Tag Archives: Antonio Tonini

Episode 444. Renata Scotto: Casta Diva

March 9, 2026Bel canto, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, Honor Your Mentors, In Memoriam, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Renata Scotto, VerismoAgostino Ferrin, Alfredo Kraus, Antonio Tonini, Bianca Maria Casoni, Biancamaria Casoni, Carl Maria von Weber, Corrado Benvenuti, Der Freischütz, Ermanno Mauro, Eugène Scribe, Felice Romani, Franco Faccio, Friedrich King, Fulvio Vernizzi, Gaetano Donizetti, Gianfranco Cecchele, Giovacchino Forzano, Giuseppe Patanè, Il franco cacciatore, L’elisir d’amore, La sonnambula, Marie Louise de la Ramée, Mario Rossi, Nello Santi, Nicola Rescigno, Norma, Ouida, Pietro Mascagni, Renata Scotto, Riccardo Muti, Tatiana Troyanos, Vincenzo Bellinicountermelody

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Today’s episode serves numerous purposes: first, as a belated tribute to the great Renata Scotto and in particular her controversial assumption of the title role Vincenzo Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece, Norma. Second, as a memento of International Womens’ Day and Women’s History Month. The remainder of the month will feature various favorite divas in belated Countermelody tributes. In all honesty, this episode also is posted today because I have been quite ill and exhausted upon returning home to Berlin and have not had the energy to post a brand new episode. An earlier version of this episode first saw the light of day in the summer of 2020 in the first season of the podcast. Scotto is heard in some of her earliest recordings, including her first studio recording in 1954 and a live performance from Trieste of Weber’s Il franco cacciatore [AKA Der Freischütz]. Early bel canto triumphs as Adina in Elisir and Amina in Sonnambula serve as a foretaste of possibly her greatest (and certainly her most ambitious and audacious) bel canto heroine, Norma, in which she is heard in early live performances between 1963 and 1978. Fellow singers heard in this episode include Alfredo Kraus, Gianfranco Cecchele, Biancamaria Casoni, Ermanno Mauro and Tatiana Troyanos. Conductors include Giuseppe Patanè, Nicola Rescigno, Nello Santi, Fulvio Vernizzi, and Riccardo Muti.

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 336. Scotto Sings Rossini (Happy Birthday, Renata!)

February 24, 2025Bel canto, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Listeners' Favorites, Needle Drop, Renata ScottoAntonio Beltrami, Antonio Tonini, Bianca Maria Casoni, Gaetano Rossi, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Nait, Il cambiale di matrimionio, Ivan Davis, John Wustman, Pietro Metastasio, Renata Scotto, Renato Fasano, Ryan Edwards, Soirées musicales, Thomas Fultoncountermelody

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Today would have been the 91st birthday of our beloved Renata Scotto. On an episode last year celebrating the 100th birthday of Maria Callas, I remarked that Renatina possessed in profusion two qualities that Maria lacked: cuteness and charm. Both of those qualities are heard in these performances of Rossini songs, which range from 1964 to 1984 and include Scotto in both live and studio recordings. For the last forty years of his life, Gioachino Rossini, who had written scores of operas by the time he was 37, wrote no more works for the stage. But in those later years he did compose two collections of parlor pieces, one of which, the Soirées musicales, or Serate musicali, published in 1835, are heard on this episode. Ten of the twelve songs are heard here performed by Scotto. The episode is supplemented by one larger-scale late Rossini work, an 1832 cantata entitled Giovanna d’Arco which structurally amounts to an enormous operatic scena, performed by Scotto (and my beloved teacher John Wustman) to perfection in a rare live recording from Carnegie Hall in 1969. In addition, we hear a pristine 1959 excerpt from one of Scotto’s earliest recordings, La cambiale di matrimonio.

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

Episode 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.