Episode 454. Gone Fishing
SOCIAL SHARE
SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
David and I are still on holiday in the magical city of Venice; it’s my first vist here in nearly forty years and it has been beguiling and enchanting (as well as exhausting)! Before we left, I put together yet another episode of great sopranos of the 1960s and 1970s in stunning live performances as compiled on a 1970s pirate release by Historical Recording Enterprises which I present to you here. Many of my favorites (Callas, Olivero, Scotto, Cruz-Romo, Freni), capped by an unforgettable “Casta Diva” by Shirley Verrett. Also a little celebratory commentary about the dazzling upset in the Hungarian electino last night, one which gives us perhaps a glimmer of hope for the grim situation in the United States.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Somma [after Eugène Scribe]: Ecco l’orrido campo… Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa (Un ballo in maschera) Maria Callas [1957]
Giuseppe Verdi, Salvadore Cammarano [after Friedrich Schiller]: Tu puniscimi, o Signor (Luisa Miller). Gilda Cruz-Romo [1974]
Gaetano Donizetti, Felice Romani [after Victor Hugo]: Com’è bello (Lucrezia Borgia). Montserrat Caballé [1965]
Giuseppe Verdi, Temistocle Solera, adapted and translated Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz [after Tommaso Grassi]: Ave Maria (Jérusalem). Katia Ricciarelli [1975]
Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani [after Charles Nodier, Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor]: Col sorriso d’innocenza… Ah, sole, ti vela (Il Pirata) Leyla Gencer [1975]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Alexandre Dumas fils]: Addio del passato (La traviata). Magda Olivero [1971]
Giacomo Meyerbeer, Eugène Scribe, Germain Delavigne: Invano il fato spero cangiato [En vain j’espère] (Roberto il Diavolo) [sung in Italian]. Renata Scotto [1962]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte: Non mi dir (Don Giovanni). Beverly Sills [1965]
Gaetano Donizetti, Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, Jean-François Bayard [Italian translation by Calisto Bassi]: Convien partir (La figlia del reggimento). Mirella Freni [1968]
Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani: Casta diva (Norma). Shirley Verrett [1976]
