Episode 426. Teresa Stratas [Season Seven Premiere]
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I wanted to start off the year (and the new season of the podcast) with something momentous, and who better to take us there than one of the great operatic artists of the twentieth century: Canadian soprano Teresa Stratas. I have not yet done a full episode on this artist, though she provided me with what was probably my greatest night in the opera house (I get into that in the episode, as well as featuring a rare excerpt of her in that shattering performance). As always with my podcast, I like to provide unexpected glimpses of such a great singer, alongside many of her most legendary moments. So not only do we hear Stratas’ legendary interpretations of her favorite roles (Mimì, Mélisande, Lulu, Violetta, and Salome [the latter a role she never portrayed onstage]), we also hear her in Mozart, her favorite composer, as an operetta singer, as an interpreter of Lieder, in her single Broadway role in the short-lived Rags, and in another of her creations, the title role in Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ Nausicaa, as well as two late career Met roles, Liù and the Komponist, roles she had sung there at the beginning of her career, more than thirty years earlier. Along the way, we hear her with artists who have already been featured in previous seasons (Gabriel Bacquier, Florence Quivar and Fritz Wunderlich), but also singers who will each be featured in the upcoming series of the podcast, including Tom Krause, Wiesław Ochman, Bernd Weikl, Elizabeth Harwood, and Vasile Moldoveanu. Also much discussion also about what makes Stratas unique as an interpreter, and why she deserves to be ranked among the very greatest. Welcome to Season Seven!
Click on the link to find Harry Rasky’s exceptional 1983 documentary StrataSphere: A Portrait of Teresa Stratas.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Musik ist eine heilige Kunst (Ariadne auf Naxos). Teresa Stratas, Orchestra conducted by James Levine [live New York 23.IV.1994]
Alberto Pestalozza, Carlo Tiochet: Ciribiribin. Teresa Stratas [unknown performing forces or date]
Franz Lehár, Paul Knepler, Fritz Löhner-Beda: Komm zurück zu mir (Giuditta). Teresa Stratas, Rudolf Schock, Wolfgang Ebert, Berliner Symphoniker [1970 film soundtrack]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte [after Pierre Beaumarchais]: Canzonetta sull’aria (Le nozze di Figaro). Teresa Stratas, Elizabeth Harwood, Herbert von Karajan, Wiener Philharmoniker [live Salzburg 28.VII.1973]
Franz Schubert, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, D. 877/4. Teresa Stratas, Boris Abramovich [live Moscow 22.VII.1963]
Alban Berg, Frank Wedekind: Wenn sich die Menschen (Lulu). Teresa Stratas, Sylvain Cambreling, Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie [live Brussels 02.II.1988]
Charles Strouse, Stephen Schwartz: Blame It on the Summer Night (Rags). Teresa Stratas, Orchestra conducted by Eric Stern [live New York VIII.1986]
Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Robert Graves: What do they mean, these auguries? (Nausicaa). Teresa Stratas, Carlos Surinach, Athens Symphony Orchestraa [1961]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Alexandre Dumas fils]: Dammi tu forza, o cielo… Amami, Alfredo (La Traviata). Teresa Stratas, Fritz Wunderlich, Brigitte Fassbaender, Giuseppe Patanè, Bayerisches Staatsorchester [live München 28.III.1965]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami, Renato Simoni [after Carlo Gozzi]: Signore, ascolta (Turandot). Teresa Stratas, Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta [live New York 22.XII.1966]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami, Renato Simoni [after Carlo Gozzi]: Tanto amore segreto (Turandot). Teresa Stratas, Orchestra conducted by Nello Santi [live New York II.1995]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Henri Murger]: Donde lieta uscì (La Bohème). Teresa Stratas, Orchestra conducted by James Levine [live telecast 22.IV.1972]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Henri Murger]: O soave fanciulla (La Bohème). Teresa Stratas, Vasile Moldoveanu, Janos Kulka, Württembergischen Staatsorchester [1977]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte [after Pierre Beaumarchais]: Or vel riporto… Crudel! Perchè finora (Le nozze di Figaro). Teresa Stratas, Tom Krause, Herbert von Karajan, Wiener Philharmoniker [live Salzburg 28.VII.1973]
Claude Debussy, Maurice Maeterlinck: J’entends pleurer (Pelléas et Mélisande). Teresa Stratas, Gabriel Bacquier [live New York 04.III.1978]
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Konstantin Shilovsky, Modest Tchaikovsky [after Alexander Pushkin]: No sludba moya usch reschena… Onegin, v vashen certse yests (Yevgeny Onegin). Teresa Stratas, Georg Ots, Isai Sherman, Kirov Theater Orchestra [live Leningrad 11.VI.1963]
Antonín Dvořák, Jaroslav Kvapil [after Karel Jaromír Erben, Božena Němcová]: Mladosti své pozbavena (Rusalka). Teresa Stratas, Bohumil Gregor, The Netherlands Broadcast Orchestra [live Scheveningen 04.XI.76]
Franz Lehár, Bela Jenbach, Heinz Reichert [after Gabriela Zapolska]: Hab’ nur dich allein (Der Zarewitsch). Teresa Stratas, Wiesław Ochman, Willy Mattes, Symphonie-Orchester Graunke [1973 film soundtrack]
Richard Strauss, Oscar Wilde [translated Hedwig Lachmann]: Sprich mehr, Jochanaan, deine Stimme ist wie Musik in meinen Ohren (Salome). Teresa Stratas, Bernd Weikl, Wiesław Ochman, Karl Böhm, Wiener Philharmoniker [1974 film soundtrack]
Giacomo Puccini, Giovacchino Forzano: Tutto ho offerto alla Vergine… Senza mamma (Suor Angelica). Teresa Stratas, Florence Quivar, Orchestra conducted by James Levine [live New York 26.IX.89]
Alban Berg, Frank Wedekind: Ich will meine Tür verschliessen… Hier ist Briefpapier (Lulu). Teresa Stratas, Franz Mazura, Orchestra conducted by James Levine [live New York 03.I.1981]
