, Jo Bouillon, Joan Armatrading, Johnny Mathis, Joseph Kosma, Joséphine Baker, Larry Owens, Mabel Mercer, Michael R. Jackson, Nona Hendryx, Oscar Peterson, Rona Siddiqiui, Sylvester, Tracy Chapman, Wendell Marshallcountermelody

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Over the course of history, for Persons of Color who also happen to be queer, the interface between these two populations is sometimes an enormously challenging one, but one which also frequently produces path-breaking musical artists of enormous courage and originality. In celebration of Juneteenth this coming weekend, and as a follow-up to my Queer Blues episode published last year, I once again pay tribute to an extraordinary array of Black and Queer musical artists across a wide spectrum of popular musical styles, be it Blues, jazz. middle-of-the-road pop, musicals, rock ‘n’ roll, disco, and folk. Artists represented include Billy Strayhorn, Billie Holiday, Johnny Mathis, Tracy Chapman, Mabel Mercer, Joan Armatrading, Nona Hendryx, Sylvester, Joséphine Baker, Jackie Shane, Carmen McRae, Billy Preston, Esquerita, and Carolyn Franklin, Michael R. Jackson, the 2022 Tony Award winner for A Strange Loop, is introduced by my dear friend the theater scholar David Savran, who describes what makes this piece and its creator so daring and original.

Episode 95. Queer Blues and Beyond (Pride 2021)

June 27, 2021African American Singers, BHM2023WK2, Black History Month, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Queer Pride, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Voiceless WondersAda “Bricktop” Smith, Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Billie Holiday, Bricktop, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, Gladys Bentley, Joan Armatrading, Joséphine Baker, Laura Love, Lucille Bogan, Lucille Hegamin, Ma Rainey, Mabel Mercer, Meshell Ndegeocello, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Tiny Davis, Toshi Reagon, Victoria Spiveycountermelody

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For my second Queer Pride episode this month, I offer you a panoply of blues and other popular music sung by women of color over the past 100 years and over a wide range of the LGBTQ spectrum. The focus is on the queer and bisexual women of color who enlivened the Harlem blues scene in the 1920s, including the newly popular and celebrated Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, as well as other vital and iconoclastic singers of that era, including Bricktop, Lucille Bogan, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, Victoria Spivey, Lucille Hegamin, and the fascinating Gladys Bentley. The net is further extended to include jazz (Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington), pop, rock ‘n’ roll (Big Mama Thornton), gospel (Sister Rosetta Tharpe), cabaret (Mabel Mercer, Joséphine Baker), soul (Carolyn Franklin) and folk (Joan Armatrading, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, and Laura Love). Of course in this episode the musical categories are as flexible as are the sexual and gender boundaries, so expect to see a lot of genre-hopping as well among these subversive, innovative, and pathbreaking women of color.

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.” Occasional guests from the “business” (singers, conductors, composers, coaches, and teachers) lend their distinctive insights. At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. Please visit the Countermelody website (www.countermelodypodcast.com) for additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. And please head to my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/countermelody to pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available only to Patreon supporters are currently available.

Episode 21. Charles Holland (Black History Month II)

February 8, 2020African American Singers, BHM2023WK4, Black History Month, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAirborne Symphony, Al Jolson, Après un rêve, Arthur Goldschmidt, Au fond du temple saint, Benny Carter, Charles Gounod, Charles Holland, Cinq mélodies de Venise, Clair de lune, Dennis Russell Davies, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, En sourdine, Fi-Yer!, Fletcher Henderson, Four Saints in Three Acts, Frank Morgan, Gabriel Faure, George Frideric Handel, Gertrude Stein, Hall Johnson, Harlem Madness, Harry de Groot, Honor Honor, Hullabaloo (1940), Jack P. Loorij, Jacqueline Bonneau, Langston Hughes, Laurie Anderson, Leo Driehuys, Leonard Bernstein, Les pecheurs de perles, Live a-Humble, Marc Blitzstein, Marco Bakker, Morgenlich leuchtend, My Mammy, New Born Again, O Superman, Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire, Peanuts Holland, Prepare Me One Body, Ralph Linsey, Robert Shaw, Roland Hayes, Roméo et Juliette, Semele, Spirituals, Talk About a Child That Do Love Jesus, Virgil Thomsoncountermelody

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Today’s episode, the second in my Black History Month series, is a tribute to the extraordinary African American tenor Charles Holland (1909-1987) whose career spanned more than four decades. Early appearances as a vocalist with the band of Luther Henderson and the Hall Johnson Negro Choir led to his Hollywood film debut and to appearances on the Broadway stage. In 1949, frustrated with the lack of career opportunities for an African American tenor, Charles Holland departed for Europe, where he enjoyed a distinguished career. Late in his life he experienced an extraordinary career resurgence through an association with American conductor Dennis Russell Davies, which led to his belated Carnegie Hall solo recital debut in 1982 at the age of 73, as well as serving as the inspiration for Laurie Anderson’s surprise 1981 pop hit, O Superman. Musical excerpts include live and studio recordings over more than 40 years and a wide swath of genres.

Countermelody is a new podcast devoted to the glories of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great classical and opera singers of the past and present with the help of guests from the classical music field: singers, conductors, composers, coaches, agents, and voice teachers. 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 interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. Please also visit the Countermelody website for updates, additional content, and to pledge your support. www.countermelodypodcast.com