Tag Archives: The Wizard of Oz

Episode 492. Mommie Dearest, One Year Later

September 23, 2026African American Singers, Broadway, Comic Relief, Forgotten Divas, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Johann Sebastian Bach, Listeners' Favorites, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Renata Scotto, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, SpiritualsAlfred de Musset, Alfred Newman, Ángel de Saavedra, Bernie Toorish, Bruno Balz, Carl Boberg, Carmen Dragon, Carmen Miranda, Cecil Sharp, Christfried Bickenbach, Clifton Bingham, Daniel Chorzempa, Edgar, Edwin Greene, Eileen Farrell, Ein deutsches Requiem, Eleanor Steber, Elly Ameling, Erika Köth, Eve Queler, Ferdinando Fontana, Francesco Maria Piave, Frederick Weatherly, Gabriel Faure, George Cory, George Frideric Handel, George Mzlloy, George Szell, Gerald Moore, Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Haven Gillespie, Henriette Louise von Haym, Howard Barlow, Igor Gorin, Irving Berlin, J. Fred Coots, Jean Fournet, Joan Baez, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Jacob Niles, John Shirley-Quirk, Johnnie Ray, Johnny Mercer, Kenneth Spencer, La forza del destino, Leigh Harline, Leo Robin, Leontyne Price, Lloyd Arriola, Mabel Mercer, Manfred Hübler, Michelangelo Veltri, Ned Washington, Neville Marriner, Norman Luboff, Odetta, Pinocchio, Renata Scotto, Shirley Verrett, Stuart K. Hine, Sy Mann, The Four Lads, The Holmes Brothers, The Wizard of Oz, Tom Krause, Tom Lehrer, Wilhelm Schüchter, Yip Harburgcountermelody

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Today is the one-year anniversary of my dear mother’s death. Yesterday, in preparing for my own private commemoration, I remembered that almost exactly a year ago, just two days after she died, I recorded the narration for a memorial episode in her honor that at the time I never published. Listening to the raw material for that episode, I realized that today would be the perfect time to publish that episode. I assumed that I would be so choked up with grief that I would not even be able to organize my thoughts, but I think I did a pretty good job of commemorating her in a way that only I could. As I remark, though my mother and I had a sometimes conflicted relationship because of her religious beliefs and conservative politics, we also shared the preternatural bond that mothers sometimes share with their children when they perceive the presence of a kindred spirit. For in spite of all the mutual head-butting in which we partook over the years, we were kindred spirits. And we both had to work extremely hard to keep those channels of love and respect open when, according to all our opposing vantage points, we should have been in enmity. This episode was wrung out of me just as the wave of my grief was cresting, but it’s so much better for that. I supplement my anecdotes and memories with a lot of music, from many different performers: everyone and everything from Bach to Johnnie Ray to “I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb” to Joan Baez to Mabel Mercer to Tom Lehrer to “Danny Boy” to the Brahms Deutsches Requiem and back again. I’m not sure that, after a year as an orphan (what the Germans would call a Vollwaise, , I would have the perspective to delve into my memories in the same way. Please give this episode a listen; maybe it will help you put certain things in perspective as well.

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

Episode 475. A Queer Boy’s Favorite Pop Divas

June 26, 2026African American Singers, Alternate Universe Bel Canto, Black History Month, Black History Month 2026, Broadway, Forgotten Divas, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Renata Scotto, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Voiceless WondersABBA, Alain Delon, Alanis Morissette, Alban Berg, Andy Razaf, Angelo Bond, Annie Lennox, Aretha Franklin, Arthur Altman, Barbara Cook, Barbra Streisand, Benny Andersson, Billie Holiday, Billy Rose, Billy Steinberg, Björn Ulvaeus, Bonnie Raitt, Briaan Holland, Burt Bacharach, Carol Hall, Céline Dion, Cher, Cyndi Lauper, Dalida, Dave Stewart, Desmond Child, Diane Warren, Dinah Washington, Dolly Parton, Don Covay, Dusty Springfield, Eartha Kitt, Eddie Holland, Edith Piaf, Edward Eliscu, Edythe Wayne, Erich Leinsdorf, Erie Mills, Eurythmics, Fats Waller, Freda Payne, Georges Bernheim, Giancarlo Del Re, Gianni Ferrio, Harold Arlen, Haven Gillespie, Helen Morgan, Henri Dijan, J. Fred Coots, Jack Lawrence, Jack Yellen, Jackie DeShannon, Jacques Demarny, James Taylor, Jaques Prévert, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Joey Heatherton, Johnny Mercer, Joni Mitchell, Joseph Kosma, Judy Garland, Juliette Gréco, Lamont Dozier, Laura Lee, Leo Chiosso, Les Baxter, Lester Judson, Linda Ronstadt, Lulu, Marlene Dietrich, Michaële, Milton ger, Nan O’Byrne, Nicole Croisille, Norman Luboff, Peter Lucia, Peter Matz, Phil Everly, Raymond Taylor, Renata Scotto, Robbie Robertson, Ron Dunbar, Rosemary Clooney, Sadie Vimmerstedt, Smokey Rogers, Ted Koehler, The Clooney Sisters, The Wizard of Oz, Tom Kelly, Tommy James, Tony Pastor, Van Morrison, Vincent Youmans, William Weatherspoon, Yip Harburg, Yma Sumaccountermelody

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We are still in the midst of our summer holiday. And oh, what a sweltering summer it is turning out to be! Because of this, rather than producing a brand-new episode today, I’m bringing you an episode from nearly six years ago which celebrated a landmark birthday of mine, which is a playlist of a few of my favorite pop divas, my association with some of whom stretches all the way back to my childhood. But what a motley assortment it is! Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Barbara Cook, Eartha Kitt, Juliette Gréco, ABBA, Barbra Streisand, Bonnie Raitt, Cyndi Lauper, Billie Holiday, Eurythmics, Jackie DeShannon, Dolly Parton, Laura Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Yma Sumac, the recently departed Nicole Croisille, Linda Ronstadt, Freda Payne, Joey Heatherton, Dinah Washington, Dalida, Aretha, and of course my beloved Dusty. This is a playlist worthy of any diva-loving late-middle aged homosexual that any lover of occasionally good music and usually fantastic singing can enjoy. The episode begins with a memorial tribute to the late Erie Mills.

Episode 205. Eileen Farrell: Bach/Pop

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

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

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.