Episode Episode 413. Get to Know Geraint Evans
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This past September 19th, we observed the anniversary of the death in 1992 of the great Welsh bass-baritone Geraint Evans at the age of 70. A vivid actor and a skilled singer, he both began and ended his career at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, but was a treasured guest at opera houses all over the globe. In 1966, London/Decca records released a recording designed to give full display to his musical, stylistic, and dramatic versatility. In its US issue it was entitled, appropriately enough, Three Centuries of Baritone Art, and in it many of his greatest roles are highlighted, as well as a number of parts, unusual or uncharacteristic for him, which he never performed onstage. Needless to say, his Mozart roles are in the forefront, as is his exceptional characterization of Verdi’s Falstaff, to which he brought a light buffo touch while still retaining a full vocal palette bolstered by a vivid characterization. On this episode, I supplement this album with a delightful recording of Evans singing from Mahler’s Knaben Wunderhorn, a wrenching one of his legendary Wozzeck, and a monumental one of Elegy for a Prince, a work for voice and orchestra by William Mathias, written for and dedicated to Evans, who sang the premiere in 1972 and subsequently recorded it in 1977.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Gustav Mahler, Traditional text collected and adapted Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim: Lob des hohen Verstands (Des Knaben Wunderhorn). Geraint Evans, Wyn Morris, London Philharmonic Orchestra [1966]
Alban Berg [after Georg Büchner, translated Vida Harford, Eric Blackall]: Wozzeck, you are a worthy man… Poor folk like us [Wozzeck, er ist ein guter Mensch… Wir arme Leut!] (Wozzeck). Geraint Evans, Kenneth MacDonald, John Pritchard, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden [live 31.X.1964]
The following selections were recorded in the year 1966 and feature Geraint Evans with Bryan Balkwill leading the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande:
George Frideric Handel, Antonio Salvi: Sì, tra i ceppi (Berenice)
George Frideric Handel, William Congreve: Leave me, radiant light (Semele)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte: Non più andrai (Le nozze di Figaro)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte: Madamina, il catalogo è questo (Don Giovanni)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Emanuel Schikaneder: Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja (Die Zauberflöte)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giambattista Varesco: Ogni momento, dicon le donne (L’oca del Cairo)
Ludwig Van Beethoven, Joseph von Sonnleithner, revised Stephan von Breuning, Georg Friedrich Treitschke: Ha! welch ein Augenlick (Fidelio)
Ruggero Leoncavallo: Si può? [Prologo] (Pagliacci)
Gaetano Donizetti, Giovanni Ruffini [after Angelo Anelli]: Ah! un foco insolito (Don Pasquale)
Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito [after William Shakespeare]: Vanne; la tua metà già vedo… Credo in un Dio crudel (Otello)
Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears [after William Shakespeare]: When my cue comes, call me [Bottom’s Dream] (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Modest Mussorgsky [after Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolay Karamzin]: Pravoslavniye [Shchelkalov’s Aria] (Boris Godunov)
Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito [after William Shakespeare]: Ehi! Paggio!… L’onore? Ladri! (Falstaff)
William Mathias, Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch [translated by Anthony Conran]: Lord Christ, how am I grieved for him (Elegy for a Prince). Geraint Evans, David Atherton, New Philharmonia Orchestra [1977]
