Episode 439. Grace Bumbry, Proud Soprano [Studio Edition]
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As we hurtle toward the third anniversary (in May already!) of Grace Bumbry’s death, I have had her very much on my mind. It’s true that I consider her greatest achievement to have been as a Liedersängerin. Others opine that her operatic roles as a mezzo (Carmen, Eboli, Amneris among others) represent her at her very finest. There are fewer who focus on her work as a soprano. And yet, when she sang the most taxing roles in that fach, she often revealed a fearlessness, a fortitude, a determination, a pride that brought out her very best. If one examines her recorded output, one finds her essaying soprano arias almost from her very earliest recordings. I thought it might be fun to continue Diva Week on Countermelody’s Black History Month celebratory episodesby examining her enduring legacy of her recorded output as a soprano. This time I focus exclusively on her studio recordings as a soprano, sometimes (but not always) in roles that she also sang onstage (Norma, Tosca, Gioconda, even Medea). (There’s even a little operetta and a pop standard tossed in for fun.) When La Bumbry first began singing the soprano repertoire, some naysayers predicted irreparable vocal burnout. But they were wrong: until the very end, Grace retained, by virtue of both solid technique and enormous willpower, the same vocal richness and musical and artistic fingerprint that she possessed for more than six decades and which we celebrate in this episode.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All tracks feature Grace Bumbry.
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Ángel de Saavedra; German version by Franz Werfel]: Gnade, gnade, mein Heiland [Pace, pace, mio Dio] (Die Macht des Schicksals [La forza del destino]. Giuseppe Patanè, Staatskapelle Dresden [1967]
Giuseppe Verdi, Joseph Méry, Camille du Locle [after Friedrich Schiller]: Tu che le vanità (Don Carlo). Hans Löwlein, Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin [1965]
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni [after Auguste Mariette and Temistocle Solera]: Ritorna vincitor (Aida). Hans Löwlein, Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin [1965]
Johann Strauss II, Ignaz Schnitzer [after Mór Jókai]: So elend und so treu… Oh, habet acht (Der Zigeunerbaron). Grace Bumbry, Franz Allers, Bayerisches Staatsorchester [1970]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Victorien Sardou]: Vissi d’arte (Tosca). Aldo Ceccato, Bayerisches Staatsorchester [1971]
Umberto Giordano, Luigi Illica: La mamma morta (Andrea Chénier). Aldo Ceccato, Bayerisches Staatsorchester [1971]
Luigi Cherubini, François-Benoît Hoffmann [Italian version by Carlo Zangarini]: Dei tuoi figli la madre (Medea). Aldo Ceccato, Bayerisches Staatsorchester [1971]
Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani: Casta Diva (Norma). Aldo Ceccato, Bayerisches Staatsorchester [1971]
Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito [as Tobia Gorrio, after Victor Hugo]: Suicidio! (La Gioconda). Stefan Soltesz, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [1984]
Jules Massenet, Adolphe d’Ennery, Louis Gallet, Édouard Blau [after Pierre Corneille]: Pleurez, mes yeux! (Le Cid). Stefan Soltesz, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [1984]
Giuseppe Verdi, Salvadore Cammarano [after Antonio García Gutiérrez]: Tacea la notte placida… Di tale amor (Il trovatore). Stefan Soltesz, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [1984]
Johann Strauss II, Ignaz Schnitzer [after Mór Jókai]: Wer uns getraut (Der Zigeunerbaron). Nicolai Gedda, Franz Allers, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München [1970]
Gustave Charpentier, Pierre-Paul Roux [Saint-Pol-Roux]: Depuis le jour (Louise). Stefan Soltesz, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [1984]
Alfredo Catalani, Luigi Illica [after Wilhelmine von Hillern]: Ebben? Ne andrò lontana (La Wally). Stefan Soltesz, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [1984]
Francesco Cilea, Arturo Colautti [after Eugène Scribe, Ernest Legouvé]: Io son l’umile ancella (Adriana Lecouvreur). Stefan Soltesz, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [1984]
Charles Chaplin, Geoffrey Parsons: Smile. Andrew White [arranger] [1995]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Ángel de Saavedra]: Pace, pace, mio Dio (La forza del destino). Stefan Soltesz, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart [1984]
