Episode 306. Oralia Domínguez Revisited
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Today (for what I hope are obvious reasons) begins a short Countermelody series on a few of the greatest singers that Mexico, our neighbor to the south, has gifted to the world. Contralto Oralia Domínguez (25 October 1925 – 25 November 2013) is famed for her collaborations with such musical giants as Maria Callas and Herbert von Karajan, but on her own terms, she ranks alongside those monumental true contraltos like Marian Anderson and Kathleen Ferrier. Though there is no question that she was under-recorded, she left a handful of classic commercial recordings, and a plethora of recorded live performances which an artist both technically grounded and fearless in expression, one whose legato singing exuded repose just as her phenomenal coloratura singing generates genuine excitement. I cannot say enough about this artist, who has rapidly become one of my very favorites! This episode, an expansion of a bonus episode I published a few years ago, features Domínguez in extended operatic scenes by Cilea, Saint-Saëns, and Monteverdi and in religious works by Verdi and Lili Boulanger as well as Spanish and Mexican songs, capped with some stunning vocalism in baroque works by Handel and Vivaldi. Vocal guest stars include the late great Antonietta Stella, Jon Vickers, Barry McDaniel, Luigi Ottolini, and the blazing hot verismo soprano Clara Petrella; conductors include Jean Fournet, Igor Markevitch, Alberto Zedda, Oliviero de Fabritiis, Herbert von Karajan, Fernando Previtali, Nicola Rescigno, Renato Cellini, and Leonard Bernstein. In other words, the “big guns,” an indication of the enormity of the magisterial talent of Oralia Domínguez.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Somma [after Eugène Scribe]: Re dell’abisso, affrettati (Un ballo in maschera). Oralia Domínguez, Renato Cellini, Orchestra and Chorus of the Palacio de la Bellas Artes, Mexico City [live 02.VIII.60]
Lili Boulanger: Mais la clémence est en toi (Psaume CXXX [Du fond de l’abîme]). Oralia Domínguez, Igor Markevitch, Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux [1958]
Giuseppe Verdi, Joseph Méry, Camille du Locle, Achille de Lauzières [Italian transation] [after Friedrich Schiller]: O don fatale (Don Carlo). Oralia Domínguez, Nello Santi, Orchestre national de l’ORTF [live Paris 03.IV.65]
Gioacchino Rossini, Cesare Sterbini [after Pierre Beaumarchais]: Una voce poco fa (Il barbiere di Siviglia). Oralia Domínguez, Richard Kraus, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin [1959]
George Frideric Handel, Antonio Marchi [after Ludovico Ariosti]: È gelosia (Alcina). Oralia Domínguez, Nicola Rescigno, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia [live 02.1960]
Antonio Vivaldi, Giacomo Cassetti: Veni, veni, me sequere (Juditha Triumphans). Oralia Domínguez, Alberto Zedda, Orchestra da Camera dell’Angelicum [1968]
Giuseppe Verdi, Salvadore Cammarano (after Antonio García Gutiérrez): Mal reggendo (Il trovatore). Oralia Domínguez, Luigi Ottolini, Fernando Previtali, Orchestra del Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires [live 11.VIII.63]
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni [after Auguste Mariette and Temistocle Solera]: Sacerdoti, compiste un delitto (Aida). Oralia Domínguez, Norman Scott, Franco Capuana, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice [1953]
Giuseppe Verdi: Agnus Dei (Messa da Requiem). Oralia Domínguez, Antonietta Stella, Herbert von Karajan, Wiener Symphoniker, Wiener Singverein [live Wien 26.XI.54]
Francesco Cilea, Arturo Colauti (after Eugène Scribe, Ernest Legouvé): Aprite, apritemi, Signora (Adriana Lecouvreur). Oralia Domínguez, Clara Petrella, Oliviero de Fabritiis, Orquesta del Palacio de la Bellas Artes [live Mexico City 27.VI.51]
Camille Saint-Saëns, Ferdinand Lemaire: Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix (Samson et Dalila). Oralia Domínguez, Jon Vickers, Jean Fournet, Netherlands Radio Orchestra [live Netherlands 1964]
Salvador Moreno, Ramón Gaya: Al silencio. Oralia Domínguez, Irène Aïtoff [ORTF 10.VI.59]
Claudio Monteverdi [edited Bruno Maderna], Alessandro Striggio: Ahi! caso acerbo (L’Orfeo). Oralia Domínguez, Barry McDaniel, Bruno Maderna, Utrecht Symphony Orchestra [live Amsterdam 17.VI.67]
Fernando Obradors: Del cabello más sutil [Anonymous text]. Oralia Domínguez, Irène Aïtoff [ORTF 10.VI.59]
Richard Wagner: Wie alles war, weiss ich (Das Rheingold). Oralia Domínguez, Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker [1968]
Antonio Vivaldi, Giacomo Cassetti: Vivat in pace (Juditha Triumphans). Oralia Domínguez, Alberto Zedda, Orchestra da Camera dell’Angelicum [1968]
Gustav Mahler, folk text collected and revised by Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim: Urlicht (Symphony No. 2, ‘Resurrection”). Oralia Domínguez, Leonard Bernstein, Orchestre National de la RTF [live Paris 13.XI.58]