Episode 446. Christiane Eda-Pierre and Teresa Żylis-Gara: Hyphenated Rarities
SOCIAL SHARE
SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
Two of the greatest and most versatile sopranos of the late 20th century, Christiane Eda-Pierre and Teresa Żylis-Gara, both departed within a year of each other in the early 2020s. They also happened to have hyphenated last names and also both bear certain artistic similarities to last week’s featured artist, Edith Mathis. Unlike Mathis, both Eda-Pierre and Żylis-Gara were criminally underrecorded, so any material featuring these singers is even more welcome. In this episode I fill in the blanks with some exceptional live and studio recordings of both artists, including exceptionally rare material (among them a 1967 recording of Christiane Eda-Pierre singing Offrandes by Edgard Varèse and a 1973 air check of Bizet’s La jolie fille de Perth; Teresa Żylis-Gara in 1966 singing an excerpt in Polish from Emmerich Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza and a 1977 studio recording of an early Karol Szymanowski song cycle). At least six of the recordings featured are simply not currently available anywhere else on the internet and all selections reveal both of these exceptional sopranos at the peak of their achievement. I’ll see you at the end of the week with a brand-new episode.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Giacomo Puccini: Un bel dì vedremo (Madama Butterfly). Teresa Żylis-Gara, Maurizio Arena, Polish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra [1981]
Gioacchino Rossini: Una voce poco fa (Il barbiere di Siviglia). Christiane Eda-Pierre, Gianfrano Rivoli, Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo [1970]
Jacques Offenbach: Les oiseaux dans la charmille (Les contes d’Hoffmann). Christiane Eda-Pierre, Jésus Etcheverry, Orchestre de l’Opéra-Comique [live Paris 1962?]
Georges Bizet: À peine au printemps de la vie (La jolie fille de Perth). Christiane Eda-Pierre, Alexander Young, David Lloyd-Jones, BBC Northern Orchestra [1973 broadcast]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Doch du bist entschlossen [excerpt from Martern aller Arten] (Die Entführung aus dem Serail). Christiane Eda-Pierre, Karl Böhm, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris [Paris 26.03.76]
Igor Stravinsky: Trois Poésies de la lyrique japonaise (I. Akahito; II. Mazatsumi; III. Tsaraiuki). Christiane Eda-Pierre, Gilbert Amy, Ensemble Domaine Musical [1970]
André Grétry: Plus d’ennemis dans mon empire (Céphale et Procris). Christiane Eda-Pierre, Neville Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields [1979]
Charles Gounod: Ange adorable (Roméo et Juliette). Christiane Eda-Pierre, John Sandor, Antonio de Almeida, Orchestra of the Opéra de Nice [live 17 Mar 1977]
Edgard Varèse: Offrandes (I. Chanson de Là-Haut; La Croix du Sud). Christiane Eda-Pierre, Gilbert Amy, Ensemble Domaine Musical [1967]
Giuseppe Verdi: Timor di me?… D’amor sull’ali rosee (Il trovatore). Teresa Żylis-Gara, Maurizio Arena, Polish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra [1981]
Emmerich Kálmán: Wstęp i ąrią Mąricy [Höre ich Zigeunergeigen… Wo wohnt die Liebe (Hrabina Marica [Gräfin Mariza]) (sung in Polish). Teresa Żylis-Gara, Stefana Rachonia, Polish Radio Orchestra [1966]
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky: О, слушай, ночь! [Oh, listen, night!] (Pique-Dame). Teresa Żylis-Gara, Kazimierz Kord, Polish Philharmonic [1979]
Gioacchino Rossini: Inflammatus et accensus (Stabat Mater). Teresa Żylis-Gara, Carlo Maria Giulini, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della RAI, Coro della RAI Roma [Roma 22.12.67]
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ich will auf den Herren schau’n (Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten, BWV 93). Teresa Żylis-Gara, Helmut Hucke, Hans Thamm, Consortium Musicum [1967]
Karol Szymanowski, Jan Kasprowicz: Moja pieśń wieczorna [My evening song] (Three Fragments from Poems by Jan Kasprowicz, Op.5/3). Teresa Żylis-Gara, Jerzy Marchwiński [1977]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannstahl: Ich kenn’ Ihn schon recht wohl, mon Cousin (Der Rosenkavalier). Edith Mathis, Teresa Żylis-Gara, John Pritchard, London Philharmonic Orchestra [live Glyndebourne 19.V.1965]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi: Ah, lo previdi, K. 272. Christiane Eda-Pierre, Odette Chaynes-Decaux [live Radio France 17.V.1975]