Episode 133. Never Forget

Episode 133. Never Forget (Black History Month 2022)

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Evelyn Dove

I bid a lingering farewell to Black History Month 2022 with the first of a two-part episode featuring singers, each of whom left a relatively small but invaluable recorded legacy. I begin with soloists from the Leonard de Paur Chorus, and continue with earliest recorded examples, more than a century old, of African American singers. I follow with a series of singers, each of whom made a mark in varied productions of Porgy and Bess, but all of them singing other material: by Mozart, Arlen, Bernstein, Cole Porter, Howard Swanson, and a US workers’ song translated into German. I conclude with a trio of exceptional Verdi sopranos of whom you may not yet have heard. Among the singers heard today are Charles Holland, Luther Saxon, Eugene Holmes, John C. Payne, Harry T. Burleigh, Evelyn Dove, LeVern Hutcherson, Inez Matthews, Todd Duncan, Florence Cole-Talbert, Kenneth Spencer, Martha Flowers, Bruce Hubbard, Helen Thigpen, Ella Lee, Ruby Elzy, Theresa Green Coleman, Edward Boatner, Betty Allen, and Sarah Reese. Prepare to have your horizons expanded and your consciousness raised!

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Serge Prokofiev, Vladimir Lugovskoy: Мёртвое поле [The Field of the Dead] (Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78). Betty Allen, Eugene Ormandy, The Philadelphia Orchestra [1975]

Ruggero Leoncavallo: Un nido di memorie (Pagliacci). Eugene Holmes, Hector Urbón, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker [live Deutsche Oper am Rhein 13.VII.1977]

Traditional Argentinian, arr. Leonard de Paur: Vidalita. Charles Holland, Leonard de Paur, The de Paur Infantry Chorus [1952]

Traditional Irish, adapted Frederick Weatherly, arr. Leonard de Paur: Danny Boy. Luther Saxon, Leonard de Paur, the de Paur Infantry Chorus [1954]

Traditional Spirituals, arr. Charles Lloyd, Jr., Jessye Norman: Walk About Elders – Ride On, King Jesus (from Great Day in the Morning). La Verne Williams, Jessye Norman [solos], Shezwae Powell, Nancy Ticotin, Jimmy Chambers, Vernon Nesbeth, Thomas Pollard, Ira Spaulding, Richard Taylor, Wayne Williams [chorus] [1982]

Traditional Spiritual, arr. Harry T. Burleigh: Go Down, Moses. Harry Burleigh (probably self-accompanied) [1919]

Traditional Spiritual: Go Down, Moses. John C. Payne, Jack London [1935]

Traditional Spiritual, arr. Harry Burleigh: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child. Edward H.S. Boatner, possibly accompanied by Harry T. Burleigh [1919]

Traditional Spiritual, arr. Clarence Cameron White: Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen. Florence Cole-Talbert, William Leonard King [1919]

Traditional Spiritual, arr. R. Nathaniel Dett: Make More Room. Hattie King Reavis [1922]

Traditional Spiritual: Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray. Evelyn Dove, with piano accompaniment [ca. 1936]

Traditional Spiritual: Every Time I Feel the Spirit. Eloise Uggams, Everyman Opera Company conducted by Joseph Crawford [1952]

Traditional Spiritual: Deep River. LeVern Hutcherson, Lorenzo Fuller [1952]

Traditional Spiritual, arr. Roland Hayes: Round About the Mountain. Inez Matthews, Jonathan Brice [1953]

Cole Porter: River God (The Sun Never Sets). Todd Duncan, Charles Prentice, The Drury Land Theatre Orchestra [1938]

Otto Mortensen, Robert Frost: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Anne Wiggins Brown, Kjell Olsson [unknown recording date, probably late 1940s]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Emanuel Schikaneder, unknown Italian translator: Ah, lo so [Ach ich fühl’s] (Il flauto magico [Die Zauberflöte]). Ruby Elzy, William Lawrence [late 1930s – early 1930s]

Leonard Bernstein, Alan Jay Lerner: Seena (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). Bruce Hubbard, Dennis Russell Davies, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s [1990]

Howard Swanson, Edwin Markham: The Valley. Helen Thigpen, David Allen [1951]

Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer: I Had Myself a True Love (St. Louis Woman). Martha Flowers, Don Shirley [1963]

Traditional US-American, arr. and translated Horst Roos: Denk einmal daran. Kenneth Spencer, Trio Hans Jürgens [1964]

Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni: L’insana parola (Aida). Ella Lee, unknown conductor, orchestra, and date

Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni: O terra addio (Aida). Theresa Green Coleman, James McCracken, Regina Resnik, Fernando Previtali, Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Colón [live 14.VIII.1962]

Giuseppe Verdi, Salvadore Cammarano: D’amor sull’ali rosee (Il trovatore). Sarah Reese, Isaiah Jackson, Detroit Symphony Orchestra [live 1984]

Traditional Nigerian Lullaby, Yoruba Tribe: Y me omo mi. Luther Saxon, The Leonard de Paur Chorus led by Leonard de Paur [1964]

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