Episode 188. Sarah Reese
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Greatness expresses itself in different ways. Sometimes in indisputable artistic talents, and other times in profound displays of humanity. And sometimes, as in the case of today’s subject, Sarah Reese, it’s both. The soprano, who just this week celebrated a landmark birthday, is a singer of rare gifts whose career encompassed some of the world’s greatest stages and concert halls who later in life returned to the region where she grew up (in Sarah’s case, South Carolina), to give back to the community as a music teacher and choir director, in which capacity she has positively impacted the lives of countless students who came into contact with her warmth, skill, and generosity of spirit. Earlier on in her personal saga, Sarah made history when in the late 1960s she was the first female Black student at Furman University in Greenville. Through her persistence, courage, and determination, she rose above the ostracism and abuse she experienced there to become enshrined as a legend, with the school’s theater recently permanently renamed in her honor. Though her voice and artistry were acknowledged worldwide, her recorded legacy is small, with only one commercial recording (Samuel Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard) which nevertheless won a Grammy award in 1993. It is our great good fortune that in recent years a number of precious live recordings have emerged that show quite clearly the range and extent of her gifts. I present all of them here on this episode: from a concert recording of Verdi’s rare 1848 opera Il corsaro co-starring legendary Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi, to a broadcast concert with the Detroit Symphony led by Isaiah Jackson in which she sings Mozart and Verdi arias, as well as Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. The episode concludes with a recently resurfaced 1988 performance of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem led by Herbert von Karajan the year before his death, one in which Sarah Reese’s heavenly soprano bestows a comforting benediction upon us all. Blessings upon this living legend, and gratitude galore!
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Samuel Barber, Søren Kierkegaard: Lord Jesus Christ who suffer’d (Prayers of Kierkegaard, Op. 30). Sarah Reese, Andrew Schenck, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus [live Chicago 1991]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Lord Byron]: Nè sulla terra… Vola talor del carcere… Ah, conforto è sol la speme (Il Corsaro). Sarah Reese, David Lawton, Chamber Orchestra of Long Island Opera Society, New York University Chorus [live 1981]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Lord Byron]: Ei dorme?… Seid la vuole… Non sai tu che sulla testa… La terra, il ciel m’abbirrino (Il Corsaro). Sarah Reese, Carlo Bergonzi, David Lawton, Chamber Orchestra of Long Island Opera Society [live 1981]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Lord Byron]: Reca nel ciel le lagrime (Il Corsaro). Sarah Reese, Carlo Bergonzi, Carolyn Val-Schmidt, David Lawton, Chamber Orchestra of Long Island Opera Society, New York University Chorus [live 1981]
Samuel Barber, James Agee: Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24. Sarah Reese, Isaiah Jackson, Detroit Symphony Orchestra [live 1984]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte [after Pierre Beaumarchais]: E Susanna non vien… Dove sono (Le nozze di Figaro). Sarah Reese, Isaiah Jackson, Detroit Symphony Orchestra [live 1984]
Giuseppe Verdi, Salvador Cammarano [after Antonio García Gutiérrez]: Timor di me?… D’amor sull’ali rosee (Il Trovatore). Sarah Reese, Isaiah Jackson, Detroit Symphony Orchestra [live 1984]
Johannes Brahms: Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (Ein deutsches Requiem). Sarah Reese, Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Singverein [Salzburg 28.VIII.1988]
