Episode 275. Margaret Tynes (Listeners’ Favorites)
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On March 7, 2024, the legendary African American soprano Margaret Tynes died at the age of 104. During the second season of Countermelody, I featured the singer, who at the time was a mere 101 years old, on one of my Black History Month episodes. She was a unique artist, fearlessly forging her own musical, dramatic, and vocal path, aided and abetted by a strong voice with a powerful top register. Though she made a number of significant appearances in her homeland earlier in her career (including a televised appearance in Duke Ellington’s jazz suite, A Drum Is a Woman), her later successes were focused primarily in Europe, where she was particularly celebrated for her extraordinary Salome, with which she created a sensation in Spoleto in 1961, and her Lady Macbeth. Excerpts from all of these and more are featured on this episode, which also includes spirituals and Creole folk songs, as well as arias and duets from Aida, Carmen,and Porgy and Bess. Guest artists include LeVern Hutcherson, most remembered today for his appearances on stage and screen in Porgy, and George Shirley, the first African American tenor to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Traditional Spiritual: Ev’rytime I Feel the Spirit. Margaret Tynes, Pál Varga, Orchestra of the Budapest Philharmonic Society [1962]
Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn: A Drum Is a Woman [Part One]. Margaret Tynes, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra [1956]
George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, Ira Gershwin: Summertime (Porgy and Bess). Margaret Tynes, Orchestra conducted by Warren Edward Vincent [1960]
George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, Ira Gershwin: I wants to stay here… I loves you, Porgy (Porgy and Bess). Margaret Tynes, Brock Peters, Paul Belanger, Opera Society Orchestra [1955]
George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, Ira Gershwin: Porgy, I’s your woman now (Porgy and Bess). Margaret Tynes, LeVern Hutcherson, Orchestra conducted by Warren Edward Vincent [1960]
Giuseppe Verdi: L’insana parola, o Numi (Aida). Margaret Tynes, Pál Varga, Orchestra of the Budapest Philharmonic Society [1962]
Giuseppe Verdi: Or che d’amore (Aida). Margaret Tynes, Pál Varga, Orchestra of the Budapest Philharmonic Society [1962]
Georges Bizet: En vain pour éviter [Card Scene] (Carmen). Margaret Tynes, Unknown conductor and orchestra
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Cujus animam gementem (Stabat Mater). Margaret Tynes, Massimo Bruni, Prague Chamber Orchestra [1968]
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: O quam tristis et afflicta (Stabat Mater). Margaret Tynes, Anita Turner-Butler, Massimo Bruni, Prague Chamber Orchestra [1968]
Traditional Creole: Creole Nursery Song [Dansé, Conni, Conné]; Creole Lullaby [Fais dodo]. Margaret Tynes, János Gyulai Gaal, Hungarian Radio Orchestra [1962]
Richard Strauss: Ah! Herrlich! Wundervoll! (Salome). Margaret Tynes, George Shirley, Lili Chookasian, Thomas Schippers, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro Verdi di Trieste [live Spoleto 30 June 1961]
Richard Strauss: Du sprachst böse Worte gegen mich (Salome). Margaret Tynes, Pál Varga, Orchestra of the Budapest Philharmonic Society [1962]
Richard Strauss: Hättest du mich angeseh’n (Salome). Margaret Tynes, George Shirley, Lili Chookasian, Thomas Schippers, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro Verdi di Trieste [live Spoleto 30 June 1961]
Giuseppe Verdi: Gran Scena del Sonnambulismo (Macbeth). Margaret Tynes, Pál Varga, Orchestra of the Budapest Philharmonic Society [1962]
