Episode 364. Grace Bumbry, Proud Soprano (Live Edition)
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It’s Pride Month, and what better time to focus on queer musical culture in all its various manifestations! As far back as I can remember, I have been an Opera Queen, and today I kick off our queer celebrations with the a tribute to one of our favorite divas, the late Grace Bumbry. The chutzpah that she demonstrated throughout her career found particularly thrilling manifestation when she began transitioning to soprano roles in the early 1970s. Always an intrepid singer, Bumbry had a confidence, a fearlessness that swept all before it. Sometimes her reach exceeded her grasp, but even so, the results were always breathtaking, more often than not in a good way. I am not going to make the tired claim that Bumbry should have remained a mezzo and that when she started singing soprano, she destroyed her instrument. This tired trope is belied by the evidence at hand, including an active singing career that lasted more than 60 years. A while back I did a version of this episode featuring her studio recordings of the soprano repertoire, but there’s a wild, abandoned quality to her soprano singing that is especially compelling in live recordings. So today I have sought out live performances captured on recordings between 1971 and 2007 (at a seventieth birthday concert) which reveal La Bumbarina at her most thrilling, including excerpts from Tosca, La Gioconda, Il Trovatore, Nabucco, Porgy and Bess, Ernani, L’Africaine, Aida, Salome, and Anna Bolena with such co-stars as Franco Corelli, Norman Bailey, Louis Quilico, and her beloved frenemy Shirley Verrett. If you love Grace, you don’t want to miss this episode.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Victorien Sardou]: Vissi d’arte (Tosca). Grace Bumbry, Lorin Maazel, Cleveland Orchestra [live Blossom Festival VIII.1978]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Victorien Sardou]: Il tuo sangue o il mio amore… O dolci mani… Amaro sol per te (Tosca). Grace Bumbry, Franco Corelli, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra [live 12.VI.71]
Richard Strauss, Hedwig Lachmann [after Oscar Wilde]: Er ist schrecklich, er ist wirklich schrecklich… Jochanaan, ich bin verliebt in deinem Leib (Salome). Grace Bumbry, Norman Bailey, Frank Little, Berislav Klobučar, Orchestra of the Lyric Opera of Chicago [live 27.IX.1978]
Giacomo Meyerbeer, Eugène Scribe: Sur mes genoux, fils du soleil (L’Africaine). Grace Bumbry, Peter Maag, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden [live London 28.XI.78]
George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward: It’s like this, Crown… What you want with Bess? (Porgy and Bess). Grace Bumbry, Gregg Baker, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra [live 08.II.1986]
Giuseppe Verdi, Temistocle Solera: D’Abigaille mal conoscete il core… Anch’io dischiuso un giorno (Nabucco). Grace Bumbry, Nello Santi, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Paris [live 04.VII.1979]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Victor Hugo]: Surta è la notte… Ernani, involami… Tutto sprezzo che d’Ernani (Ernani). Grace Bumbry, Donato Renzetti, Orchestra and Chorus of the Lyric Opera of Chicago [live 24.X.84]
Giuseppe Verdi, Salvadore Cammarano [after Antonio García Gutiérrez]: Mira d’acerbe lagrime (Il trovatore). Grace Bumbry, Louis Quilico, Anton Guadagno, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra [live New York 26.VI.1982]
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni [after Auguste Mariette]: Fissami in volto… Pietà ti prenda del mio dolor (Aida). Grace Bumbry, Grace Bumbry [BBC Live on 2, 1973]
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni [after Auguste Mariette]: I sacri nomi di padre, d’amante… Numi, pietà del mio soffrir (Aida). Grace Bumbry [live Schlewsig-Holstein Festival 17.VII.2007]
Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito [as Tobio Gorria, after Victor Hugo]: Suicidio!… Ecco il velen di Laura. . . Illuminata a feste splende Venezia (La Gioconda). Grace Bumbry, Giuseppe Patanè, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra [live New York 12.XII.1979]
Gaetano Donizetti, Felice Romani [after Ippolito Pindemonte]: Regina, oh ciel, cedete… Sul suo capo aggravi un Dio… Va’, infelice… Ah! peggiore è il tuo perdono (Anna Bolena). Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett, Michelangelo Veltri, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden [live London 22.IV.84]
