Episode 406. Dan’s Belated Birthday Gals (Soprano Edition)
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The last of my festive potpourri episodes for this, my birthday month, this episode focuses on a favorite vocal range of this opera queen: the soprano voice, in all its variety and glory. Included are such pristine lyric voices as Erika Köth, Benita Valente (who just departed us last weekend, shortly after celebrating her 91st birthday), Judith Raskin, Judith Blegen, Mattiwilda Dobbs, and Edith Mathis, among others; medium- to heavier-weight lyric voices such as Pilar Lorengar, Delia Rigal, Teresa Stratas, Taru Valjakka, Melitta Muszely, and Margarete Teschemacher; and “ambiguous” voices as Arleen Augér, Martha Flowers, Irmgard Seefried, Andrée Esposito, Jill Gomez, Faye Robinson, Hilde Güden, and Elizabeth Harwood which could, if you’ll pardon the term, “swing both ways,” at least in terms of vocal weight! They perform a wide range of material of material including vocal chamber music by Manuel de Falla and Miriam Gideon; art song by Brahms, Bridge, Poulenc, Beethoven, Bizet, Granados, Sibelius, and Mahler; operetta and musical selections by Arlen, Lehár, Stolz, and Kern; and full-throated operatic selections by Richard Strauss, Jacques Ibert, Leoncavallo, and Meyerbeer. It’s another jam-packed episode guaranteed (in a limited sense) to bring you the full-range of listening pleasure.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel [formerly attributed Johann Sebastian Bach] as BWV 508: Bist du bei mir (Diomedes). Erika Köth, Gerald Moore [1964]
Manuel de Falla, Georges Jean-Aubry: Psyché. Benita Valente, Joanna Bassett, Laura Zaerr, Annie Fullard, Erika Eckert, Merry Peckham [1985]
Miriam Gideon, Frank Dempster Sherman: Witchery (Nocturnes, No. 3). Judith Raskin, John DeMain, Da Capo Chamber Players [Patricia Spencer, Joel Lester, Andre Emelianoff]), Ronald Roseman, Gordon Gottlieb [1978]
Johannes Brahms, Klaus Groth: Es hing der Reif, Op. 106/3. Judith Blegen, Martin Katz [1987]
Ludwig Van Beethoven, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Herrosee: Zärtliche Liebe [Ich liebe dich], WoO123. Arleen Augér, Erik Werba [live Salzburg 11.V.78]
Samuel Barber, Søren Kierkegaard, English text adapted by Robert Shaw: Lord Jesus Christ (from Prayers of Kierkegaard, Op. 30). Mattiwilda Dobbs, Gotthard Arnér [1970]
Georges Bizet, Jules Barbier: La Chanson de la rose, WD 103. Jill Gomez, John Constable [1974]
Francis Poulenc, Louise de Vilmorin: C’est ainsi que tu es (Métamorphoses, FP 121/2). Geneviève Touraine, Jacqueline Bonneau [1955]
Traditional German, arr. Johannes Brahms: Da unten im Tale (Deutsche Volkslieder, WoO 33). Edith Mathis, Karl Engel [live Lucerne 03.Sept.75]
Gustav Mahler, folk text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, collected and adapted by Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano: Rheinenlegendchen (Des Knaben Wunderhorn). Irmgard Seefried, Erik Werba [1970]
Enrique Granados, anonymous poet: Mira que soy niña, ¡amor, déjame! (Canciones amatorias, No. 4). Pilar Lorengar, Alicia de Larrocha [1978]
Jean Sibelius, Oscar Levertin: En slända, Op. 17/5. Taru Valjakka, Ralf Gothóni [1973]
Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II: Make Believe (Show Boat). Teresa Stratas [unknown details, possibly Donald Voorhees, Bell Telephone Hour Orchestra, Bell Telephone Hour, first telecast 22.XI.1962]
Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer: I Had Myself a True Love (St. Louis Woman). Martha Flowers, Don Shirley [1963]
Franz Lehár, Paul Knepler, Béla Jenbach: Liebe, du Himmel auf Erden (Paganini). Hilde Güden, Hans May, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper [1949]
Ruggero Leoncavallo: Qual fiamma avea nel guardo… Stridono lassù [Ballatella] (Pagliacci). Delia Rigal, Juan Emilio Martini, Orquesta Sinfónica del Teatro Colón [1952]
Giacomo Meyerbeer, Eugène Scribe, Germain Delavigne: Robert, toi que j’aime (Robert le diable). Faye Robinson, Kurt Eichhorn, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [live Schwetzinger Festspiele 31.V.84]
Jacques Ibert, Nino [né Michel Jean Verber] [after Jules Laforgue]: Ah! Ce n’était qu’un rêve… Si tu voulais au moins me transporter (Persée et Andromède). Andrée Esposito, Jacques Mars, Eugène Bigot, Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F. [live Radio France 28.V.63]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Das war sehr gut, Mandryka (Arabella). Margarete Teschemacher, Mathieu Ahlersmeyer, Karl Böhm, Staatskapelle Dresden [1943]
Robert Stolz, Paul Knepler, Ignaz Michael Welleminsky, Robert Gilbert [after Walter Reisch, Franz Schulz]: Es war sehr schön, man hat geweint, man hat gelacht! (Zwei Herzen in Dreivierteltakt). Melitta Muszely, Robert Stolz, Orchester der Wiener Volksoper [1965]
Frank Bridge, Matthew Arnold: Come to Me in My Dreams. Elizabeth Harwood, John Constable [1984]
Francis Poulenc, Maurice Carême: Lune d’avril (La Courte Paille, FP 178/7). Colette Herzog, Jacques Février [1963]