Tag Archives: Claude Debussy

Episode 302. The Haunted Opera House, 2024 Edition

October 28, 2024African American Singers, Broadway, Holiday Music, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaAlfred Schnittke, Antikrist (Langgaard), Antonín Dvořák, Arthur Miller, Bernard Stambler, Bohumil Gregor, Božena Němcová, Chester Ludgin, Christoph-Mathias Mueller, Claude Debussy, Claudio Guastalla, Damn Yankees, Edgar Allan Poe, Edmond Fleg, Elisabeth Lugt, Emerson Buckley, Emmy van Lokhorst, Ercole Luigi Morselli, Ernest Bloch, Eugene Villanueva, Eunice Alberts, Felix de Nobel, Frances Bible, Gwen Verdon, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Halewijn, Howard Hanson Nathaniel Hawthorne, Inge Borkh, Iva Bittová, Jack De Lon, Jaroslav Kvapil, Jerry Ross, Johannes Spies, John Macurdy, Karel Jaromír Erben, La Chute de la Maison Usher (Debussy), Lajos Miller, Lamberto Gardelli, Lawrence Tibbett, Martha van Kerkhof, Martinus Nihjoff, Merry Mount (Hanson), Norman Kelley, Ottorino Respighi, Peter Vrabel, Pierre Colombo, Richard Adler, Richard Stokes, Robert Ward, Rued Langgaard, Rusalka (Dvořák). Teresa Stratas, Susanne Resmark, Sylvia Sass, The Crucible, Thomas Dausgaard, Tullio Serafin, Willem Pijper, William Dazeley, William Shakespearecountermelody

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Two years ago for Halloween, I presented the first of my “Haunted Opera House” episodes. At the time, I had such a plethora of creepy musical material that I produced a bonus episode of material that otherwise would have ended up in the dung heap (like the body of Faust at the end of Schnittke’s Faust Cantata, which closes the episode). We also hear music from Damn Yankees featuring the red-hot Gwen Verdon; Dvořák’s Rusalka (a stunning duet with Teresa Stratas and Gwendolyn Killebrew); Respighi’s comic opera Belfagor (in which a devil [Lajos Miller] encounters his superior in a cunning young woman [Sylvia Sass]; Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth (in which Inge Borkh gives a luminous performance of Lady Macbeth’s Sleepwalking Scene); Willem Pijper’s strange musical drama based on the medieval legend of Halewijn, a Bluebeard of the Lowlands; La Chute de la Maison Usher, (the climax of Claude Debussy’s incomplete opera based on Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher); and Antikrist, Rued Langgaard’s unique, indescribable, and nearly unstageable mystery play. But it is Iva Bittová’s gleefully deranged performance of Alfred Schnittke’s gruesome Faust tango which will, I predict, find its way into your nightmares!

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 297. In Pace

October 13, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Bel canto, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Great Baritones, Great Tenors, In Memoriam, Lieder, Operetta, Orchestral Songs, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAin’t Misbehavin’, André de Shields, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Andy Razaf, Carlo Zangarini, Christopher Keyte, Clairières dans le ciel, Claude Debussy, Claudio Monteverdi, David Belasco, David Cullen, Dick Scanlan, Dominic Cossa, Edward Thomas, Eric Tappy, Erna Spoorenberg, Fats Waller, Francis Jammes, Franz Lehár, Franz Schubert, Franz Welser-Möst, Gaetano Donizetti, Gavin Creel, Gene Page, Geoffrey Pratley, Giacomo Puccini, Giovanni Francesco Busenello, Guelfo Civinini, Hello Dolly!, Helmuth Rilling, Henri Meilhac, Howard Crook, Ivor Gurney, James Darren, Jean Françaix, Jean-Marie Auberson, Jeanine Tesori, Jerry Herman, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ken Page, Kris Kristofferson, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La Fanciulla del West, Lando Bartolini, Leo Stein, Lili Boulanger, Lucia di Lammermoor, Luther Henderson, Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Maurice Maeterlinck, Meredith Willson, Michael Rafter, Michel-Richard Delalande, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pelleas et Melisande, Petula Clark, Philippe Herreweghe, Rachel Yakar, Robbie Roth, Robert Hale, Robert Wilson, Roger Sessions, Salvadore Cammarano, Seiji Ozawa, Seth Rudetsky, Siegfried Lorenz, Sinéad O’Connor, Steve Davislim, T.S. Eliot, Tamás Pál, The Music Man, Tony Hatch, Ute Gfrerer, Vespro della beata vergine, Viktor Léon, Walt Whitman, Walter Scott, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’dcountermelody

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Today I present part two of my “In Memoriam” series, honoring treasured singers who have recently died. This week I focus on male singers, covering the gamut from opera singers (Dominic Cossa, Lando Bartolini, Eric Tappy, Steve Davislim, Siegfried Lorenz) to pop stars (James Darren, Kris Kristofferson); early music singers (Howard Crook) to Broadway icons (Ken Page, Gavin Creel). As with last week’s episode, each of these singers left an indelible mark in their respective musical field(s) and each loss is felt profoundly, especially those like Steve Davislim and Gavin Creel, whose time to leave this earth came much too soon. Musically speaking this is a particularly eclectic episode, featuring everything from Monteverdi and Delalande, to country western standards. Other singers heard in the episode include André de Shields and Ute Gfrerer, as well as other artists who died over the course of the last year, including Robert Hale, Norman Shetler, Rachel Yakar, and Sinéad O’Connor.

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 278. George Shirley Revisited

August 8, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, Black History Month, Black History Month 2024, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Singers of Color, Spirituals, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAlessandro Scarlatti, Antal Dorati, Armand Silvestre, Claude Debussy, Colin Davis, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Eugene Ormandy, Gabriel Faure, George Frideric Handel, George Shirley, Henry Purcell, Howard Swanson, Igor Stravinsky, James Dashow, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Ashberry, Joseph Haydn, Jules Massenet, Kenneth Gordon, Lili Chookasian, Margaret Tynes, Pelleas et Melisande, Pierre Boulez, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Shirley Verrett, Stanley Drucker, Thomas Schippers, Vally Weigl, Wayne Sanders, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This August I shall be supplementing each new episode published with a first-time general posting of bonus episodes which were originally available only for my Patreon subscribers. Today, in the first of my “new reissues,” I present “George Shirley Revisited,” a supplement to the tribute I posted three years ago, and which I now offer as a belated 90th birthday salute. In this episode, I offer further examples of the great tenor’s eclectic repertoire and interpretive depth. Guest vocalists include Shirley Verrett and Elisabeth Söderström and conductors include Pierre Boulez, Thomas Schippers, Eugene Ormandy, Colin Davis, Antal Doráti, Jesús López Cobos, and Igor Stravinsky himself. Composers sampled include Jules Massenet, Howard Swanson, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss, Johann Sebastian Bach, Richard Wagner, Norman Dello Joio, Felix Mendelssohn, Vally Weigl, Joseph Haydn, and James Dashow, whose Second Voyage, a setting of John Ashberry scored for tenor voice and recorded electronic sounds, was commissioned for George Shirley by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1976. I also include a number of rare recordings that George Shirley and Wayne Sanders made in 1973 for Music Minus One’s Laureate Series and that, to my knowledge, are among his rarest recordings.

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 268. Will Parker Redux

June 26, 2024Art Song, Great Baritones, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century MusicAaron Copland, André Emelianoff, Banalités, Benjamin Hudson, Billy Budd, Carol Zeavin, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Claude Debussy, Columbia String Quartet, Elly Ameling, Ernst Bacon, Francis Poulenc, Georg Friedrich Daumer, Gerard van Blerk, Guillaume Apollinaire, Herman Melville, Janet Hill, Johannes Brahms, John Jacob Niles, Le promenoir des deux amants, Norman Shetler, Old American Songs, Robert Evett, Rudolf Jansen, Thomas Merton, Tristan L’Hermite, Virgil Blackwell, William Huckaby, William Parkercountermelody

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Today I revisit the life and legacy of lyric baritone William Parker (05 August 1943 – 29 March 1993), to whom I devoted an episode exactly a year ago. To further explore his unmatched contribution to the art of song, I present a second episode which was originally published as a bonus episode at the same time, featuring Will in four contrasting song cycles by Charles Wakefield Cadman, Claude Debussy, Aaron Copland, and Francis Poulenc, recorded between 1975 and 1987, when he was in his absolute prime. He is accompanied by William Huckaby, Gérard van Blerk, and the late Rudolf Jansen. Also included are two haunting settings of Herman Melville’s “Billy in the Darbies,” a segment added posthumously to his Billy Budd novella; in two settings by Robert Evett and Ernst Bacon. The episode is prefaced by a brief tribute to the pianist Norman Shetler, who died yesterday in Austria nine days after observing his 93rd birthday; as well as a brief introduction by Will Parker’s nephew, Mark Doty.

Episode 253. Randall Scarlata Introduces Gérard Souzay (Listeners’ Favorites)

March 25, 2024Art Song, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Interview, Lieder, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Schubert, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaAntoine Boësset, Arne Dorumsgaard, Arturo Basile, Benjamin C. S. Boyle, Cesar Franck, Charles Gounod, Claire Croiza, Claude Debussy, Dalton Baldwin, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Dinu Lipatti, Fetes galantes, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert, Franz von Schober, Genevieve Touraine, Gerard Philipe, Gerard Souzay, Golaud, Guillaume Apollinaire, Henry Purcell, Hermann Kletke, Irène Aïtoff, Jacqueline Bonneau, Jacqueline Robin, Jacqueline Robin-Bonneau, Jean-Michel Damase, Jules Barbier, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Herrosee, Laura Ward, Lotte Lehmann, Louis de Fourcaud, Louise de Vilmorin, Manuel Bandeira, Maria Callas, Matthäus von Collin, Maurice Maeterlinck, Maurice Ravel, Nicole Robin, Paul Valéry, Paul Verlaine, Pelleas et Melisande, Pierre Bernac, Randall Scarlata, Robert Schumann, Vanni-Marcouxcountermelody

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The French baritone Gérard Souzay was born Gérard Tisserand on 8 December 1918 and died in Antibes on 17 August 2004. This episode was one of my first episodes, originally posted in honor of his then 101st birthday. It has been chosen by my friend Randall Scarlata as his Listeners’ Favorite episode in the last of this month’s Great Baritones series, and this is particularly appropriate and moving, because from the age of 19 until Souzay’s death, Randall had a close association with Souzay as both teacher and mentor. He tells some wonderful stories about their work together, shares some of Souzay’s bon mots and also presents with great compassion some of the personal challenges that Souzay faced. He also discusses some of Souzay’s other artistic pursuits, one in particular of which may surprise you! The episode itself explores Souzay’s recorded legacy, with particular emphasis on his earliest recordings. Repertoire ranges from Jaime Ovalle to César Franck, and Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert to Maurice Ravel, Henry Purcell, and Claude Debussy (including an excerpt from his 1955 radio performance of Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande), many of them accompanied by Souzay’s musical and personal partner Dalton Baldwin. We also hear performances by his teachers and mentors Claire Croiza, Vanni-Marcoux, Pierre Bernac, and Lotte Lehmann, as well as his sister, Geneviève Touraine. And Randall’s jewel of an introduction is a testimonial and tribute you’ll want to turn to again and again. I am proud to present again for your listening pleasure a singer who means as much to me as any other who has ever lived.

Episode 248. Thomas Bagwell Introduces Bernard Kruysen (Listeners’ Favorites)

March 8, 2024Art Song, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Interview, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersBanalités (Poulenc), Bernard Kruysen, Charles d’Orléans, Claude Debussy, Edmond Rostand, Emmanuel Chabrier, Felix de Nobel, Francis Poulenc, Gabriel Faure, Guillaume Apollinaire, Heinrich Heine, Helmut Kahlhöfer, Helmut Winschermann, Jan Mul, Jean-Charles Richard, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Marx, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Ivanovich Grekov, Nikolaus Lenau, Noël Lee, Norman Treigle, Paul Heyse, Quirinus van Blankenburg, Robert Schumann, Stéphane Mallarmé, Tami Petty, Thomas Bagwell, Tristan L’Hermitecountermelody

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One of my best and truest friends in the business is the phenomenal pianist, coach, and conductor Thomas Bagwell. Our friendship really developed back in the days when we curated a series of recitals for the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, which Thomas also (brilliantly) accompanied. Since then we are both carving out different lives for ourselves on the other side of the pond, me as your intrepid Berlin-based podcaster, and Thomas as a valued coach and conductor on the music staff of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. Thomas is no doubt remembered by my listeners for his scintillating commentary on my Marni Nixon tribute episode last season. Years ago there was one a peculiar Facebook questionnaire about what would be the last thing you grabbed as you fled your burning home and Thomas answered, “My Bernard Kruysen records.” At that time, I knew the Dutch singer Bernard Kruysen (1933-2000) by name only but I had no clear idea of who he was as an artist. Because of Thomas’s enthusiasm, however, I began my own collection of Bernard Kruysen recordings, from which followed this episode, first heard in 2021, so it is only appropriate that Thomas should be reintroducing this episode today. Bernard Kruysen’s voice exemplifies that now nearly extinct vocal category, the baryton martin. I discuss just what constitutes a baryton martin and why in his prime Kruysen such was an ideal representative. I also discuss the larger question of the performance of the French art song, the mélodie, and why Kruysen was also exceptional in this regard, using as an example his 1960s recorded performances of three complete song cycles by Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, and Francis Poulenc. I also feature the artist singing art songs by Schumann and Mussorgsky and works by Bach, Quirinus van Blankenburg, and Jan Mul. Thomas’s introduction is prefaced with a live recording from those Lotte Lehmann Foundation concerts back in 2011, this one featuring our phenomenal friend, spinto soprano Tami Petty.

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 232. Janet Williams and Paul Padillo Introduce Maria Ewing (Listeners’ Favorites III)

January 7, 2024African American Singers, Bel canto, Black History Month, Crossover, Giacomo Puccini, Gustav Mahler, In Memoriam, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Orchestral Songs, Richard Strauss, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Opera, Verismo, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAndrew Davis, Antonio de Almeida, Bernard Haitink, Bob Merrill, Carl Orff, Carmen, Carol Neblett, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Claude Debussy, Claudio Abbado, Claudio Monteverdi, Dale Duesing, Dennis Bailey, Dido and Aeneas, Dmitri Shostakovich, Don Giovanni, Elizabeth Collier, Eric Tappy, Francis Poulenc, François Le Roux, Funny Girl, George Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gustav Mahler, Harold Arlen, Henri Meilhac, Henry Purcell, Horst Stein, Iain Sutherland, Idomeneo, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Jacques Offenbach, James Levine, Janet Williams, Jean Cocteau, Jean Rigby, Jerome Kern, John Pritchard, John Wilson, Jule Styne, Jules Massenet, Kurt Masur, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La Périchole, La voix humaine, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Le nozze di Figaro, Leonard Slatkin, Lorenzo da Ponte, Ludovic Halévy, Marc Soustrot, Maria Ewing, Maurice Maeterlinck, Maurice Ravel, Myung-Whun Chung, Nahum Tate, Oscar Hammerstein II, Oscar Wilde, Patrick Devin, Paul Padillo, Pelleas et Melisande, Raymond Leppard, Richard Hickox, Richard Rodgers, Richard Rodney Bennett, Richard Strauss, Romano Gandolfi, Ruggero Raimondi, Salome, Shane Hill, Shéhérazade, Siegmund Nimsgern, Simon James, Simon Rattle, South Pacific, Sylvain Cambreling, Ted Koehler, Tosca, Tristan Klingsor, Werther, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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January 9 is already the second anniversary of the death of the iconoclastic (and iconic) Maria Ewing, who died of cancer in her home outside of her native Detroit on January 9, 2022. She was an artist both admired and derided during her lifetime, whose importance since her death has only become more apparent. It so happens that two of my most faithful listeners, Janet Williams and Paul Padillo, chose the episode that I published in her honor as their favorite episode. Paul is a passionate opera advocate who maintains a blog as well as a Facebook page in which he writes with extraordinary eloquence about the musical genre we all adore. Janet is celebrated throughout the world as one of the finest singers of her generation who has gone on to become one of the most important voice teachers in the world today, teaching, with compassion and common sense, a technique grounded in the essentials of bel canto. Their spoken introductions to the episode highlight different aspects of what made Ewing so special. For Paul, he became a lifelong fan after hearing her performance of Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s operatic masterpiece, The Dialogues of the Carmelites. For Janet, it was a shared provenance (both were natives of Detroit) as well as a common mentor, the late David Di Chiera, who founded and ran Michigan Opera Theatre, the company featured both Maria and Janet in some of their first operatic appearances. Maria’s passing hit me particularly hard because at the time of her death, I was in the midst of creating a special episode in her honor and had been immersing myself in her fascinating performances, finding myself more and more in awe of her one-of-a-kind artistry. This tribute episode is simply not to be missed.

Episode 202. William Parker (Pride 2023)

June 23, 2023Art Song, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Protest Songs, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaAaron Copland, Alan Marks, Anthony Dean Griffey, Anthony Martin, Bruce Lamott, Caligrammes, Charles d’Orléans, Charles Ives, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Claude Debussy, Dalton Baldwin, David Bergman, David Bowles, David Tayler, Dominick Argento, Donald Wheelock, Drew Hemenger, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Francis Poulenc, Gabriel Faure, Gerald Finzi, Gerard van Blerk, Gonzalo Ruiz, Guillaume Apollinaire, Helmine von Chézy, Henri Duparc, Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John B. Tabb, John Jacob Niles, John Musto, Kurt Ollmann, L’horizon chimérique, Lanford Wilson, Lee Hoiby, Lisa Weiss, Ludwig Hölty, Marc Shachman, Melvin Dixon, Ned Rorem, Nicholas McGegan, Old American Songs, Pierre Jean de Bélanger, Rafael Campo, Robert de Bonnières, Rudolf Jansen, Salomon August Andrée, Sarah Davol, Stephen Foster, Steven Lehning, Summer and Smoke, Susan Snively, Tennessee Williams, The Andrée Exposition, Thomas Bagwell, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Merton, William Huckaby, William Parker, Witter Bynnercountermelody

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Today’s episode celebrates the life and legacy of lyric baritone William Parker (05 August 1943 – 29 March 1993), the finest American recitalist of the late twentieth century and one of the most beautiful baritone voices I have ever heard. His mastery of the German, American (and, especially for me, French) song repertoire sends one scrambling back to the earlier days of recorded sound to find suitable parallels. Though we had many friends and colleagues in common, I never met him personally. But this week, at my request as I was preparing this episode, many who loved him have been in touch with me: family, friends, colleagues, lovers, and they have provided me with a wealth of beautiful reminiscences and memories of their beloved Will. I have also compiled a setlist for the episode which displays the full breadth and depth of his artistry. At the end of his life, Will, dying of AIDS, created an initiative called the AIDS Quilt Songbook, to which some of the greatest composers and poets of the day provided songs and texts. Like the AIDS Quilt itself, this is a living legacy which continues to expand and grow. There are numerous works from the Songbook in its various iterations, performed not just by Will, but also by Kurt Ollmann and Anthony Dean Griffey, which serve not only as a painful reminder of an entire generation lost to AIDS, but also as a moving reminder of the LGBTQ+ community’s ability to face down ignorance, hatred, prejudice, even death, and in the end not only to triumph, but to provide an example for present and future generations of our resilience.

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 182. Dorothy Maynor (Black History Month 2023)

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

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

Episode 167. Denise Duval

October 21, 2022Art Song, Comic Relief, French Opera, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAlain Vanzo, André Cluytens, André Messager, Camille Saint-Saens, Claude Debussy, Denise Duval, Emmerich Kálmán, Florent Schmitt, Franc-Nohain (Maurice Étienne Legrand), Francis Poulenc, Franz Lehár, Georges Pretre, Georges Tessier, Georges Tzipine, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hans Wilbrink, Hervé (Louis-Auguste-Florimond Ronger), Jacques Jansen, Jean Cocteau, Jean Fournet, Jean Giraudeau, Jean Pomarez, Joseph Peyron, Jules Gressier, L’heure espagnole, La voix humaine, Les dialogues des Carmélites, Les mamelles de Tirésias, Louis Durey, Louise de Vilmorin, Manuel Rosenthal, Marcel Cariven, Maurice Carême, Maurice Maeterlinck, Maurice Ravel, Michel Hamel, Pelleas et Melisande, Raymond Chevreux, Robert Massard, Robert Planquette, Suzanne Sarroca, Vittorio Guicountermelody

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Denise Duval, whose 101st birthday we posthumously commemorate on October 23, will forever be associated with the music of Francis Poulenc, and specifically his operas, in which the lead soprano roles were either created by her, or were written with her in mind. This episode not only presents Duval in excerpts, in live concert and stage performances, of all three roles: Thérèse in Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Blanche de la Force in Les Dialogues des Carmélites, and the unnamed heroine in his searing 1959 monodrama La voix humaine, alongside her performance in the world premiere of her final creation for Poulenc: the brief 1961 monologue La Dame de Monte-Carlo. But Duval was a versatile singer whose many and varied roles may surprise you. I present her also in both French and Viennese operettas by Lehár, Kálmán, Planquette, Messager, and Hervé, as well as operatic roles by Ravel, Debussy, and Saint-Saëns, concert works by Florent Schmitt and Louis Durey, and, from a joint recital with Poulenc, a breathtaking excerpt from Debussy’s Proses lyriques. Duval’s unusual voice and artistic profile defy classification, but this episode seeks to present as full a portrait as possible of this great singer and actor. Heard alongside Duval are tenors Jean Giraudeau, Alain Vanzo, Michel Hamel, and Jean Pomarez; baritones Jacques Jansen, Robert Massard, and Hans Wilbrink; and in an amusing turn, Francis Poulenc himself.

Episode 154. Adele Addison @ 97

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

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

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

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

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

Episode 147. The Young Gabriel Bacquier

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

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

Episode 144. Mad about Mesplé

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

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

Episode 143. Pelléas Part Deux

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

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

Episode 142. The Thrill of Pelléas

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

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

Episode 131. Happy Birthday, Reri Grist! (Black History Month 2022)

February 18, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, BHM2023WK4, Black History Month, Broadway, Comic Relief, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Richard Strauss, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAchim von Arnim, Alessandro Scarlatti, Andre Previn, Ariadne auf Naxos, Bernhard Paumgartner, Claude Debussy, Clemens Brentano, Cosi fan tutte, Denis Vaughan, Der Rosenkavalier, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die schweigsame Frau, Don Pasquale, Donald Grobe, Dory Langdon Previn, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Gaetano Donizetti, Giacomo Antonio Perti, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Patanè, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Hilde Güden, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Igor Stravinsky, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il re pastore, Judith Raskin, Karl Böhm, Kurt Böhme, L’elisir d’amore, Lakmé, Le nozze di Figaro, Léo Delibes, Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Pavarotti, Luigi Alva, Mathieu Lange, Max Goberman, Nicolai Gedda, Paul Verlaine, Pierre Thibaud, Reri Grist, Richard Lewis, Richard Strauss, Rigoletto, Robert Craft, Sena Jurinac, Silvio Varviso, Stefan Zweig, Stephen Sondheim, Un ballo in maschera, West Side Story, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Zubin Mehtacountermelody

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The great African American coloratura Reri Grist was born on leap year 1932. We celebrate her upcoming 90th birthday with a tribute featuring many of her greatest roles and recordings. After appearing as Consuelo in the 1957 Broadway premiere of West Side Story, and encouraged by Leonard Bernstein, Grist began a career in opera that took her around the world to all of the greatest opera houses. Reri Grist was the perfect exemplar of the so-called “-ina” roles: soubrette parts in Mozart and Strauss operas (Blondchen, Susanna, Despina, Zerlina, Zerbinetta, and Sophie), as well as the comic operas of Donizetti and Rossini (including Adina, Norina, and Rosina). This episode features her in most of these roles and concludes with the glorious finale of the second act of Richard Strauss’s 1935 comedy Die schweigsame Frau, one of her most notable successes. Vocal guest stars today include Christa Ludwig, Luciano Pavarotti, Sena Jurinac, Nicolai Gedda, Gwyneth Jones, Luigi Alva, Judith Raskin, Donald Grobe, and Richard Lewis. Whether you are celebrating 90 years or 22-and-a-half leap years, we celebrate you, Frau Grist, and offer heartfelt thanks for the joys that you have offered us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Episode 124. Dave’s Picks

January 14, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, Broadway, Comic Relief, Giacomo Puccini, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century MusicAlban Berg, Alfred Drake, Anneliese Rothenberger, Arnold Schoenberg, Arthur Winograd, Bette Midler, Beverly Wolff, Birgit Nilsson, Bobby Freeman, Burt Bacharach, Carl Orff, Carmina Burana, Carolyn Leigh, Cathy Berberian, Claude Debussy, Colette, Colin Davis, Cy Coleman, David Crosby, David Savran, Don Giovanni, Dusty Springfield, Eddie Fisher, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Erich Kleiber, Erwin Wohlfahrt, Eugene Ormandy, Fiddler on the Roof, First Choice, Franco Corelli, Françoise Ogéas, Frank Zappa, Friedrich Rückert, George Forrest, George Gershwin, George Schick, George Shirley, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Hal David, Harve Presnell, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Il Trovatore, Ira Gershwin, Jane Berbié, Janis Ian, Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Bock, Joni Mitchell, Judith Raskin, Julia Migenes, Kismet, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Le nozze di Figaro, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, Leopold Ludwig, Lisa Della Casa, Little Me (Coleman and Leigh), Lorin Maazel, Luciano Berio, Lulu (Berg), Maria Callas, Maurice Maeterlinck, Maurice Ravel, Montserrat Caballé, Nina Hagen, Norma, Oscar Hammerstein II, Paul Burkhard, Pelleas et Melisande, Pierre Boulez, Porgy and Bess, Richard Rodgers, Rita Tritter, Robert Craft, Robert Wright, Sammy Davis Jr., Sandy Denny, Sheldon Harnick, South Pacific, Stevie Wonder, The Byrds, The Mothers of Invention, The Supremes, Tim Buckley, Trouble in Tahiti, Tullio Serafin, Turandot, Vincenzo Bellini, Wladimiro Ganzarolli, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yvonne Mintoncountermelody

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Today’s special episode is in honor of my best friend, partner-in-crime and Corona-lockdown buddy, the distinguished theater scholar and author David Savran, who this week once again celebrated another journey around the sun. I invited him to be the first guest in a new series I will be presenting on Countermelody featuring colleagues and friends speaking about the music (and the singers!) that have most deeply affected and inspired them. Perhaps it’s not surprising that in the nearly two decades that we have known each other, that David’s taste in music and singers often falls neatly in step with mine. But there are many other musical paths and byways that he has explored that have taken him in quite different directions. Our spirited dialogue is punctuated by music that spoke to him most deeply in the first 25 years of his life. We hear samples of everything and everyone from Sammy Davis, Jr. to Grace Slick, from Cathy Berberian to Joni Mitchell, from Lisa della Casa to Nina Hagen, from Alfred Drake to Frank Zappa. The episode also constitutes a fascinating exploration of the role that memory and nostalgia play in the creation of musical tastes and preferences. Happy Birthday, Davey, and thanks for being my guest!

Episode 123. Lois Marshall (Great Canadian Singers)

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

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

Episode 120. Bethany Beardslee

December 17, 2021Art Song, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, Lieder, Needle Drop, Twentieth Century MusicAaron Copland, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, August Strindberg, Basil Reeve, Bethany Beardslee, Charles Baudelaire, Cheryl Seltzer, Claude Debussy, Das buch der hängenden gärten, David Epstein, e.e. cummings, Ernest Guiraud, Fred Lerdahl, Friedrich Rückert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Godfrey Winham, Hermann Weigert, James Joyce, James Purdy, Joel Sachs, Johannes Brahms, John Hollander, Joseph von Eichendorff, Lois Shapiro, Lotte Lehmann, Mel Powell, Milton Babbitt, Murray Panitz, Otto Erich Hartleben, Paul Verlaine, Peter Altenberg, Philomel (Babbitt), Pierrot lunaire, Richard Goode, Robert Craft, Robert Helps, Robert Schumann, Theodor Storm, William Shakespearecountermelody

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Today’s episode celebrates a pioneer in the performance of twentieth century vocal music in anticipation of her 96th birthday on Christmas Day. Bethany Beardslee was a titan who set standards in the performance of the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Milton Babbitt in particular, but who also acted as muse to a host of mid-twentieth century avant garde composers whose work she premiered and often recorded. But she was also a member of the pioneering early music ensemble New York Pro Musica in the late 1950s and was an innovator in programming daring and diverse recital repertoire which combined Lieder and melodies with the contemporary music for which she was best known. This episode samples her recordings over the course of more than thirty years, and includes composers such as John Dowland, Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and Johannes Brahms alongside such twentieth century giants as Anton Webern, Ernst Krenek, Igor Stravinsky, Ben Weber, Mel Powell, Robert Helps, Fred Lerdahl, and Godfrey Winham, her second husband. Throughout the course of a career devoted to, to paraphrase the title of her autobiography, “singing the unsingable,” Bethany Beardslee combined rock solid-technique and silvery tone with peerless musicianship and interpretive acuity to set standards that have yet to be surpassed. Please join me in celebrating this great artist.

Episode 112. Barry McDaniel

October 24, 2021Art Song, Bel canto, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Opera in Translation, Operetta, Queer Pride, Schubert, Twentieth Century MusicAgnes Giebel, Alfredo Kraus, Ariadne auf Naxos, Aribert Reimann, Arlene Saunders, Arthur Rother, Barry McDaniel, Brooks Smith, Carl Millöcker, Carl Orff, Carmina Burana, Christoph von Dohnányi, Claude Debussy, David Knutson, Der junge Lord, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Die schweigsame Frau, Eberhard Finke, Edita Gruberová, Enrique Beck, Ernest Lush, Ernst Haefliger, Ernst Krukowski, Évariste de Parny, Federico García Lorca, Ferdinand Leitner, Fidelio, Franz Schubert, Frederik Prausnitz, Friedrich Hebbel, Fritz Hoppe, Fritz Werner, Gerhard Unger, Gioacchino Rossini, Hans Werner Henze, Heinz Wallberg, Helmut Krebs, Hermann Reutter, Horst Stein, Hugo Wolf, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ingeborg Bachmann, Italienisches Liederbuch, Ivan Sardi, Johann Gabriel Seidl, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Jacob Niles, Joseph von Eichendorff, Karl Böhm, Karl Hochreither, Karlheinz Zoeller, Kurt Böhme, Kurt Equiluz, La finta giardiniera, Lear (Reimann), Leopold Hager, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luigi Dallapiccola, Mack Harrell, Manfred Jungwirth, Manfred Röhrl, Matthäus-Passion, Maurice Ravel, Murilo Mendes, Pierre Pierlot, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Robert Spillman, Stefan Zweig, Tristan L’Hermite, Wilhelm Müller, Winterreise, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Sawallischcountermelody

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This past week would have been the 91st birthday of Barry McDaniel (1930-2018), the great US-American Berlin-based lyric baritone whose artistry encompassed opera, oratorio (particularly the music of Bach), art song (particularly Lieder), and contemporary music, as well as delicious forays into operetta. This episode celebrates all aspects of this exceptionally fine singer, whose immediately recognizable voice, allied to a firm technique, superb diction, superior musicianship, and devotion to his craft yielded finely-hewn, distinctively inflected performances in a career which spanned nearly fifty years. The episode features him singing music of Strauss, Bach, Rossini, Schubert, Reimann, Ravel, Henze, Rossini, Mozart, Debussy, Millöcker and more. Vocal guest stars include Alfredo Kraus, Agnes Giebel, Kurt Böhme, Arlene Saunders, Mack Harrell (who was McDaniel’s teacher), and Edita Gruberová, to whom we pay especial tribute after her tragic death early last week.

Episode 109. Bernard Kruysen: Baryton Martin Extroardinaire

October 3, 2021Art Song, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersBanalités (Poulenc), Bernard Kruysen, Carlisle Floyd, Charles d’Orléans, Claude Debussy, Die tote Stadt, Edmond Rostand, Emmanuel Chabrier, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Felix de Nobel, Francis Poulenc, Gabriel Faure, Gian Carlo Menotti, Guillaume Apollinaire, Heinrich Heine, Heinrich Hollreiser, Helmut Kahlhöfer, Helmut Winschermann, James King, Jan Mul, Jean-Charles Richard, Johann Sebastian Bach, Karan Armstrong, Mary Mills, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Ivanovich Grekov, Nikolaus Lenau, Noël Lee, Norman Treigle, Quirinus van Blankenburg, Robert Schumann, Stéphane Mallarmé, Susannah (Floyd), Tristan L’Hermitecountermelody

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Today I celebrate the life and artistry of Bernard Kruysen (1933-2000), the Dutch singer whose voice exemplified that now nearly extinct vocal category, the baryton martin. I discuss just what constitutes a baryton martin and why in his prime Kruysen such was an ideal representative. I also discuss the larger question of the performance of the French art song, the mélodie, and why Kruysen was also exceptional in this regard, using as an example his 1960s recorded performances of three complete song cycles by Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, and Francis Poulenc. I also feature the artist singing art songs by Schumann and Mussorgsky and works by Bach, Quirinus van Blankenburg, and Jan Mul. The episode also includes tributes to recently departed artists Karan Armstrong (singing Korngold and Menotti) and Carlisle Floyd (in performances of his work by Mary Mills and Norman Treigle).

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 exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available.

Episode 86. Cathy Berberian’s Second Hand Songs

April 25, 2021Art Song, Comic Relief, Crossover, Mezzo Madness, Needle Drop, Twentieth Century MusicArnold Schoenberg, Bruno Canino, Cathy Berberian, César Cui, Claude Debussy, Claudio Monteverdi, Folk Songs, Frédéric Chopin, Georges Bizet, Giancarlo Menotti, Gioacchino Rossini, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Harold Arlen, Harold Lester, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Lennon, John Newmark, Kathleen Ferrier, Liza Lehmann, Luciano Berio, Ludwig van Beethoven, Manuel de Falla, Marcel Proust, Massimiliano Damenini, Maurice Ravel, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paolo Tosti, Paul McCartney, Pauline Viardot, Pierrot lunaire, Reynaldo Hahn, The Beatlescountermelody

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I return to Cathy Berberian, Prima Donna of the Avant Garde (or “The Divine Miss B” as she was sometimes called in the mid-seventies) for a further exploration of her career and influence on vocalism in the twentieth century and beyond. This time around I consider her explorations outside of the avant garde, specifically the recital. Based on her 1967 recording of Beatles Arias, the conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt invited Cathy Berberian to take part in his groundbreaking 1969 period instrument recording of Monteverdi’s Orfeo. In 1969 Cathy Berberian began to perform recitals that exploited her entire stylistic and vocal range, a program which eventually became known as “From Monteverdi to The Beatles.” In 1971 her ex-husband Luciano Berio wrote a theater piece for her called Recital I (For Cathy), in which she portrayed an increasingly deranged performer who eventually descends into madness. Her interest in Reynaldo Hahn and Marcel Proust eventually led her to create a program entitled À la recherche de la musique perdue. Additional late-career recitals were called Cathy Berberian’s Second Hand Songs and Cathy Sings America. This episode features excerpts from all of those works, as well as a smattering of folk music and a recorded excerpt of her singing the title role of Carmen, a tantalizing prospect which never came to be. The episode also includes a tribute to Kathleen Ferrier, whose 109th birthday was observed this past 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 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 85. George Shirley @ 87

April 18, 2021African American Singers, Art Song, BHM2023WK4, Black History Month, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Needle Drop, Operetta, Renata Scotto, Richard Strauss, Richard WagnerAlessandro Scarlatti, Benjamin Britten, Claude Debussy, Colin Davis, David Garvey, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Erich Leinsdorf, Fernando Previtali, Ferruccio Busoni, Georg Solti, George Shirley, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Howard Swanson, Igor Stravinsky, Ilva Ligabue, Jacques Offenbach, Jascha Horenstein, Jess Thomas, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Joanna Neal, John Pritchard, Josef Krips, Josephine McGill, Judith Raskin, Karl Weigl, Langston Hughes, Leontyne Price, Pierre Boulez, Renata Scotto, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Shirley Verrett, Sylvia Olden Lee, Thomas Schippers, Wayne Sanders, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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Today I finally get to pay tribute to one of the singers who was a formative influence on me as a budding opera and vocal aficionado. George Shirley, born on April 18, 1934 in Indianapolis, Indiana, was 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 an incandescent young Renata Scotto), Mephistopheles in Busoni’s Doktor Faust, and even Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos. All of these are included in the episode, as are rare song recordings from throughout his career. Raise a glass to the great George Shirley, and join me in thanking him for having shared his extraordinary artistic gift with us for all these years!

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 84. Cathy Berberian, Part I: MagnifiCathy

April 11, 2021Art Song, Broadway, Comic Relief, Crossover, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Twentieth Century MusicArnold Schoenberg, Bruno Canino, Cathy Berberian, Claude Debussy, crossover, Edith Sitwell, Erik Satie, Fernando Obradors, folk music, Harold Lester, Henri Pousseur, Henry Purcell, humor in music, Igor Stravinsky, Italo Calvino, Jacques Offenbach, James Joyce, John Cage, Komitas Vardapet, Kurt Weill, Liza Lehmann, Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Marius Constant, Pierre Boulez, Pierrot lunaire, Reynaldo Hahn, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Steely Dan, Steuart Bedford, Sylvano Bussotti, The Beatles, Umberto Eco, Victor Herbert, W.H. Auden, William Waltoncountermelody

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This episode is the first part of a tribute I have been wanting to create for quite some time. It honors the extraordinary artist and musician Cathy Berberian (1925-1983), the cosmopolitan Armenian-American vocalist who made an indelible mark on contemporary classical music and the public recital. Possessed of an extraordinarily flexible intelligence and sensibility, she influenced an entire generation of composers, including John Cage, Sylvano Bussotti, Henri Pousseur, and, in particular, her one-time husband Luciano Berio. Each of these composers wrote music with Berberian specifically in mind, and Berberian’s input strongly influenced the shape and form that these works assumed. Divorcing Berio in 1964 freed her to pursue her own musical interests, which included her own compositions, a musical friendship with Igor Stravinsky, a burgeoning interest in folk music, and the music of the Beatles. Her 1967 recording of so-called Beatles Arias (titled Revolution in its US release) is a unique document, which both explores the hidden depths of this material, at the same time poking fun at the entire crossover genre. Her daring theatricality and vibrant personality continue to exert an indelible influence that extends far beyond the avant garde. In two weeks I will explore the directions that she pursued in her later career.

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.

Cathy Berberian resources:

Music is the Air I Breathe, a 1994 documentary on Cathy Berberian by the late filmmaker Carrie de Swaan:

Links to audio interviews and performances on CathyBerberian.com.

Episode 83: Frühlingslieder [Spring Songs]

April 4, 2021African American Singers, Art Song, Broadway, Comic Relief, Crossover, Great Baritones, Holiday Music, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAksel Schiotz, Alan Jay Lerner, Alec Wilder, Benjamin Luxon, Bernard Kruysen, Brigitte Fassbaender, Bryn Terfel, Buddy Clark, Burt Bacharach, Charles Gounod, Claude Debussy, Comedian Harmonists, David Triestram, Dionne Warwick, Dorothy Fields, Edith Mathis, Edvard Grieg, Elly Ameling, Emilio de Gogorza, Emily Skinner, Erik Werba, Felix Mendelssohn, Fran Landesman, Frank Loesser, Franz Schubert, Georgia Brown, Gerald Moore, Gilbert Kalish, Gordon MacRae, Hans Hotter, Hugo Wolf, Jan DeGaetani, Jean Fournet, Jean-Paul Jeannotte, Jerome Kern, John Ireland, Judith Raskin, Kirsten Flagstad, Kurt Weill, Liane Augustin, Luther Henderson, Mabel Mercer, Martina Arroyo, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Milton Babbitt, Ned Rorem, Noël Lee, Oscar Hammerstein II, Paul Weston, Peter Schreier, Polly Bergen, Rebecca Luker, Richard Rodgers, Roberta Alexander, Sergei Rachmaninov, Tamara Milashkina, Tom Lehrer, Tommy Wolf, Vernon Duke, Walter Jurmann, Wilhelm Müller, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yip Harburgcountermelody

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Dear listeners, it is Easter Sunday. While we are strictly non-sectarian at Countermelody, I did want to offer a program of spring favorites to welcome in the earth’s rebirth. (I also had to scramble to create a “filler” episode due to having lost two days of work this week after receiving my first jab on Wednesday.) Hence today’s offering: a Blumenstrauss of songs celebrating the beloved season of spring. I decided to limit today’s selections exclusively to song, omitting opera, operetta, and oratorio, but somewhat arbitrarily including songs from musicals amidst the classical and pop offerings. Even so, what a lineup of stars today: everyone from Mabel Mercer to Jan DeGaetani, from Hans Hotter to Dionne Warwick, from Georgia Brown to Roberta Alexander, from Kirsten Flagstad to Gordon MacRae. We hear composers ranging from Alec Wilder to Franz Schubert, from Milton Babbitt to Burt Bacharach, and from Hugo Wolf to Tom Lehrer. May these songs and songsters help us to welcome in the long-awaited spring!

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 80. Sad Songs (with a twist)

March 14, 2021Art Song, Comic Relief, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Gustav Mahler, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Schubert, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersAlexander Young, Alfredo Simonetto, Andréa Guiot, Ariettes oubliées, Banalités (Poulenc), Bernard Kruysen, Bethany Beardslee, Brigitte Fassbaender, Castor et Pollux (Rameau), Cathy Berberian, Charles Griffes, Charles Panzéra, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Claude Debussy, Claudio Monteverdi, Das Lied von der Erde, Dido and Aeneas, Die schöne Müllerin, Dylan Thomas, Eduard Mörike: Mörike-Lieder (Wolf). Irmgard Seefried, Felix de Nobel, Fiona MacLeod, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert, Gabriel Faure, George Szell, Georges Pretre, Gérard Souzay; Dalton Baldwin, Giacomo Puccini, Giovanni Francesco Busenello, Guillaume Apollinaire, Gustav Mahler, Heinrich Heine, Henry Purcell, Hugo Wolf, Igor Stravinsky, Irwin Gage, Jacques Leguerney, James Joyce, Janet Baker, Jayme Ovalle, Jean Fournet, Jean-Baptiste Rameau, Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, Jeanette Scovotti, Johannes Brahms, John Dowland, Jorma Hynninen, Julian Bream, Kurt Ollmann, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Les dialogues des Carmélites, Lois Marshall, Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Magda Olivero, Manuel Bandeira, Maria Callas, Mary Dibbern, Nan Merriman, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Noël Lee, Orphée et Eurydice, Paul Verlaine, Peter Pears, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Pierre Bernac, Ralf Gothoni, Renée Doria, Reynaldo Hahn, Robert Helps, Robert Schumann, Seiji Ozawa, Suor Angelica, Victor Graef, Vier ernste Gesänge, Wilhelm Müller, William Sharp (Fiona MacLeod)countermelody

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It’s been a year since the pandemic sent us all into various degrees of lockdown, panic, and depression. In certain parts of the world there is no end in sight, while in other parts, medical expertise is being blatantly defied as lockdown measures are carelessly lifted. I did a survey of my friends and listeners this week regarding their favorite sad songs, and I got hit with an avalanche of a wide range of not-happy music. In this episode I am limiting myself to so-called “classical” music. Because the music itself is so heavy, I impersonate (at the top of the episode) a radio announcer for WOKE-FM, a fictional Milwaukee “Top 40 Classical Radio Station,” who is taking calls from all over the world from listeners requesting their favorite sad music. These spurious callers have invariably good taste, and request some glorious music, albeit very sad indeed, by some transcendent performers, including Irmgard Seefried, Maria Callas, Janet Baker, Pierre Bernac, Nan Merriman, Lois Marshall, Peter Pears, and two beautiful French sopranos, Renée Doria and Andréa Guiot, who, at extremely advanced ages, each recently departed this earth. Composers from Dowland, Rameau, and Monteverdi are represented, alongside Poulenc, Schubert, Mahler, Debussy, and Stravinsky. The episode also includes guest vocal appearances by singers, including Cathy Berberian, Magda Olivero, Charles Panzéra, Jorma Hynninen, and Bethany Beardslee, who will receive full-episode treatment in the near future. Ultimately, we return to the atmosphere of a normal Countermelody episode, and are deeply moved by the singers, composers, and music represented.

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 69. Voiceless Wonders: An Introduction

January 10, 2021African American Singers, Art Song, Broadway, Comic Relief, Drag Performance, Full-Figured Baroque, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Protest Songs, Queer Pride, Voiceless WondersA Little Night Music (Sondheim), Abel Meeropol, Adele Astaire, Alberta Hunter, Alec Wilder, André Cluytens, Andy Razaf, Audrey Hepburn, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Barbara, Bertolt Brecht, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bourvil, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Bud McCreary, Celius Dougherty, Chita Rivera, Claude Debussy, Divine, Dody Goodman, Emmerich Zillner, Erich Kunz, Eugen Jochum, Fats Waller, Follies (Sondheim), Frances Gershwin, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert, Fred Astaire, Fred Ebb, Geoffrey Parsons, George Bizet, George Gershwin, Georges Tzipine, Gerhard Stolze, Hans Werner, Harry Plunket Greene, Helmut Krebs, Henry Mancini, Hildegard Knef, Hoagy Carmichael, Hugues Cuenod, Ira Gershwin, Jacques Offenbach, Jane Bathori, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Kander, Johnny Mercer, Josef Hochmuth, Joséphine Baker, Judi Dench, Julie Wilson, Julius Patzak, Kander and Ebb, Karl Erb, Kurt Weill, L’aigle noir, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Lotte Lenya, Lou Reed, Mabel Mercer, Madeleine Grey, Manos Hadzidakis, Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Ravel, Meg Christian, Melina Mercouri, Michel Sénéchal, Mildred Bailey, Moon River, Never On Sunday, Noël Coward, Pete Seeger, Pierre Bernac, Povla Frijsh, Randall Thompson, Rudolf Sieczyński, Schubert Winterreise, Shoot Your Shot, Stephen Sondheim, Strange Fruit, The Fugs, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Winterreisecountermelody

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Some of the greatest singers in history are not necessarily the most vocally-gifted. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of episodes devoted to such artists. I consider singers across many genres: recitalists (Pierre Bernac, Madeleine Grey, Povla Frijsh, Jane Bathori), cabaret (Mabel Mercer, Noël Coward, Julie Wilson, Barbara, Lotte Lenya), musicals (Fred and Adele Astaire, Chita Rivera), pop music (Bob Dylan, Lou Reed), jazz (Billie Holiday, Alberta Hunter), actors (Audrey Hepburn, Melina Mercouri, Judi Dench, Hildegard Knef, Divine), and even comedians (Dody Goodman, Bourvil), with special focus on a few of the voiceless tenors who hold a special place in my heart (Hugues Cuenod, Karl Erb, Helmut Krebs, Julius Patzak). At the end, I feature two aging icons (Marlene Dietrich and Joséphine Baker) in unforgettable live performances of two protest songs that are painfully relevant at this moment in time. Composers include Alec Wilder, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill, Franz Schubert, Stephen Sondheim, Francis Poulenc, Abel Meeropol, Claude Debussy, Kander and Ebb, Pete Seeger, Carl Orff, Manos Hadzidakis, Fats Waller, Maurice Ravel, and Rudolf Sieczyński. Please join me for this very special episode. But prepare yourselves for an emotional wallop.

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 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 66. Christmas (Art) Songs

December 20, 2020African American Singers, Art Song, Eileen Farrell, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, In Memoriam, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Needle Drop, Richard StraussAlexander Sander, Bernard Kruysen, Bernarda Fink, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Carl Loewe, Charles Bressler, Charles Ives, Claude Debussy, Claudio Muzio, Dalton Baldwin, Denise Duval, Edvard Grieg, Eileen Farrell, Elizabeth Harwood, Elly Ameling, Engelbert Humperdinck, Erik Werba, Erkki Melartin, Francis Poulenc, Franz Rupp, Gabriel Faure, Genevieve Touraine, George Trovillo, Gerard Souzay, Gilbert Kalish, Hansjörg Albrecht, Helmut Deutsch, Hermann Prey, Hugo Wolf, Ian Partridge, Igor Gorin, Irmgard Seefried, Jan DeGaetani, Jennifer Partridge, Joaquín Nin, Joaquin Rodrigo, Johannes Brahms, John McCabe, John Wustman, Jorma Hynninen, Joseph Canteloube, Joseph Haas, Julius Severin, Karl Erb, Kathleen Ferrier, Leonard Hokanson, Lilli Paasikivi, Lorenzo Molajoli, Marian Anderson, Marianne Hirsti, Marilyn Horne, Marni Nixon, Maurice Emmanuel, Maurice Ravel, Max Gilbert, Noël Lee, Norman Del Mar, Norman Shetler, Olaf Bär, Paul Hindemith, Peter Cornelius, Peter Schreier, Peter Warlock, Phyllis Spurr, Ralf Gothoni, Regine Crespin, Richard Trunk, Roger VIgnoles, Rosario Bourdon, Rudolf Jansen, Ruth-Margret Pütz, Susan Dunn, Ulf Söderblom, Willem Pijper, William Primrose, Wolfgang Anheissercountermelody

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In preparation for the upcoming holiday, this week I offer a cross-section of art songs and arrangements of folk songs, not only from Germany, which is the epicenter of the Christmas Lied, but also France, Norway, the United States, Finland, England, and Spain The performers, recorded between 1927 and 2010, include Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Régine Crespin, Hermann Prey, Claudia Muzio, Elly Ameling, Marian Anderson, Ian Partridge, Karl Erb, Wolfgang Anheisser, Jan DeGaetani, Jorma Hynninen, Bernarda Fink, Olaf Bär, Susan Dunn, Kathleen Ferrier, and Bernard Kruysen, among many others, in songs by composers including, in part, Johannes Brahms, Joaquín Nin, Hugo Wolf, Peter Warlock, Claude Debussy, Charles Ives, and Paul Hindemith. The episode features several performances by my teacher, the esteemed accompanist John Wustman, who on Christmas Day celebrates his 90th birthday.

Links to my 2019 Christmas episodes:

Episode 13: Christmas with the Tenors (including everyone from Fritz Wunderlich to Georges Thill to Roland Hayes): www:countermelodypodcast.com/episode-13-christmas-with-the-tenors

Episode 14: Christmas Potpourri (including my choices for the six most depressing pop Christmas songs ever!): www.countermelodypodcast.com/episode-14-christmas-potpourri-ii-hard-try

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 64. Jorma Hynninen in Opera (Great Baritones I)

December 6, 2020Finnish Opera, Giuseppe Verdi, Mirella Freni, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, VerismoAarre Merikanto, Aleksis Kivi (Rautavaara), Antonio Ros Marbá, Aulis Sallinen, Claude Debussy, Don Giovanni, Eeva-Liisa Saarinen, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Elektra, Eri Klas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Eugene Onegin, Fuat Manchurov, Gabriel Suovanen, Giuseppe Verdi, Hildegard Behrens, Il Prigioniero (Dallapiccola), Il Trovatore, Ilkka Kuusisto, Jean Sibelius, Jorma Hynninen, Juha (Madetoja), Juha (Merikanto), Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Jussi Jalas, Kalevi Kiviniemi, Kullervo (Sallinen), Le nozze di Figaro, Leevi Madetoja, Luigi Dallapiccola, Markus Lehtinen, Mathis der Maler, Matti Salminen, Mirella Freni, Okko Kamu, Pagliacci, Paul Hindemith, Pekka Haapasalo, Pekka Nuotio, Pelleas et Melisande, Pohjalaisia (Madetoja), Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Riccardo Muti, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Savonlinna Opera Festival, The Ostrobothnians (Madetoja), The Red Line (Sallinen), Thomas (Rautavaara), Tristan und Isolde, Ulf Söderblom, Un ballo in maschera, Victoria de los Angeles, Vincent (Rautavaara), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yevgeny Onegincountermelody

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This is the first of two episodes I have planned in honor of the great Finnish baritone Jorma Hynninen, who turns 80 in 2021. The focus today is on his work in opera. His stylistic range was unusually large: during the years in which he appeared internationally he triumphed in roles ranging from Mozart to Verdi to the title role in Eugene Onegin in opera houses around the world. What is perhaps less well-remembered is that he also was a phenomenal Pelléas and also a distinguished Wagnerian, singing Wolfram, Amfortas, and Kurwenal, among other parts. All of these are featured in today’s episode, as well as arias and scenes from operas by Strauss, Dallapiccola, and Hindemith. Jorma Hynninen made his greatest contribution to the field, however, in his legendary creations in the world of Finnish opera. The second portion of the program features excerpts of his performances in works by pioneers Leevi Madetoja and Aarre Merikanto and continues with roles he created in operas by Aulis Sallinen and Einojuhani Rautavaara. Though he retired from opera in 2012, he continues to concertize in Finland; in the fall of 2019 he embarked on a brief concert tour with a voice nearly untouched by the years. Mirella Freni, Hildegard Behrens, and Victoria de los Ángeles are also featured in the episode. Join me in an exploration of the operatic career of this extraordinary singer.

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 49. Eileen Farrell (Crossover Classics V)

August 23, 2020Art Song, Crossover, Eileen Farrell, Giuseppe Verdi, Needle Drop, Operetta, Pop Icons, Queer PrideAdolph Green, Alec Wilder, André Kostelanetz, Andre Previn, Betty Comden, 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, Johnny Mercer, Jule Styne, Knoxville Summer of 1915, La forza del destino, Leonard Bernstein, Londonderry Air (Danny Boy), Loonis McGlohon, Lorenz Hart, Luther Henderson, Maurice Ravel, Mitchell Parish, My Funny Valentine, On the Town, Oscar Hammerstein II, Peer Gynt, Percy Faith, Peter DeRose, Renato Cellini, Richard Rodgers, Richard Wagner, Robert Farnon, Samuel Barber, The Consul, The Lamp Is Low, Truman Capote, Victor Herbert, William Engvickcountermelody

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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 frequent collaborator 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!

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!

Episode 27. That Time of Evening (Music for a World in Crisis II)

March 22, 2020African American Singers, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle DropAlto Rhapsody, Carol Brice, Claude Debussy, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Edwin Bitcliffe, Eleanor Steber, Françoise Ogéas, Franz Rupp, Ginette Guillamat, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, James Agee, Jewel Brown, Johannes Brahms, Knoxville Summer of 1915, La damoiselle élue, Marian Anderson, Samuel Barber, Serge Koussevitzkycountermelody

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Today’s episode, spontaneously crafted over the course of a few hours, features live performances of three longer works that, each in its own way, has something very specific to offer us as we face the uncertainty of our immediate future. First, a 1946 performance of Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody featuring the African American contralto Carol Brice with Serge Koussevitzky leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra. There follows a live performance from 1954 of French soprano Françoise Ogéas performing the title role of Debussy’s Rossetti-based cantata La damoiselle élue with mezzo-soprano Ginette Guillamat as the Récitante. Debussy specialist Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht leads the forces of the ORTF. The third major work in today’s episode is Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, in a live Carnegie Hall performance from October 10, 1958 by Eleanor Steber, who commissioned and premiered the work, accompanied by pianist Edwin Bitcliffe. Guest vocal appearances by Jewel Brown singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and Marian Anderson performing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” round out the episode.

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

Episode 18. Elisabeth Söderström Sings Everything

January 16, 2020Full-Figured Baroque, Needle Drop, Richard Strauss, Twentieth Century MusicAlceste, Bo Bergman, Capriccio, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Claude Debussy, Claude Génetay, Clemens Krauss, Divinités du Styx, Édouard Guinand, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Eugene Onegin, François-Louis Gand le Bland du Roullet, Hennes Ord, Janet Baker, Le nozze di Figaro, Lorenzo da Ponte, Morgen Mittag um elf, Neopolitan Mourning Song, Non so più cosa son, Puskay pogibnu ya, Richard Strauss, Schlußszene (Capriccio), Symfoniorkestern Norrköping, Ture Rangström, Ulf Björlin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yevgeny Onegin, Пускай погибну яcountermelody

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Elisabeth Söderström, the elegant, vibrant, vulnerable, musically scrupulous, dramatically committed, Swedish soprano (7 May 1927 – 20 November 2009) is celebrated in this episode with an airing of her rare 1972 vocal recital for Swedish EMI which features her in a wide range of musical styles from early Baroque opera to the Swedish composer Ture Rangström, with side trips to Mozart, Gluck, and Debussy. These works buttress vocally sumptuous, dramatically-charged performances of extended scenes from two of her signature roles, Tatyana in Yevgeny Onegin and the Gräfin in Capriccio, representing this beloved artist in her absolute vocal and artistic prime.

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

Episode 13. Christmas with the Tenors

December 15, 2019African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, Crossover, Holiday Music, In Memoriam, Lieder, Needle DropAdolphe Adam, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Cantique de Noël, Cesar Franck, Charles Holland, Christmas Hymns and Carols Volume 2, Christmas music, Christmas Oratorio, Claude Debussy, Dalton Baldwin, Daniel Gundlach, Dave Seville, Ernst Haefliger, Firestone Christmas Albums, Francisco Araiza, Franz Xaver Gruber, Fritz Wunderlich, Gabriel Faure, George Frideric Handel, Georges Thill, Gerard Souzay, Henry Lemarchand, Hermann Prey, Hodie, Irving Berlin, Jacqueline Bonneau, Jean Beauval, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Franz Mohr, Karl Erb, Kommet ihr Hirten, Lauritz Melchior, Lettre au Papa Noël, Matthew Swensen, Messiah, Minuit Chrétiens, Noël, O Holy Night, O Jesulein süß, Panis angelicus, Petit Papa Noel, Philippe Parès, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reginald Boardman, Richard Lewis, Richard Tauber, Robert Shaw, Robert Shaw Chorale, Roland Hayes, Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian, Russell Oberlin, Sister Mary Had A But One Child, Stille Nacht heilige Nacht, Tenors, The Cherry Tree Carol, The Chipmunk Song, Tino Rossi, Weihnachts-Oratorium, White Christmascountermelody

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This week is the first of two episodes featuring Christmas music. I decided to feature tenors, but with a difference: none of The Three Tenors will put in an appearance. In compensation, this week I feature a panoply of superb tenors (including Fritz Wunderlich, Georges Thill, Richard Lewis, Roland Hayes, Tino Rossi, Franco Corelli, Ernst Haefliger, Richard Tauber, Karl Erb, and Matthew Swensen) in repertoire ranging across the spectrum (Handel, Adam, Gounod, Bach, Berlin, and traditional Weihnachtsmusik, with some surprises along the way). The episode concludes with a brief musical tribute to Dalton Baldwin, Gérard Souzay’s partner and collaborator, who died on 12 December, a week to the day before his 88th birthday.

Episode 12. Gérard Souzay @ 101: A modern-day troubadour

December 8, 2019MusicAntoine Boësset, Arne Dorumsgaard, Cesar Franck, Charles Gounod, Claire Croiza, Claude Debussy, Colloque sentimental, Dalton Baldwin, Daniel Gundlach, Der Sandmann, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Dinu Lipatti, Fetes galantes, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert, Genevieve Touraine, Gerard Philipe, Gerard Souzay, Golaud, Irène Aïtoff, Jacqueline Bonneau, Jacqueline Robin, Jacqueline Robin-Bonneau, Jean-Michel Damase, Lotte Lehmann, Louis de Fourcaud, Maria Callas, Maria Casares, Maria Cecilia Sophia Anna Kalogeropoulos, Mark Ainley, Maurice Ravel, Paul Verlaine, Pelleas et Melisande, Pierre Bernac, Robert Schumann, Vanni-Marcouxcountermelody

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The French baritone Gérard Souzay was born Gérard Tisserand on 8 December 1918 and died in Antibes on 17 August 2004. This episode celebrates his 101st birthday by exploring his recorded legacy, with particular emphasis on his earliest recordings. Repertoire by Jaime Ovalle, César Franck, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel, Henry Purcell, and Claude Debussy (including an excerpt from his 1955 radio performance of Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande). We also hear performances by his teachers and mentors Claire Croiza, Vanni-Marcoux, Pierre Bernac, and Lotte Lehmann, as well as his sister, Geneviève Touraine. I make my best effort to argue the case of Souzay’s artistic importance, his continuing significance, and the unique qualities of his artistry.

Episode 10. Régine Crespin: Un doux privilège

November 24, 2019Art Song, Crossover, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Mezzo Madness, Needle Drop, Operetta, Richard Strauss, Richard WagnerAnneliese Rothenberger, Bell Telephone Hour, Brigitte Fassbaender, Carlos Kleiber, Claude Debussy, Daniel Gundlach, Denise Duval, Denise Scharley, Der fliegende Holländer, Eliane Lubin, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Fidelio, Franco Corelli, Georges Jouatte, Georges Sébastien, Germaine Lubin, Glyndebourne, Gwyneth Jones, Irene Joachim, Janet Williams, Je tremble en voyant ton visage, John Wustman, José Luccioni, Le promenoir des deux amants, Les dialogues des Carmélites, Les trois valses, Lotte Lehmann, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Mady Mesple, Maria Ewing, Oscar Straus, Paul Finel, Regine Crespin, René Bianco, Richard Wagner, Rita Gorr, Roger Soyer, Shirley Verrett, Suzanne Cesbron-Viseur, Suzanne Sarroca, Xavier Depraz, Yvonne Printempscountermelody

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Régine Crespin, whose Metropolitan Opera debut as the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier occurred exactly 57 years ago this week, is featured on this week’s episode. I give an overview of her major roles, with a few surprises, both monumental and insouciante, tossed in. Because of her enormous range and versatility, I will have to return to my subject in the near future in order to do full justice to this great artist.