Episode 328. Mezzos in Extremis
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Right after the disastrous US election of November 2024, I published an episode entitled “Mezzos on the Verge,” which featured some of my favorite mezzos in rafter-shaking performances of “on the edge” repertoire. At the time, I had enough additional material to produce a second episode, which I have called “Mezzos in Extremis.” And what better time to present that episode than as the new regime has begun its process of dismantling democracy. The material today ranges from Mozart to Britten, Handel to Janáček, Bach to Wagner, and features performances both live and studio from exceptional singers as Eva Randová, Sarah Walker, Margarete Klose, Irina Arkhipova, Viorica Cortez, Jennie Tourel, Irene Minghini-Cattaneo, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, among others. I have structured the program so that the explosive expressions of insanity, fury, and rage gradually give way to the quieter (and possibly more profound) emotions of sadness, doubt, and contrition. And because I always like to compare and contrast singers, I take great joy in presenting several pairs of contrasting singers in the same repertoire: Dunja Vejzović and Paula Rasmussen in Handel’s Serse; Giulietta Simionato and Brigitte Fassbaender as Dorabella in Così; and Fedora Barbieri and Joyce DiDonato as Dejanira in Handel’s Hercules. The episode is offered in solidarity with all those who find themselves today in extreme situations.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Benjamin Britten, W.H. Auden: Funeral Blues (Cabaret Songs). Sarah Walker, Roger Vignoles [live Devon 1982]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte: Ah! scostati… Smanie implacabili (Così fan tutte).
- Giulietta Simionato, Karl Böhm, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande [live Genève 14.I.1949]
- Brigitte Fassbaender, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bayerisches Staatsorchester [live München 28.II.1978]


George Frideric Handel, unknown librettist [after Silvio Stampiglia, Nicolò Minato]: Crude furie degli orridi abissi (Serse).
- Dunja Vejzović, Vladimir Kranjčević, Zagreb Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra [live Zagreb, unknown date]
- Paula Rasmussen, Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques [live Dresden Semperoper 2000]


George Frideric Handel, Thomas Broughton: Where shall I fly? (Hercules).
- Fedora Barbieri, Lovro von Matačić, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala [sung in Italian as Dove fuggir, nascondermi potrò] [live Milano 29.XII.1958]
- Joyce DiDonato, William Christie, Les Arts Florissants [live Paris XII.2004]


Gaetano Donizetti, Eugène Scribe [after Alfonse Royer, Gustave Vaëz; Italian version by Francesco Jannetti]: O mio Fernando (La favorita). Rosette Anday, Carl Alwin, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper [1929]

Pietro Mascagni, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Guido Menasci [after Giovanni Verga]: Voi lo sapete, o mamma (Cavalleria rusticana). Irina Arkhipova, Mark Ermler, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra [1971]

Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito [as Tobia Gorrio, after Victor Hugo]: Sfido il tuo core, o rival… L’amo come il fulgor del creato (La Gioconda). Irene Minghini-Cattaneo, Delia de Martis, Carlo Sabajno, Orchestra of La Scala, Milano [1930]


Édouard Lalo, Édouard Blau [né Stanslas Viateur]: De tous côtés j’aperçois dans la plaine [Air de Margared] (Le Roi d’Ys). Viorica Cortez, Louis De Froment, Grand Orchestre Radio-Télé-Luxembourg [1977]

Georges Bizet, Henri Meilhac, Ludovic Halévy [after Prosper Mérimée]: Wenn dir die Karten einmal bittrer Unheil künden [En vain pour éviter] (Carmen) [sung in German]. Friedel Beckmann [1942]

Richard Wagner: So ist es denn aus mit den ewigen Göttern (Die Walküre). Margarete Klose, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Orchester der Staatsoper Berlin [1938]

Leoš Janáček [after Gabriela Preissová]: Co chvíla [What a moment!] (Jenůfa [Její pastorkyňa]). Eva Randová, Charles Mackerras, Wiener Philharmoniker [1982]

Mikhail Glinka, Nestor Vasil’yevich Kukol’nik: Сомнение [Doubt]. Jennie Tourel, Gary Karr, Allen Rogers [1967]

Johann Sebastian Bach: Tief gebückt und voller Reue (Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199). Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Craig Smith, The Orchestra of Emmanuel Music [2003]

Robert Schumann, Adalbert von Chamisso: Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz (Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42/8). Mitsuko Shirai, Hartmut Höll [1982]