Episode 361. Russell Oberlin Revisited
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I’ve been so lucky this week to cross paths with several beloved friends and colleagues, in some cases for the first time in ages. One of those friends of many years’ standing is the legendary countertenor Drew Minter, with whom I made my very first appearances on the New York concert stage… well, a few years back now! Seeing Drew made me think not only to his influence on me in my early years of singing, but also of the influence of the earliest (and still to my mind the greatest) of all American countertenors, Russell Oberlin. A few years ago, I dedicated a pair of episodes to him, and today I present to you the second of those episodes, originally fashioned exclusively for my Patreon subscribers, yet another “refurbished” Countermelody episode that now sees the light of day. I explore Oberlin’s performances of medieval and renaissance music, both with the New York Pro Musica (The Play of Daniel, Dufay, and Dowland) and with the Experiences Anonymes record label (Byrd and 13th Century French Polyphony). I also offer examples of Oberlin’s expertise in performance of baroque music, offering two Bach arias (one performed with Leonard Bernstein, the other with Glenn Gould), and several Handel selections, including a complete cantata from one of his rarer LP releases. In addition, we hear a live excerpt of his Oberon in Midsummer Night’s Dream opposite the late British soprano Joan Carlyle, as well as a surprising outing as one of the commedia dell’arte players in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, opposite the Zerbinetta of the great African American coloratura soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs. There are additional surprises along the way. The episode opens with a heartfelt tribute to Drew, my reunion with whom prompted this episode in the first place.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Henry Purcell, John Dryden: Music for a While (Oedipus, Z.583/2). Drew Minter, Paul O’Dette [1990]
Anonymous medieval French: Ad honorem tui, Christe (The Play of Daniel). Russell Oberlin, New York Pro Musica [1958]
Henry Purcell: Oh, I’m sore distressed (In guilty night). Russell Oberlin, Stoddard Lincoln [live 07.I.53]
Henry Purcell: Sweeter than roses (Pausanias). Russell Oberlin, Paul Maynard, Seymour Barab [1953]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Leavitt [English translation]: We’re all united in merry measure [Es gilt, ob Tanze, ob Singen tauge] (Ariadne auf Naxos). Mattiwilda Dobbs, Russell Oberlin, Loren Driscoll, Robert Goss, Jan Rubes, Thomas Sherman, Little Orchestra Society [03.I.58]
Benjamin Britten, William Shakespeare (edited by Peter Pears): Ill met by moonlight (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Russell Oberlin, Joan Carlyle, Georg Solti, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden [live London 11.II.61]
William Walton, Edith Sitwell: Long steel grass (Façade). Russell Oberlin, Thomas Dunn, John Solum, Charles Russo, Theodore Weis, Charles McCracken, Harold Farberman [1961]
George Frideric Handel, Nicola Francesco Haym: Dove sei, amato bene (Rodelinda). Russell Oberlin, Chamber orchestra conducted by Thomas Dunn, Albert Fuller [1959]
Anonymous French 13th Century Polyphony: Ne m’a pas oublié [No. 207 in Manuscript H196 of the Faculté de Médecine de Montpellier, transcribed William Waite]. Russell Oberlin, Martha Blackman [1960]
Guillaume Dufay, Francesco Petrarch: Vergine bella. Russell Oberlin, Noah Greenberg, New York Pro Musica [Bernard Krainis, Paul Ehrlich] [1957]
William Byrd, Ludovico Ariosto: La verginella. Russell Oberlin, Denis Stevens, the In Nomine Players [1960]
John Dowland: Flow, my teares. Russell Oberlin, Noah Greenberg, New York Pro Musica [1959]
Johann Sebastian Bach: Esurientes implevit bonis (Magnificat, BWV 243). Russell Oberlin, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic [1962]
Johann Sebastian Bach: Aria: Widerstehe doch der Sünde (Cantata BWV 53). Russell Oberlin, Glenn Gould, Instrumental Ensemble [CBC-TV, originally telecast 08.IV.62]
Robert Schumann, Heinrich Heine: Dein Angesicht, Op. 127/2. Russell Oberlin, Douglas Williams [1961]
George Frideric Handel: Aria: Siete rose rugiadose; Recitativo: Dolce bocca soave; Aria: Per involarmi al duolo (Cantata HWV 162). Russell Oberlin, George Ricci, Douglas Williams [1961]
Seymour Barab, Robert Louis Stevenson: The Land of Nod (A Child’s Garden of Verses). Russell Oberlin, Bertha Melnick, recording supervised by Seymour Barab [1953]
George Frideric Handel, text assembled by Charles Jennens: Thou shalt bring them in (Israel in Egypt). Russell Oberlin, Chamber Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dunn, Albert Fuller [1959]
