Episode 238. Delcina Stevenson (BHM2024)

Episode 238. Delcina Stevenson (BHM 2024)

SOCIAL SHARE

SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM

SUBSCRIBE VIA YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLATFORM

I am so grateful to all the listeners who did introductions to their favorite episodes last month. It provided me with a little bit of needed breathing space and now I am back raring to go with my first new episode for 2024, just in time for Black History Month 2024! There is a secondary theme for this month which is “Forgotten Divas,” a favorite topic of mine at any time of year. The term “forgotten” needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because these women are anything but forgotten among those who experienced their singing, teaching, or friendship live and in person. Nevertheless, for want of a better term (Divas Who Deserve to Be As Well-Remembered as Any of Their More Famous Counterparts seems a little wordy), I’ll stick with the designation I chose.

Today’s artist is the only “Forgotten Diva” who is still with us, soprano Delcina Stevenson, born 29 September 1933, so this enables me to also “give flowers” (to coin a present-day term I actually like) to her directly. She was born in Kansas and graduated from Kansas University. After moving to California in 1960, she coached and studied with Lotte Lehmann, Gwendolyn Koldofsky, Martial Singher, and William Vennard, and was a protégée early in her career of Kurt Herbert Adler at the San Francisco Opera. She has lived and performed around the world, primarily in California, New York, and Germany. She possessed one of the most exquisite lyric soprano voices I have ever heard, one which never aged, but simply grew more lush and voluminous. The musical excerpts I have compiled feature her in live and studio recordings from over the course of more than 30 years, ranging Mozart to Sondheim to Rossini, in which that voice is on shimmering display. I am thrilled to introduce (or reintroduce) her to you.

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Laudate Dominum (Vesperae de Dominica, K.321). Delcina Stevenson, Vincent Mitzelfelt, Camerata of Los Angeles Orchestra [1974]

Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Pushkin [unknown English translator]: Oh, sing no more, my lovely one [Не пой, красавица, при мне, sung in English], Op. 4/3. Delcina Stevenson, T.K. Wang, Tania Agins [live, unknown date and venue]

Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni [after Auguste Mariette Bey and Camille du Locle]: Dei Faraoni tu sei la schiava!… Padre, a costoro schiava non sono (Aida). Delcina Stevenson, Joseph Shore, Ted Puffer, Orchestra of the Nevada Opera [live October 1981]

Ottorino Respighi, Claudio Guastalla [after Hans Wiers-Jenssen]: Ma tu, che sai l’esilo (La Fiamma). Delcina Stevenson, Alessandra Marc, Orchestra conducted by Robert Bass [live Carnegie Hall 04.XII.87]

Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, publicity shot for *Doctor Zhivago* [1965]

Maurice Jarre: Kontaktion [Funeral Song] (Doctor Zhivago). Delcina Stevenson, Studio Chorus conducted by Maurice Jarre [1965]

Delcina Stevenson and Kurt Herbert Adler

Gustave Charpentier: Une voix mystérieuse (Louise). Delcina Stevenson, Jean Périsson, San Francisco Opera Orchestra [live 13.X.1967]

Johann Sebastian Bach: Recitative. O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit… Aria. Spielet, ihr beseelten Lieder (Wedding Cantata, BWV 210). Delcina Stevenson, Vincent Mitzelfelt, Mitzelfelt Orchestra [1972]