Episode 489. The Infinite Variety of Regina Resnik
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On August 30 we observed (posthumously) the 104th birthday of the unique, the phenomenal Regina Resnik, who died in 2013 just a few short days before her 91st birthday. This commemoration, combined with my recent acquisition (at the flea market in my Berlin neighborhood) of the LP of her single operatic recital recording, provided the impetus for this long-overdue Countermelody celebration of an exceptional career that spanned nearly 50 years and encompassed exceptional portrayals on both the world’s operatic stages, Broadway, and the concert platform. This episode presents Resnik in the very earliest days of her career as a soprano singing arias from Macbeth, Zazà, and La Reine de Saba, the following her vocal trajectory downward into the dramatic mezzo fach in which she celebrated her greatest career triumphs. Excerpts from her “On the Wings of Opera” operatic recital offer a fuller picture of her in that repertoire, singing arias of Saint-Saëns, Wagner, Verdi, and Tchaikovsky. Then we dip into a rare 1968 recording of artr song with pianist Richard Woitach, which offers a dazzling program of French, Geman, Russian, and Spanish song, all amply sampled here. The program ends with Resnik in three Broadway selections, including live stage performances of both Cabaret and A Little Night Music. I’m thrilled to pay tribute to this iconic New Yorker whose incandescent artistic sensibility turned everything she touched into gold.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave, Andrea Maffei [after William Shakespeare]: Vieni, t’affretta… Or tutti sorgete (Macbeth). Regina Resnik, unknown conductor and orchestra [live radio recording 13.II.45]
Ruggero Leoncavallo [after Pierre Berton, Charles Simon]: Ebbene, sì, so tutto… La mia vita era quella che tu sai (Zazà). Regina Resnik [unknown conductor and orchestra, mid-1940s]
Charles Gounod, Jules Barbier, Michel Carré [after Gérard de Nerval]: Me voilà seule enfin… Plus grand dans son obscurité (La reine de Saba). Regina Resnik [unidentified 1940s radio recording]
Camille Saint-Saëns, Ferdinand Lemaire: Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix (Samson et Dalila). Regina Resnik, Edward Downes, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden [1962]
Richard Wagner: So ist es denn aus mit den ewigen Göttern (Die Walküre). Regina Resnik, Edward Downes, Orchestra of the Royal Opera Covent Garden [1962]
Giuseppe Verdi, Joseph Méry, Camille du Locle [after Friedrich Schiller; Italian version by Achille de Lauzières, Angelo Zanardini]: O don fatale (Don Carlo). Regina Resnik, Edward Downes, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky [after Friedrich Schiller, et. al.]: Yes, the hour has come… Farewell, forests [Да, час настал… Прости, прелестная природа] (The Maid of Orleans [Орлеанская дева]). Regina Resnik, Edward Downes, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden [1962]
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Ivan Zakharovich Surikov: Was I not a little blade of grass? [Я ли в поле да не травушка была], Op. 47/7. Regina Resnik, Richard Woitach [1968]
Serge Prokofiev, Konstantin Balmont: The Pillars [Столбы], Op. 36/5. Regina Resnik, Richard Woitach [1968]
Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian: Les Plaintes de Marie Stuart. Regina Resnik, Richard Woitach [1968]
Joaquín Turina, Félix Lope de Vega: Homenaje a Lope de Vega, Op. 90: I. I. Cuando tan hermosa os miro; II. Si con mes deseos; III. Al val de fuente ovejuna. Regina Resnik, Richard Woitach [1968]
Gustav Mahler, folk text collected and revised Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim: Two Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Das irdische Leben; Lob des hohen Verstands. Regina Resnik, Richard Woitach [1968]
Robert Wright, George Forrest [after Alexander Borodin]: Rahadlakum (Kismet). Regina Resnik, Robert Merrill, Mantovani and His Orchestra, The Mike Sammes Singers [1964]
John Kander, Fred Ebb [after Christopher Isherwood]: So What? (Cabaret). Regina Resnik, orchestra conducted by Donald Chan [live New York 31.V.88]
Stephen Sondheim [after Ingmar Bergman]: Liaisons (A Little Night Music). Regina Resnik, Paul Gemignani, New York City Opera Orchestra [live telecast New York 07.XI.90]