Episode 190. Make Your Own Kind of Music: Verdi Edition
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It’s time for my fourth annual April Fools Day episode! The first one that I published exactly four years ago, entitled Alternate Universe Bel Canto, has proven to be one of my most popular, and one that was the gateway episode for many of my most devoted listeners. Furthermore, this one came specifically at the request of one of my newest Patreon supporters (hint, hint to those of you who are not yet supporting the podcast there!) Instead of an overview of all those “outsider music” opera singers out there, I have chosen to focus in on three sopranos in particular whom I find to be the most original, entertaining: Mari Lyn (AKA Marilyn Sussman), Olive Middleton (AKA Olive Townend), and Natália de Andrade. Each of these women created her own platform. Mari Lyn was the Singing Hostess of the 1980s New York-based cable network series The Golden Treasury of Song. After a career in the 1920s singing roles such as Musetta under Thomas Beecham at Covent Garden, British soprano Olive Middleton became, much later in life, the lead diva of New York’s La Puma Opera Company, giving quixotic performances with that company well into her seventies (and well past her vocal expiration date!), performances that gained her a fanbase that included lead singers of the Metropolitan Opera as well as the fussiest of opera queens. And the Portuguese soprano Natália de Andrade (my favorite!) gained fame and notoriety in her native country and beyond for her self-financed recordings, particularly the late-career ones published in the 1980s, which gained her the grudging respect given to those most deluded of holy fools. And lest one think that this episode deals only with sopranos, I also give a nod to the raucous-voiced American mezzo-soprano Sylvia Sawyer, who appeared in the 1950s on complete opera recordings issued on the Capitol Records label and produced, incredibly, under the auspices of the Rome Opera. To be clear: though I find each of these deluded divas to be, each in her own distinctive way, hilarious, in the end, each of them earns my respect for her enterprising undertakings, her firm belief in her own talent, and her unique approach to tuning, phrasing, and language, here perpetrated exclusively on the music of Giuseppe Verdi, who must surely be turning over in his grave right about now!
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All selections, unless otherwise noted, are by Giuseppe Verdi
Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil: Make Your Own Kind of Music / New World Coming. Julie Andrews, Cass Elliot [The Julie Andrews Show, Episode 2, 1972]
Cadenzarization. Mari Lyn, The Howard Salat Quartet Local 802 [from Manhattan Cable Access show The Golden Treasury of Song, episode “All-Verdi Program” [mid-1980s]
Ernani, involami (Ernani). Olive Middleton, unknown pianist [1950s]
From Il Trovatore:
Miserere. Olive Middleton, unknown tenor, La Puma Opera Company [1960s]
Che più t’arresti… Tacea la notte placida. Olive Middleton, unknown co-conspirator, The La Puma Opera Company [mid-1960s]
Obliarlo! Mari Lyn, The Howard Salat Quartet Local 802 [from Manhattan Cable Access show The Golden Treasury of Song, episode “All-Verdi Program” [mid-1980s]
Di tale amor. Natália de Andrade, Domingos Monteiro [ca. 1981]
Ei distruggeasi in pianto. Sylvia Sawyer, Gino Sarri, Luigi Ricci, Orchestra of the Rome Opera House [1950s]
D’amor sull’ali rosee. Natália de Andrade, Grazi Barbosa [1982]
Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa (Un ballo in maschera). Natália de Andrade, Grazi Barboso [1982]
From Rigoletto:
Tutte le feste al tempio. Mari Lyn, The Howard Salat Quartet Local 802 [from the Manhattan Cable Access program The Golden Treasury of Song, episode “The Art of the Coloratura”] [1980s]
Will the real Mari Lyn please stand up?
Caro nome. Mari Lyn, Howard Salat, Belgravia Philharmonia Symphonica Orchestra [1980s]
From Aida:
Ritorna vincitor! Composite performance alternating Mari Lyn and Howard Salat leading the “Belgravia Philharmonia Symphonica Orchestra” and Natália de Andrade and pianist Grazi Barbosa [1982]
Orror! Che mi consigli tu? Olive Middleton, unknown baritone, La Puma Opera Company [1960s]
Qui Radamès verrà… O patria mia. Natália de Andrade, unknown pianist [ca. 1985]
Mai più, mai più… O freschi valli. Mari Lyn, Howard Salat, “Belgravia Philharmonia Symphonica Orchestra” [1980s]
Sorry, I could find no photos of Sylvia Sawyer
Ohimè! morir mi sento! Sylvia Sawyer, Alberto Paoletti, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma [1952]
Pace, pace mio Dio (La forza del destino). Natália de Andrade, unknown pianist [mid-1980s]
From La traviata:
The many looks (and wigs!) of Mari Lyn. Stills from The Golden Treasury of Song
Ah! fors’è lui… Sempre libera. Mari Lyn, The Howard Salat Quartet Local 802. [from the Manhattan Cable Access program The Golden Treasury of Song, episode “Excerpts from Verdi’s La Traviata”] [1980s]
Teneste la promessa… Addio del passato. Natália de Andrade, Domingos Monteiro [ca 1981]
Joe Raposo: Sing. Wing [early 2000’s]