Episode 437. Get to Know Faye Robinson
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Today’s Black History Month episode serves also as a belated birthday tribute to the exceptional African American soprano Faye Robinson, who was born in Houston on 2 November 1943. Robinson has a voice that transcends genre, encompassing both lyric-coloratura roles at one end and pure dramatic soprano repertoire on the other. In addition, she has been created vocal works by some of the greatest twentieth-century composers, including Michael Tippett, two of whose major vocal works she premiered, and with whose compositions she is especially associated, and George Walker, whose Lilacs she premiered in 1996 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and which subsequently won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize by the judges’ unanimous decision. Robinson’s immediately recognizable voice presented in a wide-range of repertoire, including the works referenced above and also including arias by Handel, Gounod, Offenbach, Bellini, and Handel, as well as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges; as well as concert work by Schoenberg and Barber. All in all, Faye Robinson’s is a voice and artistic presence well worth getting to know better! Happy Belated Birthday, Diva!
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos: Ô Clémangis, lis dans mon âme (Ernestine). Faye Robinson, Paul Freeman, London Symphony Orchestra [1974]
Jacques Offenbach, Jules Barbier [after E.T.A. Hoffmann]: Les oiseaux dans la charmille (Les contes d’Hoffmann). Faye Robinson, Theo Alcantra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires [live 1980]
George Frideric Handel: Non s’afferra d’amore il porto (Se pari è la tua fè, HWV 158a). Faye Robinson, Rudolph Palmer, Edward Brewer, Brewer Chamber Orchestra [1996]
Traditional Spiritual, arr. Michael Tippett: O by and by (A Child of Our Time). Faye Robinson, Michael Tippett, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus [1991]
Michael Tippett: Hiroshima, mon amour (The Mask of Time). Faye Robinson, Colin Davis, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus [live Boston (world premiere) 05.IV.1984]
Vincenzo Bellini, Carlo Pepoli: Vien, diletto, è in ciel la luna (I Puritani). Faye Robinson, Robert McFarland, Harry Dworchak, Edoardo Müller, New York City Opera Orchestra [live New York 11.VIII.1985]
George Frideric Handel, Antonio Marchi [after Ludovico Ariosto]: Ah, mio cor (Alcina). Faye Robinson, Kurt Eichhorn, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [live Schwetzinger Festspiele 31.V.84]
Charles Gounod, Jules Barbier, Michel Carré [after William Shakespeare]: Mais demain pourtant… Amour, ranime mon courage (Roméo et Juliette). Faye Robinson, Alain Guingal, Orchestra del Teatro Regio Parma [live Parma 27.IV.1985]
Michael Tippett, William Butler Yeats: Miracle, Bird or Golden Handiwork (Byzantium). Faye Robinson, Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony Orchestra [live Carnegie Hall 15-18.IV.1991]
Arnold Schoenberg, Stefan George: Entrückung [excerpt] [Ich löse mich in tönen] (String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10/4, transcribed for string orchestra). Faye Robinson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stockholm Chamber Orchestra [1997]
George Walker, Walt Whitman: IV [Sing on, sing on you gray-brown bird] (Lilacs). Faye Robinson, Timothy Russell, Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra [2000]
Samuel Barber, Euripedes (translated by John Patrick Creagh): Helen! Helen! You they call daughter of God (Andromache’s Farewell, Op. 39). Faye Robinson, Andrew Davis, Cleveland Orchestra [live broadcast 1990]
