Episode 387. Zauberwelt der Oper (Black Diva Edition)

Episode 387. Zauberwelt der Oper (Black Diva Edition)

I’m on holiday this week, but it would be most unGundlachian of me not to provide an episode to sustain my listeners in my absence. I recently purchased a mammoth 13-LP set on the Concert Hall Society label. The release promises a variety of excerpts that illustrate the history of opera from Monteverdi through Puccini. As such it makes use of a number of complete operatic recordings made for the now-nearly-forgotten label, as well as some impressive individual performances recorded in the early 1960s. One of the attractions of this release to me is that it presents rare recordings by three of the supreme African American divas of that era: Mattiwilda Dobbs, Reri Grist, and Felicia Weathers, the latter two at the very beginning of their international careers in the early 1960s, when they were both fest at the Zürich Opera (where, my astute listeners will remember, contralto Carol Smith) was also ensconced. None of these recordings has received wide distribution (in fact, to my knowledge the majority of them were never re-released in any form). So it is my particularly pleasure to present to you each of these three estimable artists in peak form on recordings that I (at least) had never before encountered: Dobbs as Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Olympia and Antonia in Tales of Hoffmann; Grist as Norina in Don Pasquale; and Weathers as Dido, Manon (by Massenet, not Puccini!), and Butterfly! A number of interesting tenors are nearby to provide assistance in duets: the Swiss tenor Fritz Peters, the American Glade Peterson (both of whom were also fest in Zürich at that time), and the legendary French-Canadian Léopold Simoneau. Far be it from me to throw together an episode that was not as fascinating as some of my more deeply-researched efforts! I’m also celebrating this week 100,000 downloads of the podcast. I’ve often referred to Countermelody as “the Little Podcast that Could,” so this milestone is particularly gratifying to me. Finally, this episode also serves as a belated birthday tribute to Felicia Weathers, who just last week turned 88 years old.

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Henry Purcell, Nahum Tate: Thy hand, Belinda… When I am laid in earth (Dido and Aeneas). Felicia Weathers, Boris Mersson, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo d Ponte: Là ci darem la mano (Don Giovanni). Mattiwilda Dobbs, Scipio Colombo, Alexander Krannhals, Orchester der Badischen Staatsoper

Gaetano Donizetti, Giovanni Ruffini (after Angelo Anelli): from Don Pasquale. Reri Grist, Boris Mersson, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich:

• Quel guardo il cavaliere… So anch’io la virtù magica
• Tornami a dir che m’ami (with Fritz Peters)

Jacques Offenbach, Jules Barbier [after ETA Hoffmann as adapted by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré]: from Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Mattiwilda Dobbs, Pierre-Michel Le Comte, Orchestre des Concerts de Paris:

• Les oiseaux dans la charmille
• Elle a fui, la tourterelle
• Tiens, ce doux chant d’amour… C’est une chanson d’amour (with Léopold Simoneau)

Jules Massenet, Henri Meilhac, Philippe Gille [after Abbé Prévost]: from Manon. Boris Mersson, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich:

• Je suis encore toute étourdie. Felicia Weathers
• Instant charmant… En fermant les yeux. Glade Peterson

Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after John Luther Long, David Belasco]: from Madama Butterfly. Felicia Weathers, Boris Mersson, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich:

• Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia (with Glade Peterson)
• Un bel dì vedremo