Tag Archives: Anna Tomowa-Sintow

Episode 457. Ein Opernabend mit… Anna Tomowa-Sintow

April 24, 2026Behind the Iron Curtain, Ein Opernabend mit..., Forgotten Divas, Giuseppe Verdi, In Memoriam, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Twentieth Century Opera, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAlexander Pushkin, Ángel de Saavedra, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos, Arrigo Boito, Cosi fan tutte, Daphne, Die Ägyptische Helena, Euripedes, Francesco Maria Piave, Giuseppe Verdi, Hermann Hesse, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Josepf Gregor, Kurt Masur, La forza del destino, Lorenzo da Ponte, Marek Janowski, Otello, Ovid, Peter Sommer, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Rouslan Raychev, Vier letzte Lieder, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yevgeny Onegincountermelody

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Today’s episode serves two purposes: First, I introduce my listeners to a wonderful series first released on Eterna, the East German state record label, entitled “Ein Opernabend mit…” which featured singers, some but not all of them German, active in East Germany between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Some of these singers are well-known to lovers of great singers, with others much less-so. The quality of the singing varies from release to release, but the very best of these represents singing on the most exalted level. Over the past several years, I have been collecting these (sometimes very rare) recordings and now have nearly all of them in my personal collection. I’ll be doing an ongoing Countermelody series featuring these recordings, and present the first such episode today, featuring what is by far the most famous and well-circulated of these recordings, “Ein Opernabend mit Anna Tomowa-Sintow,” which features the beloved Bulgarian jugendlich-dramatisch soprano in some of her core repertoire (from Yevgeny Onegin, Otello, Forza del destino, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Arabella) made in December 1974 with Kurt Masur leading the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. ATS had recently joined the ensemble at the Staatsoper Berlin (then located in East Germany) and is heard in her creamy, exultant prime. I have supplemented this album with additional material recorded between 1970 and 1993, featuring Tomowa-Sintow in refulgently beautiful (and sometimes quite dramatically alive) excerpts from Così fan tutte, Forza, Die ägyptische Helena, Daphne, and the Vier letzte Lieder. I had a former boyfriend who once dismissed this singer as “garden variety.” All I can say is, if this is garden variety singing, then this is a garden I don’t want to leave anytime soon!

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

Episode 58. Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder (Music for a World in Crisis IV)

October 25, 2020Art Song, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard StraussAlceo Galliera, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Bernard Haitink, Christa Ludwig, Claudio Abbado, Daphne, Die Ägyptische Helena, Edda Moser, Elektra, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Fritz Busch, Georg Solti, Heinrich Hollreiser, Hilde Güden, Hugo von Hoffmansthal, Karl Böhm, Leon Goossens, Lucia Popp, Marek Janowski, Margaret Price, Martin Katz, Milan Horvat, Richard Strauss, Rose Pauly, Sena Jurinac, Soile Isokoski, Teresa Żylis-Gara, Walter Berry, Zubin Mehtacountermelody

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As the worldwide pandemic renews its threat and creates general unrest, panic, anger, and depression, as well as illness and death for so many, we turn as always to music for solace. One of the central pieces that I have always turned to in times of personal turmoil has been Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder. Over the years I have listened to and derived comfort from dozens and dozens of recordings and live performances. In this episode, I feature eight different sopranos, (Elisabeth Söderström, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Edda Moser, Soile Isokoski, Margaret Price, Teresa Żylis-Gara, Lucia Popp, and Sena Jurinac), each of whom makes her mark in a distinctive way on one of the four songs in the series. I also read each of the poems in my own English translation. These performances are supplemented by excerpts from Elektra, Daphne, and Die Ägyptische Helena performed by Rose Pauly, Hilde Güden, Christa Ludwig, and Walter Berry, as well as the world premiere 1985 performance of “Malven,” Strauss’s last completed work, sung by Kiri Te Kanawa; and the Oboe Concerto played by Léon Goossens in its first commercial recording from 1947. Featured conductors in the episode include Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta, Marek Janowski, Georg Solti, Karl Böhm, Heinrich Hollreiser, Fritz Busch, Alceo Galliera, and Milan Horvat. A bonus episode for my Patreon supporters will feature twelve more of my favorite sopranos, each one singing one of these autumnal Lieder. As we world citizens face the great unknown, these artists help lift our spirits and reorient our perspective.

Links to my previous Music for a World in Crisis episodes:

Episode 26: Calling You

Episode 27: That Time of Evening

Episode 29: A Social Isolation Schubertiade

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. Please visit the Countermelody website (www.countermelodypodcast.com) for additional content. And please head to our 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, including a new extra episode further exploring today’s topic.

Episode 39. Pathos à la Cotrubas

June 14, 2020Art Song, Ileana Cotrubas, Needle DropAlfredo Kraus, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Bruno Bartoletti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Carlos Kleiber, Colin Davis, Cosi fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte, Ein deutsches Requiem, Gaetano Donizetti, Geoffrey Parsons, George Enescu, George Frideric Handel, Georges Bizet, Georges Pretre, Helmut Winschermann, Hermann Prey, Idomeneo, Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit, Ileana Cotrubas, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Pritchard, La Calisto, La Traviata, Le nozze di Figaro, Les pecheurs de perles, Lorin Maazel, Luciano Pavarotti, Luigi Alva, Raymond Leppard, Sept Chansons de Clément Marot, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Several weeks ago I began a series on particular vocal and artistic qualities that I find most important in a singer’s artistic profile. I had already done episodes on Charm and Glamour. Then the BLM protests intervened and I felt impelled to respond with two episodes examining Protest in Music. Today I resume my previous series with that all-important artistic trait Pathos. And who better exemplifies Pathos than the great Romanian soprano Ileana Cotrubas, who celebrated her 81st birthday this past week? Cotrubas was a deeply expressive and communicative artist who gained heights and plumbed depths that (in my estimation) no other artist of her generation was able to achieve. In this episode, I examine the earliest projects that brought her to international prominence, including the Glyndebourne production of Cavalli’s La Calisto, in which she sang the title role. I devote ample time to her traversals of Mozart operas, including her surprising (and surprisingly effective) assumption of Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Pausing briefly to acknowledge her work in the French repertoire and the bel canto soubrette parts, I then turn to her two greatest assumptions, Mimì in La bohème and Violetta in La Traviata. In relation to these I offer excerpts from live performances with Carlos Kleiber and Bruno Bartoletti. I conclude with a discussion of how her vocal flaws revealed her humanity in a way that an artist with a more perfect voice and technique might not have achieved, while never compromising musical values. The episode begins with a brief tribute to another singer of a different stripe who also exemplified Pathos: Judy Garland, who celebrated her 99th birthday this past week, and the 51st anniversary of whose death we commemorate next week.

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 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 visit the Countermelody website (www.countermelodypodcast.com) for additional content. And please head to our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/countermelody to pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford.