Episode 308. Mezzos on the Verge
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SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
I am taking a short break before posting the final in my Mexican Opera Singers miniseries to bring you a compilation episode that is sure to get your blood flowing. I’ve entitled it “Mezzos on the Verge,” and that is exactly what it is: mezzo-sopranos portraying characters in extreme emotional situations. Whether it is Dalila (portrayed by Ebe Stignani) summoning the pagan gods to give her strength to conquer an infatuated strongman; Elena Obraztsova or Nadezhda Obukhova casting spells or predicting the future; Giulietta Simionato as Santuzza confronting Franco Corelli’s faithless Turiddu on the steps of the Sicilian village church on Easter morning; Gwendolyn Killebrew as Waltraute imploring help of her sister Brünnhilde to circumvent the Twilight of the Gods; Jean Madeira as Klytemnästra desperately seeking rest for her troubled soul; Shirley Verrett as Sapho preparing to throw herself into the sea; or Tatiana Troyanos as Dido dying of a broken heart – there’s something for each of us who might be feeling themselves in over their heads these days. Unlike most of us. however, (and luckily for us as well), each of these magnificent mezzos is expressing that anguish in glorious song.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Camille Saint-Saëns, Ferdinand Lemaire [Italian by Angelo Zanardini]: Amor! i miei sini proteggi [Amour, viens aider ma faiblesse](Sansone e Dalila). Ebe Stignani, Orchestra conducted by Umberto Berrettoni [1936]
Johannes Brahms, Karl Lemcke: Verzagen, Op. 72/4. Brigitte Fassbaender, Irwin Gage [1982]
Pietro Mascagni, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Guido Menasci [after Giovanni Verga]: La tua Santuzza piange e t’implora (Cavalleria rusticana). Giulietta Simionato, Franco Corelli, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano [live 07.XII.1963]
Charles Gounod, Émile Augier: Où suis-je?… Ô ma lyre immortelle (Sapho). Shirley Verrett, Georges Prêtre, RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra [1967]
Modest Mussorgsky, revised Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Mysterious powers [Marfa’s Divination] (Khovanshchina). Nadezhda Obukhova, Lev Steinberg, Bolshoi Theater Orchestra [1941]
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, E.M. Petrovsky: The night descends [Kashcheyevna’s Aria] (Kashchei, the Immortal). Elena Obraztsova, Boris Khaikin, Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater [1965]
Richard Wagner: Seine Raben beide, sandt’ er auf Reise [excerpt from Waltraute’s Narrative] (Götterdämmerung). Gwendolyn Killebrew, Pierre Boulez, Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele [live Bayreuth 1980]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal [after Sophocles]: Ich habe keine guten Nächte (Elektra). Jean Madeira, Inge Borkh, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Wiener Philharmoniker [live Salzburg 07.VIII.57]
Gian Carlo Menotti: Afraid, am I afraid? Madame Flora, afraid! (The Medium). Regina Resnik, Jorge Mester, Opera Society of Washington [1968]
Ronald Cass, David Climie: The One I Love (Is Not in Love with Me). Muriel Smith, Angela Morley [née Wally Stott] and Her Orchestra [1954]
Henry Purcell, Nahum Tate: Thy hand, Belinda… When I am laid in earth (Dido and Aeneas). Tatiana Troyanos, Charles Mackerras, Kammerorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks, Hamburg [1968]