tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61669181559466007872024-03-12T13:55:35.946-04:00Great Opera SingersThe Opera Blog of Edmund St. Austell, celebrating great opera singers of the world, both past and present.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger184125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-70324212266447480332015-10-04T13:05:00.001-04:002015-10-04T13:05:19.055-04:00
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<b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">JULES BASTIN, BASSE CHANTANTE<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">BASTIN was born in Waterloo in
1933. He was a </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium" title="Belgium"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Belgian</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_(vocal_range)" title="Bass (vocal range)"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">operatic bass</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><u> who</u></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> made his debut in 1960 at </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Monnaie" title="La Monnaie"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">La Monnaie</span></a></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">, singing Charon in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Orfeo" title="L'Orfeo"><i><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">L'Orfeo</span></i></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">. He appeared at major opera houses
throughout </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe" title="Europe"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Europe</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">, including the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Opera_House" title="Royal Opera House"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Royal Opera House</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Scala" title="La Scala"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">La Scala</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">, and the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Garnier" title="Palais Garnier"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Palais Garnier</span></a></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">; he also sang at opera houses in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America" title="North America"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">North</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America" title="South America"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">South America</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">. He was known for playing roles from a
variety of operatic traditions, from </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudio_Monteverdi" title="Claudio Monteverdi"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Monteverdi</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alban_Berg" title="Alban Berg"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Berg</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">, but he was perhaps most famous for singing the comic role of Ochs in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss" title="Richard Strauss"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Richard Strauss</span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">'s </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Rosenkavalier" title="Der Rosenkavalier"><i><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Der Rosenkavalier</span></i></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Bastin began his career as a
teacher of German, French and history before turning to professional singing.
After becoming successful in opera, he continued to teach music at the Royal
Music Conservatory in Brussels. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 23.25pt 10pt 0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Surely one of the very best bass singers of his day, he was renowned for
his extraordinarily beautiful French. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here is his famous “Air de Frère Laurent: "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pauvres enfants</i>" (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roméo
et Juliette</i>), H. Berlioz:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSf52lcC160" target="_blank" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSf52lcC160
Ctrl+Cliquer ou appuyer pour suivre le lien"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSf52lcC160</span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Air du Père</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> : " <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Les pauvres gens</i>"
(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Louise</i>), G. Charpentier:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdqI1ERBPvk" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdqI1ERBPvk</span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">O Holy Night (French version):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piY_DYK1zjU" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piY_DYK1zjU</span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #281e1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bastin died in Brussels on 2 December 1996.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-80607862910600560992015-09-27T12:14:00.001-04:002015-09-27T12:14:22.911-04:00<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Richard Tucker</span></strong></div>
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<strong>A Rare Live Recording of the Hineni Prayer for Rosh Hashana</strong>.</div>
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This audio file, kindly sent by Steve at Shicoff1, is not on any studio recording </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i28nvs1L-ic&feature=em-share_video_user">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i28nvs1L-ic&feature=em-share_video_user</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-34893736526084622482015-09-13T14:45:00.001-04:002015-09-14T08:22:45.369-04:00<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Eula Beal, Contralto</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvuLev2hlruRZmqZCBQ1Rc0LJhbQ0g4IaKZJXXsxOYCgw4BAVjUrcBkBitCsvCG3HrOEqx6K5je_v_5EBZtHWXg8Wv2L7cLfENi9vhgDy306GspObR7dFKOrCXFO3Tya8MHsIYomgbYCA/s1600/Beal-Eula-02%255B1947%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvuLev2hlruRZmqZCBQ1Rc0LJhbQ0g4IaKZJXXsxOYCgw4BAVjUrcBkBitCsvCG3HrOEqx6K5je_v_5EBZtHWXg8Wv2L7cLfENi9vhgDy306GspObR7dFKOrCXFO3Tya8MHsIYomgbYCA/s1600/Beal-Eula-02%255B1947%255D.jpg" /></a></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Eula Beal, the well-known American contralto, was born in
Riverside California in 1919.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She got
her start singing at the Redlands Bowl in local competitions, and attained her
reputation in classical music in the 1940’s, largely as a concert contralto.
She was, in addition to concert singing, recognized for her work in movies. Here
is one of her most beloved concert pieces, Tchaikovsky’s “None but the Lonely
Heart”:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCtW1RucS-w"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCtW1RucS-w</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That is simply superb singing! Her upper range, for example,
is most impressive, yet does not distract from the characteristic contralto
sound for which she was so widely recognized. All in all, magnificent vocal
artistry! And here is an equally impressive vocal rendition, this from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">St. Matthew Passion</i>, performed together
with Yehudi Menuhin. Listen to the astounding line of this singing; it is near
perfection, as is the violin playing of Menuhin. Such playing and singing are a
rare combination, both then—and especially—now:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIdNBgyC88o"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIdNBgyC88o</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, it needs to be pointed out that it was not only
classical music at which Beal excelled. Here, to give an excellent example, is perhaps
one of the most popular religious songs in the repertoire; and one which Eula
Beal sings especially well, The Bach/Gounod “Ave Maria”:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-KcRmidxTo"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-KcRmidxTo</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This was a contralto and a contralto indeed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-77523622157580520872015-08-19T13:50:00.001-04:002015-08-19T14:41:17.222-04:00<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Great Neapolitan Tenor Francesco
Albanese </span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikxMOZS9R3MmWkdghJCtJRCH5oz94XSzoDocLKk28q6xn9ZkenzRMZJK3J3B_aMh-UaO9TlxWFRHJsoJc0ozlFdz2379Cgs0xN_p9GfOapAHrI7SiQwzOXcZaRQYIdKKcPs6Eb4zcveXI/s1600/francesco+albanese.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikxMOZS9R3MmWkdghJCtJRCH5oz94XSzoDocLKk28q6xn9ZkenzRMZJK3J3B_aMh-UaO9TlxWFRHJsoJc0ozlFdz2379Cgs0xN_p9GfOapAHrI7SiQwzOXcZaRQYIdKKcPs6Eb4zcveXI/s320/francesco+albanese.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Francesco
Albanese was born in Torre del Greco, Naples, and was a popular lyric tenor,
known not only for his work in opera, but as one of the greatest singers of
Neapolitan song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His life and career
were almost entirely in Italy, although he did sing in London, Portugal and
South America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, his work was
largely within the Italian repertoire,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>but that of course is a very large part of opera!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did not, to the best of my knowledge,
ever sing in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have
an unfortunate tendency in the US to think that Italian singers who never sang
here were<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>unsuccessful or
unimpressive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a silly kind of
chauvinism, of course; nothing could be further from the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He in fact had a very good career, and is
greatly respected today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">His first studies were in Rome, with Francesco Salfi, and it
was there that he made his debut, at the Teatro dell'Opera, in Gluck's
Alceste<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His early repertoire was to
become his characteristic repertoire, which is leggiero, or light lyric roles, such
as Almaviva, Fenton, Rinuccio, Ottavio, Ramiro, Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Armida,
Alfredo and Nemorino. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He recorded both Ifigenia in Tauride, (1957) and La Traviata
(early 50's )<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>opposite Maria Callas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was not only in opera that Albanese had a good
career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For lovers of Neapolitan music,
Albanese is commonly considered one of the greatest of all singers of
Neapolitan songs, which have a remarkable history all their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I always hasten to point out, whenever I
speak of Neapolitan songs, there is a great misconception about what they
are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems, for example, that nearly
every operatic tenor and baritone on earth feels obliged to sing these songs,
whether or not they know anything about Naples, its language, literature, or
musical history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result of this,
many of the songs are done poorly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact, the Neapolitan song has a style all its own,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because these songs have a long history and
in their earliest iterations, they were art songs, much more restrained and
dignified in tone than they now often appear in the hands of many singers.
Further, they were, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a principle
means of instructing a large and unlettered populace in Neapolitan cultural and
literary history--they served as a kind of instruction in napolitanità ; which
is to say in what it meant to be Neapolitan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Therefore, a great familiarity with Naples, its music, its political
history,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>its language and its literature
is required to do them well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several
names come immediately to mind, including Fernando de Lucia—still the all-time
favorite tenor of many Neapolitans—modern singers Roberto Murolo and Aurelio
Fierro, and of course Francesco Albanese.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think it's possible to get a good idea of just what a fine
singer Albanese was by listening to him sing one of the most popular of all
Neapolitan songs, Dicitencello Vuje.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When I posted this on Youtube, I included the lyrics, and translated
them from Neapolitan into English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
makes it possible to follow the song carefully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQweD8rFJKE&feature=plcp"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQweD8rFJKE&feature=plcp</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Isn't that just absolutely wonderful!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is what a Neapolitan song is supposed to
sound like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first thing you will
notice is that it is completely devoid of shouting, moaning, groaning, glycerin
tears or schlock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in fact as well
constructed, singable and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>dignified as
many a Schubert Lied, making allowance for the theme of romance expressed in a
Latin way and in a Latin language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course, these tonal differences will be expressed in ways particular to both
cultures, but that says nothing about the quality of the artistry, just the
intrinsic nature of the different cultures, languages, and peoples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can hear the same differences in political
or scientific discussions or speeches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the same Youtube page where this song appears, you can find, in the
right hand sidebar, the same song "sung" by the Three Tenors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don't recommend it:-)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for opera, here is "Parigi, o Cara....," from
La Traviata, with Maria Callas:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhU7THYSryE"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhU7THYSryE</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Notice the restraint and the elegance of his singing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is classy singing, there is no doubt
about it, and very much against stereotype.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I would contend that this is exactly the quality I find in the
Neapolitan songs he sings, and one of the major reasons he sings them so
authentically and beautifully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A first
class tenor, and a credit to Italian music!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-85878036868704796172015-08-13T14:33:00.001-04:002015-08-13T14:33:22.458-04:00
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Andrés Huc Santana<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fr. Cornelius Mattei<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9J2zR20ghTHejhSjld2r6E8w_AlwW-iN2-e45D3xEVKUSbAcga1I0UeJMMdj6NqUTjEQAPummhwYaiyea4_CetB6xQ6GzyHaZZuxJMUV29uoRr2ItTPtUjnODedEN3s_oLV5BCh8i4vA/s1600/huc+santana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9J2zR20ghTHejhSjld2r6E8w_AlwW-iN2-e45D3xEVKUSbAcga1I0UeJMMdj6NqUTjEQAPummhwYaiyea4_CetB6xQ6GzyHaZZuxJMUV29uoRr2ItTPtUjnODedEN3s_oLV5BCh8i4vA/s320/huc+santana.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></span></span> </div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Andrés Huc Santana<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There have been at least two
substantial 20<sup>th</sup> century Franco-Argentinian singers; one who was the
master, indeed the shaper of the tango, Carlos Gardel, probably born of a
single mother who emigrated from Toulouse to the river Platte estuary, whether
in Montevideo, Uruguay or Buenos Aires, it is not known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the great<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“morocho del tango” is not the subject of our piece today, but rather
Andrés Huc Santana, he who became a star basso in France and Brussels in the
1940’s and 50’s. </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To start, let
us hear Santana in Song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the old
but always popular<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Le Cor”:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59HZdfDC27Y"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=59HZdfDC27Y</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Very
beautifully and masterfully done!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Having<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>begun his operatic career with a small role
in “Louise,” Santana and his young wife left Paris for Marseille where,
patronized by countess Lily Pastré, he was hired by Paul Bastide for the
Théatre Municipal, making his debut in 1941 as Phanuel in Massenet’s
“Hèrodiade.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1943 he
returned to the capital, where he auditioned for Jacques Rouché, singing “Le
Cor” as we have heard it here, making his debut as Sparafucile and also singing
Ramphis and the Commendatore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His next
important step was becoming a star bass at Monte Carlo, where Gunbourg
entrusted Boris, Don Giovanni, the four Hoffman villains, Gounod and Boito
demons to him, thus setting him on his true way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At
approximately<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>6’ 7” he certainly had the
imposing physique!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is his Faust:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmRA1RpSPCc"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmRA1RpSPCc</span></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In addition
to some of the previous roles…he sang Bazile in “Le Barbier” at the Comique…he
also performed the Berlioz “Mephisto” and built a following as a bass
protagonist at the Opéra, where he was to remain until the mid-1960’s in a
variety of roles, memorably as both Philippe and the Grand Inquisitor in the
Margherita Wallman production of “Don Carlos.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Brussels
for seven consecutive seasons, he wrote his own ticket, appearing in so-called
Chaliapin roles, even essaying both Galitzkiy and Khan Konchak in the same performances
of “Prince Igor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At Aix-en-Provence he
appeared memorably in Rameau’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>”Platée.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Argentina, as may be
imagined, he sang at the Teatro Colón.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was heard to advantage in the French theaters outside Paris, memorably
at Toulon and other venues in the south, so avid for opera in those days, as
well as in Italy, Tunis and Algeria.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">American
students attending the AIMS program in Graz, Austria, have fond memories of him
there in the 1970’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was also
prominent on the juries of the international vocal competitions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still teaching in retirement, he passed away
on January 21, 1982 in Paris.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A final
offering:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Le Pas d’armes du roi Jean”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKM-zzkGJoM"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKM-zzkGJoM</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQSUABmFiCd442Ql9k_4a0LkdC6loSIwZZmxBA7Rbhivinv6zCQ_2RtNNs_CY6BVe8xKeVTbWEbO_UF6U8AUvSUZcM9WS8Vh878C8Y_zHrxC1I8kDZgd16vG00qLP3jQT8yLoYKFuBgk/s1600/DSC_0414.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQSUABmFiCd442Ql9k_4a0LkdC6loSIwZZmxBA7Rbhivinv6zCQ_2RtNNs_CY6BVe8xKeVTbWEbO_UF6U8AUvSUZcM9WS8Vh878C8Y_zHrxC1I8kDZgd16vG00qLP3jQT8yLoYKFuBgk/s320/DSC_0414.JPG" width="213" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 26pt; line-height: 115%;">Father Cornelius Mattei<o:p></o:p></span></b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-19434260813312208942015-08-07T16:34:00.001-04:002015-08-07T16:34:15.859-04:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">John Charles Thomas, The Great American Baritone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">John Charles Thomas was born in 1891 in Meyersdale, Pa., the son of a Methodist minister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After study for a medical a career, he won a scholarship to the Peabody Institute in Baltimore in 1910.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1912 Thomas left the Peabody and toured with a musical troupe, and starred in many musicals, including “Her Soldier Boy”, Maytime, “Naughty Marietta,” and “Apple Blossoms.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His opera career began in 1925 as </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Amonasro in Verdi’s Aida. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He went on to sing in San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would remain at the Met until 1933 , singing opposite great sopranos of the day, such as Rosa Ponselle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas sang a very wide variety of songs:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is Thomas in opera, "O du mein holder Abenderstarn:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M2oTNjOxY4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M2oTNjOxY4</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is “The Last Time I saw Paris”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5mPyPLIgw"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5mPyPLIgw</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And here is the”Green Eyed Dragon”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywcugcb1D1g&noredirect=1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywcugcb1D1g&noredirect=1</span></a><br />
<br />
<br />
And let's not forget Gilbert and Sullivan!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br />
<br />
\h<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA7Kazs3wPA">ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA7Kazs3wPA</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<o:p><br /></o:p><br />
<o:p><br /></o:p><br />
<o:p><br /></o:p><br />
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-66114592766092949532015-07-16T13:42:00.004-04:002015-07-16T13:42:51.051-04:00<br />
WELSH OPERATIC TENOR DAN BEDDOE<br />
<br />
The Welsh operatic tenor, Dan Beddoe, was born in Aberdare, Wales, UK on March 16th 1863. He died in December 1937 at the age of 74.<br />
<br />
A <em>Cincinnati Enquirer</em> review of a May 1931 performance stated that he "stole the show with voice clear and ringing" with "countless" calls for encores and "with the entire audience of many thousands rising <em>en masse</em> to pay him special tribute."<br />
<br />
A December 1931 <em>New York Evening Post</em> article, recalling his singing in the <em>Messiah</em> and the <em>Elijah</em> for the Oratorio Society of New York, noted that he had "been singing for a generation" since his first appearance there in 1903 and described how he was "in marvelous voice and received a standing ovation after each aria he sang.<br />
<br />
A <em>New York Times</em> review of the same performance noted that "For Dan Beddoe it was the fortieth year of public appearance. He has become almost indispensable to the Society's performances of the <em>Messiah.</em> The 64-year-old tenor sang as always in keeping with the spirit of the work and with fine musicianship. Age does not stale the many resources of his art."<br />
<br />
Here is the great Welsh tenor singing "O Danny Boy:"<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3otalrk8Ig">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3otalrk8Ig</a><br />
<br />
And here is "A Moonlight Song:"<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06OJQ_eJTyY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06OJQ_eJTyY</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-82752027092043615692015-07-03T13:43:00.001-04:002015-07-03T13:44:35.993-04:00<div class="post hentry">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="7323683941226771823"></a>
<br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title">
<a href="http://greatoperasingers.blogspot.com/2012/08/jozef-sterkens-golden-voice-of-royal_9090.html"><span style="color: #336699;">Jozef
Sterkens: Golden Voice of the Royal Flemish Opera</span></a> </h3>
<div class="post-header">
<div class="post-header-line-1">
</div>
</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-7323683941226771823">
<u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Introductory
Note<o:p></o:p></span></span></u><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9kH9KveBbSteV1cPGbmaJPkOuAAPT1Rrz0Fupqc-KvPzKKbnPuaDYAM3FzVGVzAY47SjjKdaVzYkoN6s3c2Jh3iMWeWaGch-p-vGVviTnuVDlTQWvChMRT0EdQO70YNiQ7b-Sf8V8zJY/s1600/sterkens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9kH9KveBbSteV1cPGbmaJPkOuAAPT1Rrz0Fupqc-KvPzKKbnPuaDYAM3FzVGVzAY47SjjKdaVzYkoN6s3c2Jh3iMWeWaGch-p-vGVviTnuVDlTQWvChMRT0EdQO70YNiQ7b-Sf8V8zJY/s1600/sterkens.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">[Before I can even begin to
tell the story of Jozef Sterkens, I need, first and foremost, to publicly thank
Pierre at Jozefsterkens2.com. for his absolutely indispensable <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>assistance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pierre 's site is one of the oldest and most
respected on Youtube, and he is certainly the foremost authority on Jozef
Sterkens, after whom he has named his site. I owe to him the videos and the
biography which I have used in the preparation of this article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Secondly, it is important to point out that
Jozef Sterkens' life consists of two distinct parts: artistry and politics, and
the two influenced each other. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a
leading figure of the Flemish artistic renaissance in Flanders, during the very
stressful <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>period of WWII.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can only deal here with the artistic life.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Edmund St.Austell] </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">Jozef Sterkens (pseudonym of
Jozef Steuren) was born in Antwerp in 1893.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His parents had a laundry in Antwerp, and hoped that young Jozef could
study to become a teacher. He was a good scholar, and so they arranged—although
their funds were limited—to send him to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>the Normal School in Ghent, in 1908. Bright boy though he was, he failed
to develop much interest in his studies, generally speaking, but he did have the
chance to take music lessons from the Flemish composer Emiel Hullebroeck, who
soon discovered that young Jozef had a beautiful tenor voice. Hullebroeck
strongly recommended singing lessons, but family finances made it impossible for
Jozef to do anything but become an art teacher after graduation. Within a few
years, WWI broke out, and Jozef joined the armed forces, where he spent the next
four years working as a nurse in a military hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While in the army, he had the opportunity,
along with other artists, to sing for soldiers at the front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His patriotic diligence and hard work led to
his being decorated on four different occasions.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">After the Armistice, Sterkens
returned to Antwerp and resumed his teaching career, while also studying at the
Royal Flemish Conservatory. In 1923, he sang for the music critic of a local
newspaper, who in turn introduced him to Edmond Borgers, the leading heldentenor
of the Royal Flemish Opera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
hearing Sterkens sing "In Fernem Land,"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>he offered to give him singing lessons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In that same year, Sterken's career began, in a modernistic vein that
would characterize much of his later work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His first concerts consisted of works by Flemish composers Peter Benoit,
Jan Blockx, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jef Van Hoof, and Renaat
Veremans, and were presented to largely Flemish-speaking
audiences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">One of the main reasons many
opera lovers, especially in this country, do not know much about Sterkens' <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>career now is that from the very beginning he
became strongly associated with presenting Flemish music, and music in
Flemish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were two opera houses in
Antwerp:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Royal French Opera and the
Royal Flemish Opera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The French Opera
dedicated itself largely to French and Italian works, and the Flemish house to
German works, and works in Flemish translation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because of Sterken's association with the Flemish house, he did not have
much opportunity <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to sing the French and
Italian repertoire that held so many great roles for tenors. There were strong
political pressures for him to adhere to Flemish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this time, Flanders, the Dutch-speaking
part of Belgium, was completely dominated by French speakers and French culture,
and the need was greatly felt, by the Flemish, to establish Flemish art and
culture in Flanders. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sterkens was, in
fact, to become an important figure in that Flemish struggle for cultural
liberation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">He joined the Royal Flemish
Opera in 1925, and his first big success was Tamino, in 1927.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He quickly became the leading lyric tenor in
the company. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The following year he sang
the St. Matthew Passion in Paris, under the baton of the famous Flemish
conductor Lodewijk de Vocht, and made his first recordings for the French
Gramophone Company. He was also becoming a fixture on Belgian radio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1929 he sang Florestan opposite the
Leonore of Lotte Lehmann, who was a frequent performer at the Royal Flemish
Opera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During this period, he took part
in presenting the Dutch versions of <em>Sadko</em> (1925), <em>Paganini</em>
(1927), <em>Jenufa</em> (1927), <em>Sly</em> (1929), <em>Die tote Stadt</em>
(1932), and <em>Daphne </em>(1939)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">Sterkens' story from this point
until his death in 1952 is primarily a story of administrative work, both at the
Royal Flemish and elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, it is a sad one, full of the political intrigues and
politics of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was even jailed
at one point, after the liberation of Antwerp in 1944, for a period of about 8
months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that, he fell into
obscurity for a long time, but slowly began to regain his reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just at the moment when he was to be given a
significant post as chairman of the Musical Copyright Society, he died of a
heart attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The year was 1952. It's a
rather depressing story, really. Those interested in reading of these matters in
more detail can consult 401 Divas, </span><a href="http://401dutchdivas.nl/en/belgian-singers/440-jozef-sterkens.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">http://401dutchdivas.nl/en/belgian-singers/440-jozef-sterkens.html</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am indebted to this site for my
biographical information.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">I think it is important to
first hear Sterkens in one of the most lyrical and beautiful renditions I know
of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the aria "<u>Glück das mir verlieb,"
from Korngold's <em>Die tote Stadt</em>:</u> </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tofrmq8GbC8"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tofrmq8GbC8</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">Now isn't that just absolutely
beautiful!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I certainly think it is!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What kind of voice is it, essentially?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think of Sterken's voice as being in the
Gigli/ Tagliavini/ Schipa fach, which is to say high lyric tenor, but with a
decidedly German/Dutch color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
associate colors with vocal sounds, this might be called "brown,"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as compared to the darker, "black" quality of
the typical Italian voice—or at least that of Gigli, perhaps not so much that of
Tagliavini.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of one thing there can be no
question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this is a very beautiful
voice, absolutely without strain or harsh edge, a superb lyric
tenor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">Next, we can hear in Sterken's
voice the introduction of drama, of a dark and mysterious kind, in Respighi's
<em>Campana Sommersa</em>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a mythical
opera concerning a sunken bell between two worlds, the world of humans and that
of fairies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Choices have to be made, and
tragic consequences may hang on the quality of the choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is basically a verismo fairy-tale with
dark forebodings:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOdwObQi9xo"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOdwObQi9xo</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">The voice, while lyric, has
here acquired some edginess; it is also more dramatic, with greater dynamic
variations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly, the potential for
development into a slightly darker voice is there,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but it was never pushed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was always the lyric and the beautiful
that dominated Sterken's singing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">Finally, to illustrate that
point even more, here is a real rarity, the only known film footage of
Sterkens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is from a silly,
light-hearted comedy of the kind that proliferated during the 1930's.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the Dutch song "Elisa," from the
movie "De Witte:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEIQ3tU4U0c"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEIQ3tU4U0c</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: small;">Notice the <em>voix mixte</em>
high C sharp at the end?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A famous voice
teacher once told me that opera voices would be better and longer-lived if
singers and conductors ever figured out that most people far prefer what is
pretty to what is simply loud!.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Case in
point! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot help but wonder what
Sterkens' fate would have been if he had been born in Italy or France, in years
of relative peace, and had had the opportunity to sing extensively in the
standard Latin repertoire of those countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I believe I would be telling an entirely different story</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-60705123629873883642015-05-31T11:19:00.000-04:002015-05-31T11:19:56.318-04:00<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Mabel Garrison, Brilliant Coloratura Soprano</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSlV65US9AKPwoBO0ODMC65oT1ZKdqQUVyMd6gbKdsP6yCdZkxuSkeJeWyNa-A0C1UbhfjI0mFM1rnBCwgn89Qe98N2ZpJNNA489rMCyOY6IjFhqlvyahNscuvHOCNmypz1aKBmA_qdw/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSlV65US9AKPwoBO0ODMC65oT1ZKdqQUVyMd6gbKdsP6yCdZkxuSkeJeWyNa-A0C1UbhfjI0mFM1rnBCwgn89Qe98N2ZpJNNA489rMCyOY6IjFhqlvyahNscuvHOCNmypz1aKBmA_qdw/s320/hqdefault.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> M</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">abel Garrison was born in Baltimore in1886. She finished
her undergraduate work in 1903 and went on to study singing at Peabody
Conservatory. She studied with George Siemonn and then studied further with
Oscar Saenger and Herbert Witherspoon in New York. She made her debut in 1912
with the Aborn Opera Company as Philine in Mignon. She made her Metropolitan
Opera debut on February 15, 1914 in concert, singing arias from operas by Verdi
and Mozart. Her first role at the Met was Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen. Other
roles included Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, Bertha in Euryanthe, Biancofiore in
Francesca da Rimini, Crobyle in Thaïs, the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel,
Gilda in Rigoletto, Lady Harriet in Martha, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera,the
Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute,Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and
Urbain in Les Huguenots.. Her last performance at the Met was as the title role
in Lucia di Lammermoor<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1921.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, here is the Garrison voice in its
prime, in the Doll Song from Hoffman:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQHqM2MEM6A">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQHqM2MEM6A</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1921 Garrison made guest appearances at the Berlin State
Opera and made a world concert tour that same year She was a member of the
Chicago Opera Company during the 1925-26 season. Garrison had a great and well
-trained coloratura voice, as she demonstrated in both opera and concert and in
several recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Like others of her era, she made “popular recordings” that
were always good for a few extra dollars; many, very often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a superb recording of “Dixie:”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhn8PVSclzo">www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhn8PVSclzo</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is a very good place to thank Mr.Douglas Curran for
posting these Garrison videos on his Youtube channel (Curzon Road) one of the
very best classical music channels on Youtube; in fact, one of the finest
channels of any kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that
every Mabel Garrison video on the web is from Mr. Curran,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a friend and brilliant record collector.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you, my friend!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mabel Garrison died in New York City on August 20, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-53341037357031418932015-05-23T09:06:00.003-04:002015-05-23T16:53:00.893-04:00<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">The Great Marcella Sembrich</span></strong> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8nkWPzSRa5gtPs6S4jehRtUMAjxNi9xzmcp2Op_7HGfEBlBRHopjry0LSf5K83b6oWeiNbbMLD9g0SxqKbWiHQmyzB5Y8b6a3IRiuh5L9FzoJZnidkxsSQZsyye5leE0fpEpekpk7I4/s1600/Marcella_Sembrich_I.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8nkWPzSRa5gtPs6S4jehRtUMAjxNi9xzmcp2Op_7HGfEBlBRHopjry0LSf5K83b6oWeiNbbMLD9g0SxqKbWiHQmyzB5Y8b6a3IRiuh5L9FzoJZnidkxsSQZsyye5leE0fpEpekpk7I4/s320/Marcella_Sembrich_I.png" width="256" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Marcella Sembrich<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(1858 – 1935) was the stage name of the Polish coloratura soprano,
Prakseda Marcelina Kochańska. She was born<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>in Wisniewczyk, then part of Austria, and now part of Ukraine. She first
studied violin and piano with her father, and later she entered the Lemberg
Conservatory and studied piano with her future husband Wilhelm Stengel . She
was able to enter the Vienna Conservatory in 1875. It was soon discovered that
her voice was exceptional, and she dedicated herself exclusively to voice from
then on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She made her operatic debut at
the relatively tender age of 19 in Athens, as Elvira in I Puritani, in
1877.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was engaged shortly thereafter
by the Vienna Opera, but due to pregnancy she broke the contract. Later, after
the birth of her first son, she had to wait for another opportunity and was
finally hired as a guest artist at the Dresden Royal Opera House in September,
1878, as Lucia. Her success was immediate and she was dubbed the "Polish
Patti." She remained in Dresden for two years, but decided to act
boldly—in order to make up for lost time—and broke her Dresden contract and
began concertizing on her own, in order to raise money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She managed to get to London, and after a
successful audition was accepted at Covent Garden, where she was quick to sign
a contract with them. She created quite a sensation in her 1880 debut there in
Lucia. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Emboldened by her
success, she broke her London contract two years early and came to the United
States in 1883 to make her Met debut, also as Lucia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From there it was on to St. Petersburg, and
eventually back to the Met in 1898, where she finally settled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She remained there until 1909, having given
over 400 performances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She concertized
for years, finally retiring after WWI.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From then on, she dedicated herself to teaching, in important
conservatories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was very successful
as a teacher, and had significant influence. Among her students were the great
Alma Gluck, Hulda Lashanska,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a
successful concert singer, coloratura soprano (and novelist!) Queena Mario, and
dramatic soprano Dusolina Giannini, who had a very successful international
career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also among her students was
radio vocalist and concertizer Conrad Thibault, who studied with her at Curtis,
and who told the distinguished musical biographer James A. Drake,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in an interview in 1976, that “she was always
very attentive and generous to her students, and talked to them personally
about the [singing teachers Francesco and Giovanni Lamperti ] and their methods.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drake goes on to say, interestingly,
that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He (Thibault) added that at least
in his experience with her, she never demonstrated vocalises or otherwise sang
even so much as a single tone.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was also a fundraiser for Polish
causes, following WWI.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since Lucia played so large a part in her earlier career,
serving as a frequent debut opera, it seems appropriate to begin there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I apologize for the scratchiness of the
recording.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot find a better recording
than the one I posted some years ago, and I was not able to clean up the
scratching on the transfer without taking some quality from the voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the 1906 recording of “Ardon
gl’incensi”:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWds7EKBXak">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWds7EKBXak</a></span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What most impresses me about this singing is the clarity,
purity, precise intonation, and general absence of affectation, either
stylistic or vocal. It is, as a result, what can honestly be classified as
elegant singing, not always the case with divas of the era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was often compared to Patti, especially
in her youth, and one can see why:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
note the same<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>clarity and purity of the
voice, including the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>floating, haunting
tones. Like Patti, Sembrich<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sings
perfectly on the breath, which is how she is able to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>portamento up and down so smoothly and
seamlessly, and also trill easily. There is considerable vocal fluidity to be
noted in the singing of both these great divas from the distant past. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another favorite opera for Sembrich was I Puritani.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the lovely “Qui la Voce sua Soave”
from 1907:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtFNOrA-Ids">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtFNOrA-Ids</a></span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lovely!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
really very accomplished singing for the period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the beginning of the aria, the same
“straight,” restrained and haunting melodic line is apparent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One can notice a slight development of weight
in the lower register, compared to the Lucia recording of the previous year,
but it is slight and still well integrated with the rather remarkable top
register.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later in the aria, the great
flexibility so characteristic of her voice is on display:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the rapid and well executed cadenzas, with a
brilliant, in-line C sharp inserted, stand out for their precision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was common during this time for sopranos
to attempt cadenzas they could not really articulate at speed, with the result
that they were in effect glissandi, often musically inappropriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not the case here, as it was not the case
with Patti.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sembrich’s intonation and
articulation are both precise, and this is most admirable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, a 1912 recording of a song from Leo Fall’s 1907
Musical Comedy Die Dollarprinzessin (“The Dollar Princess”):<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aA3-621gPw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aA3-621gPw</a></span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sembrich was 54 years when this was recorded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we finally have here is a wonderful
recording, first of all because the recording itself, as an artifact, has been
cleaned up to such a degree that it gives us a very real look at her
singing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The digital transfer was done
by my friend Doug at Curzon Road, one of the best classical music sites on the
web.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is extremely skilled at creating
audio files from old recordings, and this is so important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I feel I can very nearly hear the voice of
this singer from long ago with a clarity resembling what one might hear in the
opera house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several things become
apparent; first, the purity of intonation and articulation of which we have
spoken is not an aural illusion from faded 107-year-old records!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is very real, and absolutely
characteristic of the voice and training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Second, the vocal registers remain superbly well integrated; there are
no “register scoops” and there is no inappropriate “huskiness” in the lower
register at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The purity of the high
soprano voice remains spotless even at age 54.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is a diva who deserves her reputation!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A fine, elegant, articulate, vocally and
stylistically immaculate first lady of the lyric stage! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">*My thanks to Jim Drake for sharing this information with me.</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-83702168749545267742015-05-17T13:13:00.001-04:002015-05-17T14:31:35.450-04:00<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Great French Tenor Alain Vanzo<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alain Vanzo (1928-
2002) was a French opera singer who attained international standing in the
postwar era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with such singers as
Henri Legay and the Canadian Léopold Simoneau, he represented a traditional
French lyric style during a period when larger Italian and German vocal styles
had become popular. Vanzo was born in Monte Carlo, the son of a Mexican father
and a French mother. He started singing at a young age in the church choir. At
18, he was singing popular songs with a small band, and began performing at the
Théâtre du Châtelet, during the 1951-52 season, as a double for Luis Mariano in
the operetta Le Chanteur de Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Later, in 1954, he won an important singing contest in Cannes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Virtually from the beginning, Vanzo was blessed with a high
lyric voice of uncommon beauty and range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One can very easily get the idea of the young man’s singing voice from
the following exceptional rendition of the famous tenor aria from I Puritani, a
death trap for even great tenors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here
is “A te o Cara”:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMyciw8mpBU"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMyciw8mpBU</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Vanzo was then immediately invited to sing at the Opéra-Comique
and at the Palais Garnier, quickly establishing himself in the standard French
lyric repertory, such as Nadir in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Les
pêcheurs de perles,</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gérald in Lakmé,
Faust, Roméo in Roméo et Juliette, Vincent in Mireille, des Grieux in Manon,
etc</i>. He also sang the Italian repertory, such as the Duke in Rigoletto,
Alfredo in La Traviata, Rodolfo in La Bohème. He won great acclaim at the
Palais Garnier in 1960, as Edgardo in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lucia
di Lammermoor, </i>opposite Joan Sutherland who was making her debut there<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>This was the beginning of an
international career with appearances at many of the major opera houses in
Europe, including the Royal Opera House in London, La Monnaie in Brussels, the
Liceo in Barcelona, the Vienna State Opera. Vanzo also appeared in North America,
on tour with the Paris Opera, singing Faust, and in South America at the Teatro
Colón in Les contes d'Hoffmann. He sang at Carnegie Hall in New York, as
Gennaro, in the famous 1965 concert version of Lucrezia Borgia, opposite
Montserrat Caballé.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a wonderful performance of the famous
Pearl Fishers duet, with the remarkable baritone Gerard Bacquier:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucVYRaVxGko"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucVYRaVxGko</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is generally only occasionally that one hears this great duet sung by truly great French singers. This can actually make a difference. In comparison to other accomplished singers, native speakers of the language of the opera can have an advantage in eloquence and precision of diction and presentation and the entire musical rendering can be changed as a result. It is hard to imagine two singers better suited for this music than Vanzo and Bacquier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As the years went by, Vanzo extended his repertory to more
dramatic roles, such as Arrigo in the original French version of I Vespri Siciliani,
Adorno in Simon Boccanegra, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Robert in Robert le Diable,
Raoul in Les Huguenots, Mylio in Le roi d'Ys, and became internationally
renowned as one of best exponents of the role of Benvenuto Cellini and Werther.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Vanzo never officially retired, singing well into his 60s,
mostly in recital, and appearing frequently on French television. He left
relatively few commercial recordings, the most famous being Lakmé, opposite
Joan Sutherland, and conducted by Richard Bonynge.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Vanzo also composed, writing songs and two major works, the
operetta Pêcheur d'Etoile which premiered at Lille, in 1972, and the lyrical
drama Les Chouans, which premiered at Avignon, in 1982.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></o:p><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alain Vanzo died in Paris on January 27, 2002 of
complications following a stroke. He was 73.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></o:p><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, I think it makes sense<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to take a last look at Vanzo singing one of
his signature roles,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and that is
Werther:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why awaken me, oh sigh of
Springtime.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the quality of the
video image is poor, the audio is acceptable:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocl_3NFkatM"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocl_3NFkatM</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-13657999011268623472015-05-10T09:16:00.001-04:002015-05-10T09:40:34.786-04:00<!--?import namespace = g_vml_ urn = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" implementation
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<h3 class="post-title entry-title">
Beverly Sills: A Great American Soprano </h3>
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Beverly
Sills, (Belle Miriam Silverman) was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. Her
parents were Ukrainian immigrants, and as a child Sills was exposed to many
languages at home, including French, Yiddish, and Russian, along with her native
English. This exposure gave her a very natural facility with foreign languages,
which was helpful in her later career. <br />
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAnR8nrXmaYA51AvgHN32t5v0OAuJm8JslfEgjCSkqJzcMnRC_915ADn3vpeF7sGjFO0HKSQUwuDdRfNwmoJ1x404vFpL937roKyqQcSFP7rPu3Ad94tDp1Sv0p16IpjIovbCZnGXBH6I/s1600/sills.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAnR8nrXmaYA51AvgHN32t5v0OAuJm8JslfEgjCSkqJzcMnRC_915ADn3vpeF7sGjFO0HKSQUwuDdRfNwmoJ1x404vFpL937roKyqQcSFP7rPu3Ad94tDp1Sv0p16IpjIovbCZnGXBH6I/s1600/sills.jpg" /></a>Sills was precocious in the extreme as a child. Starting by
winning a child beauty contest at the age of 3, she began performing on the
radio at the age of 4 as "Bubbles" Silverman. She started taking lessons with
Estelle Liebling, and by 1937, when she was 8 years old, she had appeared in a
film, released the following year, which fortunately is preserved and viewable
on Youtube. Because it tells us so very much about her, I think that here is a
good place to see it. The film is called "Uncle Sol Solves It," and it is far
more than a vaudeville shtick because of the difficulty of the piece, and the
serious way Sills sings. Notice the extraordinary presence and charm of this
little girl! Also, watch the video to the very end and notice Uncle Sol's final
advice to her:</div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAz2HgSZaDs"><span style="color: #336699;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAz2HgSZaDs</span></a><br />
<br />
Now
how adorable is that!? The amazing thing is that she handles the fioratura quite
well! Also, she has been taught, or naturally understands, what the great bel
canto tenor Fernando de Lucía once told his student Georges Thill: "...per
cantare bene, bisogna aprire la bocca!!" Which little Bubbles did! It's not hard
to see why they called her "Bubbles," is it:-) Also, one other thing needs to be
noticed. Did you notice Uncle Sol's advice at the end? Stay right here and study
in this country., no matter how hanxious your hancestors are to do otherwise:-)
.....we have great teachers here. That was one of the first things I noticed. It
is important, because this was the grateful and patriotic attitude of so many at
that time. The culture these Jewish immigrants, largely from Russia and Eastern
Europe, brought to this country was enormous, beyond measure. You can see it in
Sill's life-long attitude and work, and also in the attitudes of Jan Peerce,
Roberta Peters, and many others. What they went on to contribute—and still do—is
a story in itself, one of which every American can be proud, and for which all
should be grateful.<br />
<br />
Liebling encouraged little Beverly to appear on radio
talent shows, which she did, and won a series of them, bringing increasing
attention to herself. By age 16, she had joined a Gilbert and Sullivan touring
company and began accumulating practical stage experience. Two years later, at
18, she made her operatic stage debut as the Spanish gypsy Frasquita in Bizet's
<em>Carmen</em> with the Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company. By 1953, when
she was 24, she appeared with the San Francisco opera as Helen of Troy in
Boito's <em>Mefistofele</em>, and also sang Elivra in <em>Don Giovanni</em> with
them the same year. From this moment on, her career virtually exploded. She went
on, over the course of her career, to sing very many roles, in virtually all the
major houses. Although she sang a repertoire from Handel, Mozart and Puccini, to
Massenet and Verdi, she was known for her performances in coloratura soprano
roles. Favorite operas were <em>Lucia</em>, <em>La Fille du Régiment</em>,
<em>Manon,</em> <em>Les Contes d'Hoffmann</em>, <em>The Barber of Seville</em>,
<em>Roberto Devereux,</em> <em>La Traviata</em>, and <em>I
Puritani</em>.<br />
<br />
Sills' life was music, from beginning to end: it never
stops. The honors and accolades were extraordinary, as was her public relations
work on behalf of music and charity, her administrative work at New York City
Opera, and The Metropolitan. It is a vast biography, much too long to discuss
here, but very easily consulted. Also, she has written an autobiography She was,
without question, one of the most famous and respected figures in mid-twentieth
century American cultural life. <br />
<br />
Let us turn to Sills the artist. Here
she is in her preferred repertoire, singing "Come per me sereno" from Bellini's
<em>La Sonnambula</em>. It is a real coloratura tour-de-force. The trills,
fioratura, and (very) high notes are simply stunning. It is a video of a certain
length (nine minutes). If you have not the time to listen to it all now, skip
the recitative. You don't want to miss any fireworks:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuaGuKrq9fY"><span style="color: #336699;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuaGuKrq9fY</span></a><br />
<br />
There
simply can be no doubt about that technique. It is extraordinary, by any
standard. The principles of bel canto singing have been thoroughly internalized,
to the point where they simply come to define the singing. Few other sopranos of
the twentieth century could match those trills. Sutherland could, but after that
one starts to run down the list. Just amazing. And the speed of the coloratura
is dazzling. This is a woman who was almost born singing, and was well taught
from childhood. I would be so bold as to say that her technique was second to
none. <br />
<br />
Finally, from an American opera, the "Willow Song" from <em>The
Ballad of Baby Doe</em>, by Douglas Moore. Sills distinguished herself in this
opera, and was Moore's personal favorite in the title role (watch her, around
2:50, pick a D natural above high C out of the air!)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNg8VGrIqls&feature=related"><span style="color: #336699;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNg8VGrIqls&feature=related</span></a><br />
<br />
<br />
To
a very great soprano, from a grateful American public—Thank you, Bubbles!
<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-13826982951166627492015-04-26T09:24:00.000-04:002015-04-26T09:47:24.423-04:00Renee Doria: Iron Woman<br />
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="line-height: 115%;">Renée </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Do</span>ria:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iron Woman<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NUh9mVAIGGImku1vhHZ-9wRdwfz4PSv0ABlD8BY5nqX7G-VATKC_1yuy6nWkcmIIkE3cyNP1XV79Ta7j44AKQkn-EP64mbe3-GDE73BrboGV_m_GaG0uKN27vSek-Zg1ZQBBjZjNteA/s1600/DoriaPic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NUh9mVAIGGImku1vhHZ-9wRdwfz4PSv0ABlD8BY5nqX7G-VATKC_1yuy6nWkcmIIkE3cyNP1XV79Ta7j44AKQkn-EP64mbe3-GDE73BrboGV_m_GaG0uKN27vSek-Zg1ZQBBjZjNteA/s1600/DoriaPic.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By Father Cornelius Mattei<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1">
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas></v:stroke></v:shapetype></span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sang over 2500 performances during
an onstage career of more than forty years; 76 rôles on stage, 125 rôles on
radio broadcasts:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>she recorded over a
period spanning one half century. Let<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>us
honor in this blog the living legend...here the term in not abused...still
among us at <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>age 94, Mme. Renée Doria.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Born at Perpignan on February 13, 1921
to a musical family, she studied both piano and voice, making her professional
début as a singer, age 18, in concert. A protegée of composer and conductor
Reynaldo Hahn, she stepped onto the operatic stage for the first time as Rosina
in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Barber of Seville</i> at Marseille
in 1942. Not long ago there surfaced an air-check of a performance from Radio
Provence late that year: she sings Constanza’s ¨aria di salita,¨ under Hahn’s
baton, following their performances of ¨Abduction¨ at the Cannes Casino. Let’s
hear it:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB4Z_lYg2bk"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB4Z_lYg2bk</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lyric ¨soprano d’agilità,¨ Doria was
soon singing in theaters in wartime France under the stressful conditions then
prevalent on both sides of the line of demarcation, eventually making her Paris
début as Lakmé at the Gaieté Lyrique in 1943, the same rôle serving for her
début on October 20 1946 at the Opéra Comique. From a contemporary radio
broadcast, here she is in that calling-cardrôle, with André Pernet as
Nilakantha:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRrgi3paspw&feature=em-share_video_user"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRrgi3paspw&feature=em-share_video_user</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Other rôles
followed: Rosina, Olympia, Philine, Manon, Leïla, Violetta. On January 4, 1947,
she made her début at the Opéra as the queen of the night in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Magic Flute</i>, a rôle which she dropped
permanently after two performances only, thereafter preferring Pamina, another
of the eleven Mozart roles which figured in her répertoire, often in both the
original language, and sometimes in multiple French translations! Mme.Doria
performed at both Paris theaters until the dawn of the 1960s, amid an intensive
and extensive career in the then still very active theaters throughout France
as well as Belgium, in Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and
Britain. Listen to this unusual rarity from a RadioNetherlands broadcast, circa
1947:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPfE0hmfKpM"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPfE0hmfKpM</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Renée Doria
was the last ¨historic¨ Ophélie in Thomas’ ¨Hamlet,¨appearing with that American
prodigal son, Endrèze during his farewell to the rôle. She also sang, if memory
serves, two performances of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don Pasquale</i>
with Tito Schipa, that artist’s only staged opera performances in Paris.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Married to the recording producer, vocal
connoisseur and collector Guy Dumazert, Mme. Doria recorded extensively, almost
always those things she sang on stage or in concert. One of the things which
needs be mentioned here is that through her recording of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thaïs...</i>another of her successes onstage... she had an impact on
many, if not most, sopranos who listened to the following scene and have
thereafter attempted the high pianissimo...twice as long as the note in the
printed score:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDLHnBkTYqw&feature=em-share_video_user"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDLHnBkTYqw&feature=em-share_video_user</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As with LauriVolpi’s extended high B at
the end of ¨Nessun dorma,¨ or Vickers’ emendations in ¨Peter Grimes,¨ the
tailoring of the score to the talents, preferences and style of a distinguished
interpreter has an inevitable impact when it creates a memorable effect, as
here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other subject which needs, in my
opinion, to be mentioned, is the subject of vocal timbre. Although recorded <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ab extenso.</i> Mme Doria’s voice was, as
with many crystalline soprano voices, from Melba and dal Monte to Luciana
Serra, not very faithfully captured by recording technology: the simple, clear
sound has never been favored by either horn or microphone. The rich <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aureola</i> of harmonics which surround such
a sound...in the theater… a sound whose very top tones are set upon a solid
integration of chest resonance throughout the entire vocal range, thus ensuring
stability, longevity and retention of the top tones through a long career. What
sounds like a hard, shrill quality, to those who know such voices in person,
results from distortion excited and exacerbated by the microphones’ favoring of
dark or ¨rich’ sounds, the cultivation of which has demonstrably shortened the
careers of a number of prominent <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">soprani,</i>abridging
their high tones and introducing a ¨wobble¨ as a result of cutting the ¨head¨
resonancefree from anchoring in the ¨chest.¨ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is Renée Doria, in a rôle which she did
not perform onstage, but recorded to critical acclaim on both sides of the
Atlantic-- Fanny in Massénet’s ¨Sapho¨:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7IaiGank4"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7IaiGank4</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was in 1978, and was her last
complete opera recording. Continuing to sing in concert after her farewell to
the operatic stage in 1981, as late as 1993, she was still recording. Let’s
sample one of those last sessions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehgQ6Kd3JVU&feature=em-share_video_user"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehgQ6Kd3JVU&feature=em-share_video_user</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Why ¨Iron
Woman?¨ Well, Renée Doria, over the course of her career, performed feats of endurance
which bear testament to her skill, determination and ironclad technique: three Manons
and three Mireilles during the course of single weekends at the Opéra Comique (Friday
and Saturday evenings, Sunday matinée)... her scheduled performances and
covering for indisposed colleagues. Two other memorable occasions of heavy
lifting also deserve mention: once, following a Thursday night Rosina at the
Comique, she sang Violetta at the Opéra on Saturday night, hopped on a night
train to Strasbourg and sang ¨Thaïs¨ en matinée the following afternoon. On
another occasion, she began her week singing two ¨Manon¨ in Geneva, passed, once
more through Strasbourg, singing all three heroines in ¨Hoffman,¨ and rounding
off the calendar week in two ¨Lucia di Lammermoor¨ appearances at Rouen.
Children, don’t try that at home!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lets
bid farewell, but not goodbye to her, as Louise :<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1cnYGe40rw"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1cnYGe40rw</span></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Subtle,
discreet. A deeply felt performance free of eccentricity and self indulgence.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc9k9_1yyikaTYbxuqm1SPqdkfcUW7tg4k1NZ0piK-90TcdpkZPj3-tKN1uO_rTkBk2F3yAax_rrkNY2uTm9TjUMDxZlex6ehRKuubB7b9pXN0rRGblp6uVA8TFbqfkwyr2BteeXV7H7c/s1600/DSC_0414.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc9k9_1yyikaTYbxuqm1SPqdkfcUW7tg4k1NZ0piK-90TcdpkZPj3-tKN1uO_rTkBk2F3yAax_rrkNY2uTm9TjUMDxZlex6ehRKuubB7b9pXN0rRGblp6uVA8TFbqfkwyr2BteeXV7H7c/s1600/DSC_0414.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Father Cornelius Mattei <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-72757560228528028332015-04-19T11:20:00.002-04:002015-04-19T12:04:01.687-04:00<div style="text-align: center;">
The Great Claire Croiza</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw71H2kFWTQ3Gmi-9lLlxGrvziZC0be9GBcar71Gay9ymODlrVjSoVSd7ndctHhRF3i9alcT3qbjNMYDXQA-V7Kg6beFCr7HSIoSPO_tTZoD8dntBMBqdQjDOhUnRICamxIdJz8Lpbfa8/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw71H2kFWTQ3Gmi-9lLlxGrvziZC0be9GBcar71Gay9ymODlrVjSoVSd7ndctHhRF3i9alcT3qbjNMYDXQA-V7Kg6beFCr7HSIoSPO_tTZoD8dntBMBqdQjDOhUnRICamxIdJz8Lpbfa8/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Claire Croiza <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was born in 1882 in Paris, the daughter of an <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American father and an Italian mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was, even as a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>child, clearly gifed in music. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was taught singing privately at first, but
then, as she began to grow up, she had the great good fortune to have been sent
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to the famous Polish tenor Jean de
Reszke for further study. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>De Reszke was
not only a great tenor—one of the best of his day, in the 19<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
century—but also, importantly, a renowned teacher and he taught many aspiring singers
who would go on to have great success.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After advanced study with de
Reszke, Croize made her opera début at the relatively tender age of 23 in Nancy
in 1905 in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Messaline</i> by Isidore de
Lara. The following year she made her first appearance at La Monnaie in
Brussels, as Dalila in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samson et Dalila</i>,
beginning a long association with that theatre which included such works as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elektra,</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carmen</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La favorite, Werther</i>
and singing the title role in Fauré's opera <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pénélope</i>.
In 1910 she performed in the world premiere of Cesare Galeotti’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Dorise</i> and created the title role in
the world premiere of Pierre de Bréville's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Éros
vainqueur</i> at La Monnaie. It was again as Dalila that she made her Paris
Opera début in 1908.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although Croiza <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>first established herself as an operatic
singer, she increasingly developed her career as a recitalist specialising in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mélodies</i>, and she undertook recital
tours in numerous countries, including making frequent visits to London where
she was very well received. She had a great feeling for the French language and
was always able to enunciate the words in a clear and natural way without
sacrificing the flow of the music. Several contemporary composers chose to
accompany her personally in performances of their songs, including Ravel (in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shéhérazade)</i>, Fauré (in the premiere of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le jardin clos</i>), Poulenc, Roussel, and
Honegger. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here, however, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is one of the fairly rare operatic recordings
which Croiza made with Armand <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Narçon </span></span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">of </span>excerpts from Debussy’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pelléas et Melisande</i>:<o:p></o:p></span> </span> </div>
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<em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7xe6Yoooos">www.<b>youtube</b>.com/watch?v=w7xe6Yoooos</a></em><br />
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From 1922, she also worked as a teacher,
giving classes in interpretation at the École Normale, and from 1934 at the
Paris Conservatoire. Her pupils included Janine Micheau, Suzanne Juyol, Camille
Maurane and the baritones Jacques Jansen and Gérard Souzay.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1926 Croiza gave birth to
a son, Jean-Claude (1926–2003), whose father was Honegger, The parents did not
marry. Although distinct,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>her personal
life was not all that far from the traditional personal lives of famous artists
of her day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for her artistic
reputation, it was,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>virtually from the
beginning, truly extraordinary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reviews
from the early 1930’s spoke of her as “ a supreme interpreter of modern French
song, saying that she “brings to them an exquisite sensibility that reveals
every shade of meaning in the poems" (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New
York Times</i>). This view was reinforced in an obituary tribute (also in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New York Times</i>) which spoke of:
"Her consummate musicianship, unerring in its intuition, sensitiveness,
charm and subtlety, exquisite diction and phrasing, combined with deep poetical
feeling and a restrained but profoundly moving dramatic sense allied to an
unusually wide culture…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Reduced to their essence,
these critical comments have a theme, and that is one that can be further
summarized by words such as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“elegance,
”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sensitivity, “ intellectual
precision,” and “musical excellence.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here is an example; one which I will be bold enough to call typical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is Duparc’s “Invitation au voyage:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWAPNLjw93Q"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWAPNLjw93Q</span></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, here is one of the
most elegantly beautiful pieces of music ever penned by the great Debussy, who
was most fortunated to have it recorded by the amazing Claire Croiza:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><u><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IxVSImRQcY">www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IxVSImRQcY</a></span></span></u></span></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-13613465452113079702015-04-11T08:27:00.000-04:002015-04-11T08:27:29.337-04:00
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong> THE GREAT BEN HEPPNER</strong></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1xkYmViOvUHrvRUtAEJH5T5solYQp6KBtQnJQBhAdGa4d5718EgK17ALVY63gRf8P_oW46Nv8qJVYzvayOdkEOJk9lgqgO4KzTfbBqwT7Yaqmn2g1WT79lgOZOq5xjZZ7D1twb-Qngao/s1600/Ben-H-620x318.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1xkYmViOvUHrvRUtAEJH5T5solYQp6KBtQnJQBhAdGa4d5718EgK17ALVY63gRf8P_oW46Nv8qJVYzvayOdkEOJk9lgqgO4KzTfbBqwT7Yaqmn2g1WT79lgOZOq5xjZZ7D1twb-Qngao/s1600/Ben-H-620x318.jpg" height="164" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ben Heppner has been respected and applauded world-wide as
one of the greatest heroic tenors to be seen and heard in many years. Born in
British Columbia (Murrayville) in 1956, Heppner studied voice at the University
of British Columbia and began to attract national attention primarily through
contests, beginning with the Canadian Broadcasting Talent Festival in 1979. He
went on to do a great deal of concertizing over the course of the next several
years, and in 1988 won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and also the Birgit
Nilsson Prize. From that moment on, Heppner went quickly to an international
career, largely in the Wagnerian repertoire. He rapidly became, in the opinion
of many critics and his increasingly large audience, one of the world's
greatest Heldentenors. He performed for years at<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Metropolitan Opera and throughout all the
major houses of Europe, not only in Wagner, but also in the heavier Italian
repertoire, such as Andrea Chenier and Otello. He has made a rather
astonishingly large number of recordings, in French, Italian, and German. His
recordings include leading parts and title roles in Fidelio, Die Meistersinger
von Nürnberg, Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, Otello and Berlioz's Aeneas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To his credit, Heppner never slighted the French repertoire,
and in fact the first recording he produced after signing an exclusive contract
with Deutsche Grammaphon was "Airs Français," which won a Juno Award.
He has additionally, over the course of the last several years, been a marked
presence at sporting events, including the Olympics. He was frequently heard
singing the Canadian National Anthem, in which he always includes verses in
French, and he has also recorded the Marseillaise. His attention to French
music has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated in France.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">First, the German repertoire, in which Heppner is everywhere
accorded the status of a master. Here is Richard Strauss' very popular
"Zueignung:"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCrxjwfzUFs"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCrxjwfzUFs</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are very few within this repertoire who can match the
power, color and even beauty of this extraordinary voice. It is easy enough, on
Youtube, to hear Heppner sing many of the classics of the Wagnerian repertoire,
such as "In Fernem Land," or Walter's "Prize Song." They
are a bit too long to include here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is not only the Wagnerian repertoire, however, where
Heppner shines. For a Heldentenor, he sings Italian quite well, and is vocally
convincing in roles such as Andrea Chenier or Otello. Here is a very stirring
rendition of the Italian Singer's aria from Der Rosenkavalier, "Di Rigori
Armato il Seno." Strauss did not particularly like tenors, and he also had
some feelings about Italian opera in general. This aria was intended to mock
the excesses of Italian singing, but that kind of thing tends generally to
backfire, because to a very large extent opera IS Italian music! It certainly
backfired here, since this aria turned out to be one of the most popular pieces
from Rosenkavalier, and just about every famous tenor in the world has recorded
it! Although short, it is most difficult to sing, because it is has very high
notes and florid phrases. It also, perhaps in spite of Strauss' intentions,
happens to be extremely beautiful!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfvqBLtbfCk"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfvqBLtbfCk</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now isn't that something! I think it safe to say that there
are few Heldentenors now or ever who could do that. Heppner is unafraid of
heights. He has even recorded "Di Quella Pira" in the original key.
It can be easily found on Youtube.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just
look up Heppner, "Di Quella Pira."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Something else Heppner does amazingly well is sing in
English, his native language, with absolutely none of the stress and strain,
rolled "r" s, or muffled cover that for too many years marked (or
marred) the attempts of English speakers trying to sing with trained voices in
a comprehensible way. Here is the old and lovely "Roses of Picardy:"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_NwLh1xUzo"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_NwLh1xUzo</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Absolutely lovely! Sung in the modern manner, with
enunciation as clear as that of any popular singer. Ben Heppner is a great
tenor and a formidable artist, and richly deserves the fame he has come to
enjoy over the course of the last twenty years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is now essentially semi-retired. He no longer sings<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Wagnerian works in deference to his age
(he is now 58), but he continues to concertize and appear in those operas in
which he is still comfortable, even modern pieces such as Moby Dick, which he
helped create.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been an excellent
career, and one of which he can deservedly be very proud.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-3801418774525625042015-04-04T09:41:00.000-04:002015-04-06T12:30:10.224-04:00<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">THE GREAT ANDRÉ PERNET<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <strong> BY</strong></span></o:p></div>
<strong> FATHER CORNELIUS MATTEI</strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>One raw, overcast Saturday morning long ago, I took the
Métro from my student digs on the southern, to the northern edge of Paris and
the flea market just past the Porte de Clignancourt to go record hunting, as
was my wont. There, amid bins helpfully sorted by category, I came across an LP
with a startling cover photograph of the bassechantante André Pernet. I had
a firsthand report of his storied career from two habitués of the opera who spoke
of him in hushed, awed tones, but was not ready for the treasure which those
grooves were to unlock for my ears. Here were characters, fairly leaping
from the speakers; a voice of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>unique
quality, as the greatest of singers possess; an opalescent, chameleon-like
quality in which each phrase, line, word and, even, syllable was not only
chiseled with rare precision, but also with distilled meaning and insight while
respecting the composer and dramatic intent; able to turn ¨on a dime¨ and shift
tone, mood and significance instantaneously. How often do we experience this
from a nominally cold mechanical process? What does it take to produce and, in
this listener, evoke vivid impressions for nearly a half century? Whatever it
takes, André Pernet had it. His early life and career may be surveyed quickly.
</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Born January 8, 1894 in the historic town of Rambervilliers in the Vosges
region of southeastern Lorraine, just inside the part of that province left to
France after the débacle of 1870, André Pernet passed an uneventful childhood
and adolescence. A good student, he had just finished his secondary studies and
was preparing to study law when he was called to the colors at the beginning of
the Great War in 1914. He rose quickly through the ranks, and by the end of the
war in 1918 had become an officer.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Immediately
upon demobilization, Pernet applied himself to his studies and obtained his law degree,
while developing his evidently fine voice by studying with the distinguished
bass André Gresse, who had retired to become an equally famous voice teacher at
the Paris Conservatoire. As far as can be determined, Pernet never practiced
law, because, after two years of study and the year<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>after his first marriage, to Mlle. Elizabeth Almeyer
of Metz, he made his operatic début at Nice as Vitellius, the second bass rôle
in Massenet’s ¨Hérodiade.¨ For seven years he crisscrossed France singing in
small and medium-sized Theaters (appearances in Cannes, Toulouse, Deauville,
Geneva and Strasbourg have been verified) in a wide variety of rôles in operas
many of which by then maintained a tenuous foothold in the répertoires of the
larger, more fashionable theaters. It would be instructive to introduce him in
a work which he sang during that phase, only, of his career. Here is Jupiter’s
lullaby from Gounod’s pastoral comedy ¨Philémon et Baucis.¨ </strong></span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong> </strong></span></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-X2kSoJUno"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;"><strong>www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-X2kSoJUno</strong></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>What tenderness, sweetness of tone and sure melding of voice
and text! The voice is well extended over nearly two and one-half octaves. The
King of the Gods sends the elderly couple to sleep, and we the listeners,
through the magic of this interpretation--there is no other word for it --are
similarly enfolded in a peerless example of extraordinary voice-painting allied
to what was described by his contemporary critics as a silken tone.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pernet would
soon famously learn how to evolve the ¨rocaileux¨ quality, in this context--a
coruscating, kaleidoscopic tone which he used with surgical precision to create
an unforgettable gallery of characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On July 7, 1928, shortly after a divorce and second marriage, to Thérèse
Pauly, Pernet took the decisive step in his career, making his début at the
Paris Opéra as Mephistopheles in Gounod’s ¨Faust.¨<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So successful was this début that within his
first 18 months at the Opéra, he had sung Wotan in Die Walküre, the title rôle
in Boris Godunov, Athanaël in Thaïs, the Sultan of Khaïtan in Rabaud’s Marouf,
and created two rôles in world premières of works which proved ephemeral. He appeared,
besides, in two shorter rôles which benefit from a strong voice and
personality: the King in Aïda and Gessler in Guillaume Tell, the latter with
the legendary Irishman John O’Sullivan, as Arnold, Journet in the title rôle
and Beaujon as Mathilde. The other artists are mentioned to emphasize that in
those days the Opéra had on retainer quite a stable of voices; voices which, as
one critic of those times said, stood as adamant, not to be overcome by 100
musicians in the pit: Lubin, Journet, Franz, Lapeyrette…..and then quickly adds
that the young Pernet stood out from that stable of voices. His was not of
their size, but his interpretations were marked by their unflinching fidelity
to the intentions of composer and librettist: he cut precisely to the quick of
his characters, imposing himself, dominating the stage and becoming a favorite
of the public.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNog30kjHwY"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;"><strong>www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNog30kjHwY</strong></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Boris became a winning ticket for Pernet throughout his
career, and it proved to be his finale on stage, as we shall see. He presents a
suffering Tsar, inspiring horror, eliciting pity.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the spring
of 1930, shortly after he appeared for the first time as St. Bris in ¨Les
Huguenots,¨again with O’Sullivan, he had a disagreement about his fees with
management at the Opéra and did not appear for nearly one year, returning in
March of 1931 as King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, with Lubin. He would add
Gurnemanz in Parsifal to his Wagner rôles soon thereafter,as well as
Mephistopheles in Berlioz’ Damnation de Faust. In those days, it should be
recalled that the Opéra and Opéra Comique, a scant 500 meters apart, though out
of sight of one another, were not a consolidated entity but competed in
répertoire and for the services of singers. In the early 1930s Pernet added to
his rôles at the Opéra those such as Basilio in Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia
and Tonio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, works usually associated with the
smaller house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a superb
“Prologue” from Pagliacci:<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTPA2BOrS_s"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;"><strong>www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTPA2BOrS_s</strong></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With what insouciance
Tonio steps through the curtain, as if stumbling by mistake into the auditorium
and begging our pardon, then building the whole to a climax….as written...no
high A flat, but the whole whipped gradually into a state of rare exaltation in
the dignity of common humanity with all its suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, and what of the smaller theater? While
he was technically not on the roster at the Opéra during most of the 1930/31
season, Pernet betook himself down the street to the Place Boeildieu, making
his début in the title rôle of Massenet’s ¨Don Quichotte¨ on January 19, 1931.
He appeared, thus, concurrently, at both theaters, which again was almost
unheard of before 1939. Although Pernet was a natural as the knight of the
sorrowful countenance, it was a role which he undertook only sporadically
through the remainder of his career. Others were there before him and were
great audience favorites in that theater, such as VanniMarcoux. First, however, here is Pernet as the chevalier errant:</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></strong><br />
<em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piw9NFvsOxk">www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piw9NFvsOxk</a></em><br />
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<em></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>A role more typical than the Don, for Pernet, was that of Ourrias in the famous revival, conducted by Reynaldo
Hahn, of an ¨original¨ version of Gounod’s Mireille. With the able assistance
of Henri Büsser, the tragic ending was reinstated, five acts consolidated into
three, the extraneous valse, ¨O legère hirondelle¨ excised and the Air de la
Crau reinstated, in essence what has become the standard version since then.
Here is Pernet as the villainous bullherder of the Camargue: </strong></span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong> </strong></span></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZECLrfcEyY"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;"><strong>www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZECLrfcEyY</strong></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Reynaldo Hahn was responsible for one of Pernet’s greatest
successes in a new opera, that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>being the
première of his ¨Le Marchand de Venise,¨[Merchant of Venice] March 25, 1935,
alongside Fanny Heldy as Portia, as well as Paul Cabanel and Martial Singher.
Here Pernet incarnates a spiteful Shylock, spewing his hatred of those who use
and despise him, with the composer conducting. Creator recordings don’t get any
better:<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ-CafcjDHs"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;"><strong>www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ-CafcjDHs</strong></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Well, our story has, alas, a sad ending. A few weeks after a
Geneva Boris performance, Pernet was struck down with what has been discreetly
described as a ¨cruelle maladie¨ which ended his career completely. He was to
languish for eighteen years in an asylum in the 14th arrondissement in Paris,
until he died on June 17, 1966, aged 72. He became, it was said, totally
paralysed, an unspecified ¨paralysis,¨ sans etiology, being usually cited in
biographical sketches. I’ll just add that, in my humble opinion, those of his
contemporaries who were in the know…. and of course, one must consider that
there was considerable shame then as now about mental health and disease, as
with cancer…. knew and spoke freely of his having suffered a complete emotional
breakdown with attendant physical manifestations, thus, paralysis. One thinks of
such great artists as Lina BrunaRasa or Suzanne Lefort, who were likewise
afflicted, and those driven to despair and suicide. As with Pernet, they live
on in memory through their recordings. Thank God we have those. To the writer
of these words, no singer on records puts his imprint on the music and
characters better than Pernet. His is the voice which comes to the mind’s ear
in any of the music he recorded. What a magnificent singer he was! </strong></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJtSjN9h0GUWWqkDI4Ddu0cspoCqcFTAY1fvhLtdiMSb6dPVciws1FrIUB6m5PuuATkdiotkvE85RgnaiW0cki8itxjS3zpJG_PS6EXakcnWczS4bbHiYa5u6zcbfWfQb0A3HJTNNAdPA/s1600/DSC_0414.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJtSjN9h0GUWWqkDI4Ddu0cspoCqcFTAY1fvhLtdiMSb6dPVciws1FrIUB6m5PuuATkdiotkvE85RgnaiW0cki8itxjS3zpJG_PS6EXakcnWczS4bbHiYa5u6zcbfWfQb0A3HJTNNAdPA/s1600/DSC_0414.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong> Father Cornelius Mattei</strong></span></div>
<strong>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong> </strong></span></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-20353065732906377502015-03-28T08:46:00.003-04:002015-03-28T09:23:10.179-04:00<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">THE GREAT TETRAZZINI<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYd9iq4_bjH11Dvvo_AoXXWTg2LTXEd8h3It1V3G0Qaw3LjHco63zV0JXJg3fd-kqfbpDuws9NOFAxJUYHhsEsAsxs78l5Guq5lYB1kBsLoSEQAcwkes4eGZAtbTQblmoLcSDJ8f1JQE/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYd9iq4_bjH11Dvvo_AoXXWTg2LTXEd8h3It1V3G0Qaw3LjHco63zV0JXJg3fd-kqfbpDuws9NOFAxJUYHhsEsAsxs78l5Guq5lYB1kBsLoSEQAcwkes4eGZAtbTQblmoLcSDJ8f1JQE/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Luisa
Tetrazzini was born in 1871, in Florence. She began to sing as a small child,
and was trained at the Instituto Musicale in Florence. By the age of 19 she was
ready to make her debut as Inez in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine. She sang around
Italy, and then went to Russia, where she scored a big success in St.
Petersburg. She was kept busy as a young lady, learning her craft and drawing
increasing attention to herself by virtue of her superb voice. She was not
beautiful, as was Patti, but was rather fat from early on. Her divine voice,
however, spared her from any undue or cruel criticism for her appearance. From
the earliest days, she displayed a flexible and high coloratura, of the kind
that was very much in vogue in the lyric theater of the day. She commanded an
extraordinary trill, easily produced, and was comfortable with extensive
fioratura. There was a thrilling sound to her voice that won her acclaim early
on in her career. Her American debut was in San Francisco in 1905. By this
time, she was well known for her lyric coloratura roles, especially Violetta,
Gilda and Lucia; roles in which her great vocal endowments could be shown to
advantage. She auditioned at the Met, but they seemingly were not impressed,
which is somewhat curious, as she was already famous. One suspects that
something unknown outside the Met may have been in play. It makes no sense
otherwise. She did sing for the Manhattan Opera in 1908, but never warmed to
the Met, because of their inexplicable attitude, and only sang one season
there, in 1911-12. She was in such demand world-wide that the Met was
inconsequential in any case. She is reputed to have made a very large amount of
money. Unwise associations over time, however, led to a sad end, characterized
by poverty. Most scandalous was her victimization at the hands of a dreadful
male gold-digger, thirty years her junior, who married her late in her career,
and stole most of her money. In spite of such reckless errors of judgment,
however, she was by all accounts a lovely person, outgoing and friendly, even
to the extent of letting aspiring singers live in her home, at her expense, at
least during the good years. Her last days in poverty and sickness anger and
bewilder many people even today. It is so wretchedly unfair. One wonders where
the charity of fellow performers was. Yes, times were hard in late 30's, but
Gigli, to take but one example, managed to raise a huge amount of money during
this period by the many charity concerts he gave. Were people wary of her
because of her poor judgment in getting involved with such a vile (although
doubtless "charming") man as the one who wrecked her life? Why did no
one come to her aid at the end when she was so obviously in need? The State of
Italy, at least, provided her with an appropriate funeral. It's just all too
sad.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is the
great soprano in "Caro nome": <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XkYSpr6JuE"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XkYSpr6JuE</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As the
recording shows, the top part of her voice was quite extraordinary. Like
virtually all sopranos of her age, she will scoop down into the lower
registers, and that sound jolts us somewhat today, when all sopranos simply
sing low notes very softly. It is possible that in Tetrazzini's time, when
people actually paid more attention to the words, sopranos felt they needed the
additional heft in the lower register, so that their voice, and the words they
were singing, did not get lost in the orchestra. Another thing that is
immediately apparent is the exceptional and easy nature of her trill. I don't
think I have ever heard that many trills in "Caro nome" before. But
she was just showing off one of her greatest natural endowments. Here is the
famous "Ah non giunge," from La Sonnambula:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjLCaJuGgzU">www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjLCaJuGgzU</a></em></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
</div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Certainly an
attractive rendition, although one must be honest and point out certain
tendencies that are perhaps not up to today's standard: There is sometimes a
lack of adequate articulation on the cadenzas that comes dangerously close to a
glide, although she was not alone in that during her day. She also sacrifices
the lower parts of her voice to the top, which is certainly common (and smart)
because that is what people are paying to hear. From an aesthetic point of
view, however, she lays herself open to criticism for making the bottom
and(especially) middle register of the voice rather open, white, and somewhat
blaring. The top is excellent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is a
sentimental view of Tetrazzini—the only moving pictures I am aware of—listening
to a Caruso recording late in life, and bursting into song along with it. Her
girly and giggly abandon at the end is most charming, and just makes one upset
yet again that she was treated so badly by others, and did not have the
dignified and comfortable retirement she deserved.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBCwVCocENo&feature=related"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBCwVCocENo&feature=related</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Isn't that
delightful? She seems a lovely person, and the fact that people speak of her so
fondly even today, some 75 years after her death in 1940, is a fitting memorial
to a magnificent artist, who literally gave it all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-13580150211487052192015-03-21T08:54:00.000-04:002015-03-21T09:42:17.817-04:00<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">THE GREAT SERGEI
LEMESHEV<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">BY<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">NATALIA A. BUKANOVA<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHmA0I_lYd8wWp3UdlnRKWp8QA7KINKH71e9r3mChHtkxfXVIhLuiMzAL0b2pPR-Kyy9VRgpMnb4QALXHl4ltN0jRl-Jtz_bThwLyRRGHQ0km-WZ7hUMIJbWjLrGURg7Doott5KPN5y9s/s1600/Me2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHmA0I_lYd8wWp3UdlnRKWp8QA7KINKH71e9r3mChHtkxfXVIhLuiMzAL0b2pPR-Kyy9VRgpMnb4QALXHl4ltN0jRl-Jtz_bThwLyRRGHQ0km-WZ7hUMIJbWjLrGURg7Doott5KPN5y9s/s1600/Me2.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">It
is a great pleasure for me to present another in our series of guest writers.
Natalia Bukanova, my <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>young and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>brilliant friend, known to many of you by her
Youtube Channel name "younglemeshevist," is especially qualified to
write on Sergei Lemeshev. Natalie was among the first to begin to spread his
recordings on Youtube, along with those of Antonina Nezhdanova. All lovers of
great singing owe her a debt of gratitude for this effort, as these two superb
Soviet artists were unknown to many opera lovers in the United States at that
time. Natalie is also to be praised for composing this piece in English—with
less than a full year’s English in school, and a little work with yours truly,
Natalia has attained a level of English language proficiency that can only be
called extraordinary; she is now a professional <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>illustrator of children’s literature and a
teacher in the prestigious Moscow Art Institute, one of the most famous such institutions
in the world. Natalie has her own website on Lemeshev, which I hasten to point
out to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is both exhaustive and
erudite!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Here you can take a quick glance at her introductory page and then return back here.</span></span></i></b></div>
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<a href="http://sergeilemeshev.blogspot.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://sergeilemeshev.blogspot.com/</span></span></i></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Edmund
St. Austell<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, I would like to thank Professor
St. Austell for inviting me to write this piece on my favorite tenor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Russia, Sergei Yakovlevich Lemeshev
(1902-1977) is—along with Feodor Chaliapin— perhaps the most beloved opera
singer in recent history. He was born into a very poor peasant family, in a
small village, and sang from his early childhood. He was always surrounded by
good singers, including his parents and other villagers, as peasant Russia was
a “singing country” in those days. His father died when Sergei was 10, and
after four years in a parish school he started to learn shoemaking, since there
was no other chance for the family to escape from poverty. In 1918 he became
acquainted with architect and opera lover Nikolai Kvashnin, who, along with the
rest of his family, persuaded Sergei to study voice seriously. Those were the
years of the Bolshevik revolution and the Civil war, and Lemeshev was required
to become a cadet in the Red Army Cavalry School. However, it was actually the
Revolution that helped him make his dream of an operatic career come true,
since the Bolsheviks gave the poorest peasants and proletarians a preferential
right to free education. Sergei was assigned to study at the Moscow Conservatory
where, after surviving a rigorous competition, he was accepted. (This
determined his political views, for as he said many times, “the Soviets gave me
everything".)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">His teachers
were tenor N. Raisky (a pupil of G. Nuvelli), N. Kardyan, and L. Zvyagina (a leading
contralto of the Bolshoi.) In 1926, Lemeshev made his debut as Lensky in K.
Stanislavsky’s Opera Studio, and beginning in 1927, he performed at theaters in
Sverdlovsk, Harbin (Manchuria) and Tbilisi. In 1931, he became a leading tenor
of the Bolshoi, where he sang for the next 34 years, winning great acclaim. His
audience grew, along with his fame, and he soon gained a veritable army of
fans, called "lemeshevists. His repertoire included the Duke of Mantua,
Lensky, Alfredo, Tsar Berendei (from The Snowmaiden), the Indian Guest (Sadko),
Faust, Ziebel, Almaviva, The Simpleton (Boris Godunov ), Rodolfo (La Bohème)
The Astrologer (The Golden Cockerel), Nadir, Des Greiux (Manon), Gerald
(Lakme), Romeo (Gounod’s (Romeo and Juliette), Fra Diavolo, and Werther.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">His vocal
and artistic qualities, evident to every listener, are beauty of timbre,
musicality, effortlessness of vocal production, expressiveness, and very clear
diction, qualities perhaps most commonly found in bel canto singers. These
qualities can be seen is his 1940 recording of “Parmi veder le Lagrime"
(in Russian). I would call attention to the extraordinarily high note at the
end, a Db above high C:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZCzH6EqLHc"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZCzH6EqLHc</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An
interesting comment on Lemeshev’s singing was made by the Bolshoi tenor A.
Orfenov: "He developed a mixed voice of incomparable beauty, which made it
possible for him to take the highest notes with such beautiful richness that
even specialists could not explain how it was done technically….His high C’s …
sounded virile and full…His manner of lowering his larynx a bit on high notes
allowed him to perform the parts which we ordinary lyric tenors did not sing,
[roles such as] Rodolfo in La Bohème, Levko in May Night, Dubrovsky, Fra
Diavolo…” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lemeshev’s
emotionality, acting skills and handsomeness very quickly made him a public
idol. Aside from the Duke of Mantua, which was his signature role before the
war, he brilliantly performed romantic, melancholy and tragic roles such as
Werther, Romeo, and Lensky. Here is his 1938 recording of " Pourquoi me
reveiller": <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GadMqw5M9A"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GadMqw5M9A</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unfortunately,
like every Soviet star in the 1930’s, he had problems securing permission to
make recordings of complete operas. Several roles in which he was very
successful were not recorded at all. His best early recordings of songs and
arias, made on shellac, are now available on Youtube. You may consult my
channel—"younglemeshevist," or that of petrof4056.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lensky
finally became his most famous role, which he refined throughout his life. His
1955 recording of Eugene Onegin, with the renowned Galina Vishnevskaya , became
quite well known in the West. Here is a very good 1937 recording of Lensky’s
aria:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The best
years of his operatic career were 1931-1942. He was also an outstanding concert
singer and a brilliant performer of folk songs. In 1938, he became the first
artist to sing all 100 romances by Tchaikovsky in 5 concerts. Folk songs
broadcast on the radio made him a truly “national’ singer. Additionally, the
film “A Musical Story,” 1941, in which he played the main role, brought him the
Stalin prize and caused Lemeshev-mania all over the USSR. It must be said that
his personality was a significant part of his success. He is remembered as a
very friendly and cheerful person who was also a congenial colleague. He was
also quite a lady's man! Six marriages and numerous affairs focused the
attention of his fans on his personal life. Their day-and-night stalking and
scuffles with fans of other tenors are legendary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
beginning of the Great Patriotic War (WWII) was crucial for Lemeshev; during
one evacuation he caught a very bad cold which resulted in two attacks of
pneumonia, complicated by pleurisy and tuberculosis of the right lung. He was
treated with artificial pneumothorax, which is to say an induced therapeutic
collapse of one lung. Although singing was forbidden, he in fact continued to
sing with one lung from 1942 to 1948, when the other lung was also artificially
collapsed and re-inflated. During that period he recorded Lakme, The Snowmaiden,
Pearlfishers, and Mozart and Salieri. In addition to health problems, he
started to drink heavily after a divorce from his fifth wife, the soprano Irina
Maslennikova. By 1953, however, he had overcome his drinking problem and was
given the prestigious title "People’s Artist of the USSR." He was
also appointed Assistant Manager of the Bolshoi from 1957 to 1959. Toward the
end of his career, he mainly gave concerts of Russian classic romances and folk
songs, taught in the Moscow conservatory, and performed on the radio. Old fans
of his, who stalked him in the 1940's and 50's, are still faithful to him even
now, 33 years after his death. They collect his recordings and place flowers on
his grave every week.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-46333243377656724852015-03-14T09:58:00.000-04:002015-03-14T11:03:01.046-04:00Marcelle Bunlet<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"> Marcelle Bunlet</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9HW_2zBYd_NubHS5FOabhkGejfNFLH2V4RblEF7dTSAChAVgRmiILsJetA9rMu_hBWKwQ_nFWPw46hzEpO0cBqAPPY-4FJtMpVMTS9UIdgjfPiqsB2_UwHE-lL6X7wa3rWD9_Qfbs6T8/s1600/bunlet70.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9HW_2zBYd_NubHS5FOabhkGejfNFLH2V4RblEF7dTSAChAVgRmiILsJetA9rMu_hBWKwQ_nFWPw46hzEpO0cBqAPPY-4FJtMpVMTS9UIdgjfPiqsB2_UwHE-lL6X7wa3rWD9_Qfbs6T8/s1600/bunlet70.jpg" height="320" width="192" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"> By</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <strong><span style="font-size: large;">Father Cornelius Mattei</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">Good things often come in small packages, and big voices, which one often associates with opera stereotypes, sometimes come from bodies rather more discrete. Petite, even, in the case of women singers. Here in North America, we might remember the tiny Canadian Teresa Stratas, who had ample voice for such robust rôles as Cio-cio-san and Salomé.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">Perhaps the most extreme example among well-known 20th century opera singers was the</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">dramatic soprano Marcelle Bunlet, who, like her compatriot Denise Duval ,would always look ¨comme il faut¨ in couturier creations, but whose gleaming, radiant voice with its soaring top tones made her a natural for the rôles in which she excelled: the Brünnhildes, Isolde, Kundry, Elektra, Aïda, Dukas’ Ariane, and so forth. What our friends across the Rhine call a¨hochdramatische Sopran.¨</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">Let’s hear her as Senta, and see how she masters the tricky tessitura of the ballad.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82cAgRJNA0" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=<wbr></wbr>d82cAgRJNA0</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">Born on October 10, 1900 at Fontenay-le-Comte in the Loire-Vendée region, Bunlet pursued the usual course of musical studies expected of French singers of her times, and was, due to her exceptional vocal endowment and evident musical versatility….she could learn difficult modern and contemporary scores with alacrity, which ability opened important career paths to her, as we shall see….brought to the attention of Philippe Gaubert, renowned flautist, conductor and </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">pedagogue, who was the chief conductor at both the Opéra and the Concerts du Conservatoire for many years, champion of Wagner, Strauss, and of German music in general. It was Gaubert </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;">who arranged for her Paris début, in concert with the Concerts Straram and soon thereafter, with the </span><i><span style="color: black;">Concerts du Conservatoire</span></i><span style="color: black;">.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">That was in late 1926. She sang Leonora’s aria from ¨Fidelio¨ and an aria from Franck’s ¨Rédemption,¨ but when she returned shortly thereafter in what proved to be a long-lasting partnership with that orchestra, she captured the hearts of the Parisian public with </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">Brünhilde’s Immolation from ¨Götterdämmerung.¨ </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">With the evident success of his protegée and the unanimous acclaim of the critics, Gaubert himself took her to Jacques Rouché, the </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">ultimillionaire Maecenas and director of the Paris Opéra. Débuts were arranged, and in early 1928, she appeared at both the Opéra Comique and the Opéra, singing ¨Ariane et Barbe-bleu¨ </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">and the Götterdámmerung Brünnhilde, respectively. She had already performed the Dukas under Gaubert’s direction in concert.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAHS_dHDPgI" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAHS_<wbr></wbr>dHDPgI</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">Shortly after finishing her six-run engagement of the Wagner at the Opéra, she made a triumphant début at the Royal Opera, Brussels, in her first of many Isoldes, to the Tristan of Jacques Urlus, whose last appearances in the rôle those are said to have been. Bunlet, after that time, was set in an international career which took her repeatedly to Belgium and also to Switzerland, Monaco, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Greece and, needless to say in all the important theaters of metropolitan France, with a particularly close relationship with the </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">public and managements at Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Toulouse.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">Marcelle Bunlet established friendships and close relationships with a number of distinguished composers: Milhaud, whose ¨Agamemnon¨ she sang early in her career, Richard Strauss, who recommended her unreservedly to create his ¨Arabella¨ in French-language version and whom he conducted, at Strasbourg, in the title rôle of his Elektra.None of those friendships was more fortunate for her than that of Gustave Samazeuilh,composer, arguably France’s leading Wagnerite and longtime habitué of Bayreuth and friend of the Wagner family. He persuaded them to try Bunlet, who was hired to sing one of the flowermaidens in the 1931 Parsifal revival conducted by Toscanini….as well as to cover Kundry. As it happened, illness obliged the Dutch diva Elizabeth Ohms to cancel her final Kundry and Bunlet saved the day, to the gratitude of the conductor and the Wagners. She was invited back in 1933 as Woglinde, Helmwige and Sieglinde.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">Let’s hear Kundry:</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71gVk-4ti-o" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=71gVk-<wbr></wbr>4ti-o</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">During the years of the second World War, Bunlet performed her usual dramatic soprano parts, though somewhat less frequently, in a number of the theaters which were far from combat zones--Lyon, Bordeaux,Toulouse. In Paris, though she did return to sing some Wagner and made a brilliant impression as Valentine in the storied 1936 revival of ¨Les Huguenots¨ starring Georges Thill and André Pernet, she remained under the shadow </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">of Germaine Lubin, who was never reticent to use her influence with M. Rouché or her right, as ¨titulaire¨ to HER rôles, to keep rivals at a distance. Veterans of the period gave this as the reason for Bunlet’s spotty appearances in the capital during the 1930s...at least in the theater.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">In the concert hall and in recital it was another matter, for Bunlet had earned the respect of such composers as Roussel and the younger Olivier Messaien, both of whom composed with her voice in mind and both of whom dedicated works to her. Who nowadays, when hearing lighter lyric sopranos singing Messaien’s ¨Poèmes pour Mi¨ or his ¨Harawi¨ cycle is mindful that these were intended for and premièred by Marcelle Bunlet? Indeed, Messaien was so fond of her singing that he accompanied her in recital as late as the 1950s.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">After the end of hostilities, Marcelle Bunlet settled down in Strasbourg, where from 1945 until 1970, she taught at the local conservatory, appearing in a variety of rôles there at the same time. From 1950 on, she seems to have confined herself to the concert stage. Recordings of three such events are familiar to the author of this posting:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">A performance of Albéric Magnard’s ¨Guercoeur¨...actually parts 1 and 3, from the ORTF, 1951,conducted by Tony Aubin. Bunlet, whose recording career was not very extensive, is nothing </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">short of thrilling, her seemingly limitless top tones and brilliant sound being captured with as good fidelity as contemporary technology allowed: a stunning testament. Available some years ago in LP format and also on CD, it is much more than a mere curiosity and worth searching </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">A recital from 1954 from the theater at the Casino of Vichy with Messaien at the piano. Let’s</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">hear them in Debussy:</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4v_CjUol-A" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4v_<wbr></wbr>CjUol-A</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">Finally, conducted by Gaston Poulet, father of violinist and pedagogue Georges Poulet, let’shear her in M. Samazeuilh’s ¨Le Sommeil de Canope,¨ a work which mixes influences of</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">Germanic post-romanticism with impressionism recalling the Arnold Schoenberg of Gurrelieder.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjiDHiu_CxU" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=<wbr></wbr>VjiDHiu_CxU</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">To some, the musical equivalent of purple prose, but very much to my taste, oh well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">Marcelle Bunlet died in December, 1991 in Paris, where she had continued to teach after she retired from her Strasbourg professorship. Among her pupils was the soprano Eliane Lublin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;">So, a life of service to music with significant impact on contemporary composers...with a fullplate of Wagner Strauss, Gluck, Verdi, and even Bellini...Norma in Strasbourg...besides!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black;">Not bad for a tiny woman from the country</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black;">.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Father Cornelius Mattei</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-91755293453169158022015-03-07T05:39:00.000-05:002015-03-07T08:44:19.103-05:00René Bianco<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">René Bianco:
Baritone and Verdian<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>By<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
<strong></strong><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong> </strong></span></o:p></div>
<strong></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Father Cornelius Mattei<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is a great
pleasure for me to</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">present, in our
continuing series</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">of guest authors,
Father Cornelius Mattei,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Monastery of The
Holy Cross, East Setauket, New York.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Father is a
genuine authority on French art and culture,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">most especially
classical vocal music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His willingness</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">to share that vast
knowledge with us today is generous</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">and much
appreciated!</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">-Edmund StAustell</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The life and career of
this outstanding dramatic baritone may be outlined briefly: He was born in
1908, in the stunningly beautiful city of Constantine, French Algeria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He made his début, as a bass, at Bône in
1934, spending the first decade of his career mainly in the French theaters of
North Africa, with a few excursions to the theaters of the ̈Midi. ̈ </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After the Second World
War, he sought brighter pastures, joining the rosters of the national theaters
in Paris in 1948, putting in his 20 </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">years and retiring in 1968
from the life of a singing civil servant. He continued to sing in theaters in
the French provinces, appearing in the same demanding rôles until the 1980s and
then teaching singing until the 1990s. He passed away in early 2008, five months
short of his 100th birthday, in the Lyon suburb to which he had retired,
Charbonnières-les Bains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also sang abroad, both <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the major Belgian French theaters —Brussels,
Liège and Namur—as well as in the cities of Geneva, Florence, Bologna, Lisbon
and Budapest.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s hear him in a rôle
which he was still performing in his mid-sixties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is Iago’s “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Credo:”</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8NcRplIZLU"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8NcRplIZLU</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I call your attention to
the authority, power, crisp enunciation and grasp of the venomous nature of
this reptilian personage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bianco
entertains no pretense to sounding pleasant. What you hear is what you get. </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Based on rich, full lower
and middle registers, Bianco’s voice rose to bell-like, full top tones--his A
on the Brindisi of the same work was sounded, not merely suggested. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His voice was described by one critic as an
̈ouragan vocal-- a vocal hurricane. The voice gave the </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">impression, in the
theater, of coming at the listener from no particular direction rather, it
enfolded one. It also seemed to have infinite reserves of power. When he hummed
in a small space, the sound<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“tickled “
everything. Several of those who heard him as Rigoletto in his farewell performances
at the Opéra Comique remarked that he was wonderful, but that he hurt their
ears in that relatively small space. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If we emphasize Verdi,
.Rigoletto was his calling-card, a most significant composer in his career. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bianco, to be sure, performed a broad
repertoire from Rameau (Huascar in Les Indes galantes) to Hindemith (Mathis der
Maler) and Milhaud. He sang, besides the standard French </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">works associated with his
vocal type, Wagner and Puccini, being particularly well-received as Kurwenal,
Telramund and Scarpia. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His biggest
success in Wagner was the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flying Dutchman</i>,
which he first sang in the early 50’s and, later, in a new production in 1963,
if memory serves.</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But let’s continue with
Verdi. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is “Le voilà<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>C’est l’Enfant” from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don Carlos:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[Please remember that the French <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don Carlos</i> which you will hear came
first; the Italian<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don Carlo</i>, which you may be more used to hearing—and in Italian-
came later.] </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4_ng9oq-zA"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4_ng9oq-zA</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here, Bianco shows another
“face. ̈ How else to put it? Many other baritones have been as sympathetic as
Posa, but here, abetted by an excellent Alain Vanzo and backed by aware,
sensitive, dramatic conducting from the ever-memorable maestro Charles Bruck, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Posa’s love for his friend...(a
high-maintenance, difficult sort, one might add )is evident in his plangent
timbre and intense solicitude. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is rare
vocal acting of unusual power. </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bianco’s long career, over
40 years, was ensured by a robust constitution and constant motion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Truth in advertising: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the present author studied with Bianco and has
very fond memories of a </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">generous soul with a
cheerful, even temperament. His teaching, based on slow careful vocalises,
emphasized<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“aperto ma coperto “ from the
middle register up to the high tones. He was not one of those who leaves the
pupil voiceless after an hour. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Did his healthy lifestyle
and the care he took in warming up pay off for him? Doubtless, for when I knew
him in his mid-sixties, he went to Lille, Valenciennes and St. Etienne, singing
Athanaël, William Tell and Iago, respectively, rôles usually left behind by
that stage of a singer’s career. He continued to sing in other cities,
particularly Lyon where, as at St. Etienne nearby, he had quite a fan base.
There, where he retired, he died in January 2008. </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s hear him one more
time in another duet, this time from the soundtrack of the telecast of a
débutante at the Paris Opéra and in Italian, as a fierce, manipulative
Amonasro. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the Nile scene duet
with Tebaldi:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIXbPHnb2L4" target="_blank"><em><span style="color: #1155cc;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=<wbr></wbr></span></em>dIXbPHnb2L4</a></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Can a case be made for
Bianco having been one of the outstanding Verdi baritones? I would like to
think so. Some of the recorded evidence makes a good case!</span></span><br />
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Father Cornelius Mattei</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-38155962477917739872015-03-02T07:10:00.001-05:002015-03-07T09:29:59.784-05:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Father Theodore Hesburgh and My Father, Richard Tucker: The Tenor of Notre Dame</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><strong>By </strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Dr. David N. Tucker, M.D.</strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>Our readers and subscribers will recall that on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Richard Tucker, his youngest son (Henry R. Tucker), through our mutual friend Dr. James A. Drake (biographer of Richard Tucker, Rosa Ponselle, and Lily Pons), contributed a very fine article about his father's life and career. This week, again through Dr. Drake, I am pleased to feature the following article by David N. Tucker, M.D., the middle son of Richard and Sara Tucker. <br /><br />A retired eye surgeon and former adjunct professor of medicine, Dr. Tucker is co-authoring a book with Burton Spivak (an American historian with a national reputation) about David's personal relationship with his father, and David's early ambition to become a tenor and follow in his father's footsteps. <br /><br />In this article, Dr. Tucker writes about his father's pre-Metropolitan cantorial career, and refers to three cantors--the legendary Josef "Yossele" Rosenblatt (1882-1933), his contemporary Mordechai Hershman (1888-1940), and Herman Malamood (1932-1989), a protege of Richard Tucker who sang leading roles at the New York City Opera, at the Met, and in a number of European opera houses. <br /><br />The core of Dr. Tucker's article, however, is about the personal friendship between his parents and the renowned Rev. Theodore H. Hesburgh, one of the great figures in American higher education and in the civil-rights movement, among other causes. For more information about Father Hesburgh, who died last week at age 97, please see <a href="http://www.nd.edu/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www.nd.edu</span></a>, the website of the University of Notre Dame. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For an honor as significant as this one, my father could not have asked for a more beautiful day: Sunday, June 6, 1965. Nor could there have been a more beautiful setting: the campus of the University of Notre Dame, blossoming with the flowers of late spring, cooled by a light summer breeze, and not a cloud in sight in the azure sky above. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br />On that beautiful summer afternoon, my father, clad in a maroon academic gown, stood like a soldier at attention while two priests lowered a gold-threaded hood over his head and onto his shoulders. At that moment, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, the president of the University, grasped my father's hand in his and said, "May the blessings of the Lord God be yours now and always, Doctor Richard Tucker." <br /><br />Before my eyes, my father, whose need to help support his four siblings had kept him from graduating from high school, had just received the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, <i>honoris causa</i>, from one of the most prestigious universities in the nation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For the remainder of the 1965 Notre Dame Commencement, during which more than a thousand undergraduate and graduate students received their degrees, my eyes stayed on my father the entire time. Eight other national and international figures including NAACP president Roy Wilkins, and McGeorge Bundy (who was then Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, having served under President John F. Kennedy when LBJ was Vice President) also received honorary doctorates that afternoon. But only one, Richard Tucker, was awarded the Doctor of Fine Arts honorary degree.<br /><br />As significant and memorable as the Commencement was, an event of equal significance to my father, my mother, my brothers Barry and Henry, and my wife Lynda, had taken place the night before in an elegant dining room on the Notre Dame campus. There, at a large rectangular table with Father Hesburgh seated at its head, my brothers and Lynda and I witnessed one of the most touching moments of that period in my parents' lives. <br /><br />At that table were not only the honorary doctoral candidates, but also several priests including senior-ranking professors and key members of Father Hesburgh's administrative team. As best I can recall, my brothers and my wife and I were the only relatives of the honorary-degree candidates who were present at that pre-Commencement dinner. Also present, and seated next to my parents at the table, was Alfred C. Stepan, Sr., a highly successful Illinois industrialist and a major donor to Notre Dame, who had nominated my father for the honorary degree. <br /><br />Just as Father Hesburgh became "Father Ted" to my parents, so Alfred C. Stepan, Sr., was always "Al" to the Tucker family. His handwritten letter of nomination for my father to the president of Notre Dame was an example of the candor which characterized everything that Al Stepan undertook:<br /><br /><i>Dear Father Ted,<br /><br />Richard Tucker is the best husband I know. Richard Tucker is the best father I know. Richard Tucker is the best tenor I know. We would do well to consider conferring an honorary degree upon him.<br /><br />Your friend,<br /><br />Al Stepan</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another honorary-doctoral candidate who was at the table during the pre-Commencement dinner was Cardinal Bernand Alfrink (or, more properly in the Roman Catholic form, His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Alfrink), who was seated adjacent to my parents and next to Father Hesburgh. Cardinal Alfrink seemed especially drawn to my father--and with Father Hesburgh's prior consent and encouragement, the Cardinal made an unforgettable gesture in my father's honor that night.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Fortunately, thanks to New York radio station WQXR and longtime announcer Martin Bookspan, who interviewed my father several times on the air, the gesture that I'm referring to was described and recorded by the recipient of that gesture: my father, in his own words. In this YouTube link to a 1970 interview by Martin Bookspan, beginning at the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346762"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">4:16</span></span></span></a> timing mark (and concluding <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span style="color: #222222;">at </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346763"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">6:11</span></span></span></a>), my father speaks of the Notre Dame Commencement and the friendship he formed with the Cardinal:</span></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/rWb1nnHb5PQ" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://youtu.be/rWb1nnHb5PQ</span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">My father, who never lost his composure publicly, had merely smiled when the Cardinal had asked, "When are you coming?" But Father Hesburgh, who was standing next to the Cardinal, had laughed as heartily as my father did when he retold the story to Martin Bookspan and other interviewers over the years. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The next time my father saw Father Hesburgh was from a distance, under extremely emotional conditions, three years later--almost to the day--on Saturday, June 8, 1968. That morning, in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, the funeral Mass for Robert F. Kennedy took place. Shortly after <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346764" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">midnight</span></span></span> in Los Angeles <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span style="color: #222222;">on </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346765"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">June 5</span></span></span></a>, the Senator had been mortally wounded after making a speech to an overflowing crowd of supporters for his presidential candidacy. He lingered for almost 26 hours, and underwent extensive but unsuccessful neurosurgery. He died <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span style="color: #222222;">at </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346766"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">1:44 a.m.</span></span></span></a> (Pacific Time) <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span style="color: #222222;">on </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346767"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">Thursday, June 6</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;">.</span></a> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The funeral of Robert F. Kennedy, which was televised and relayed by satellite and news film around the world, was one of the iconic events of the 20th century. Among many memorable moments during the funeral Mass was the singing of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" by the Senator's personal friend, Andy Williams, whom my parents also knew. Unlike Andy Williams, however, my father did not have a close personal relationship with Robert Kennedy. Yet for his funeral Mass, the Senator's family, through then-Cardinal Terence Cooke, asked my father to sing the Latin hymn "Panis Angelicus" during the Mass.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As perhaps many readers will know, the "Panis Angelicus" was composed in 1872 by Cesar Franck, who wrote the music (the words are from a text by St. Thomas Aquinas) for the tenor voice and the harp, cello, and organ. Although "Panis Angelicus" has been sung by sopranos, baritones, and other singers in different vocal ranges, any artist who has ever performed the "Panis Angelicus" will confirm that it is a challenge to sing under the best of circumstances--but not during the funeral of one of the most famous men of the century, on "live" television worldwide, with almost no rehearsal, accompanied by an organist with whom he had never performed, and sung in Latin by a tenor who was not only non-Catholic but also a proud Jew whose liturgical singing had been in synagogues, not cathedrals.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But at the appointed time during the funeral Mass, my father, <i>Hazzan</i> Rubin Tucker ("hazzan" being a phonetic English version of a Hebrew word for "cantor," and Rubin being my father's birth name), stood at the front of the choir loft, nearly 25 feet above the pews where the Kennedy family and the overflowing congregation were seated. At that moment, my father put his personal emotions in check and sang what I consider the most beautiful rendering of the "Panis Angelicus" that anyone will ever hear:</span></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/odyDLmBkIoo" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://youtu.be/odyDLmBkIoo</span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As I said previously, my father only glimpsed Father Hesburgh from the distance of the choir loft in St. Patrick's, where Father Ted was sitting among the numerous dignitaries who had known, supported, and marched with Robert Kennedy on behalf of civil rights and equal justice for all Americans. Then and now, I am proud that my father was asked to sing at Robert Kennedy's funeral service, I am proud of my father for doing so, and for giving his very best, as he did invariably. He could never tolerate less than the best. "Good is never good enough," he would say. "Only the <i>best</i> will do. I expect the best, and I demand it from myself. If I don't, what right would I have to expect others to give their best?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seven years after that funeral Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346768"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">on Wednesday</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> afternoon</span></a>, January 8, 1975, my father died of cardiac arrest in Michigan while on a concert tour with his friend and colleague Robert Merrill. As historians of opera in America have duly noted, my father's funeral service was held not in a synagogue, not in a funeral-home chapel, but on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, where he had reigned for thirty years as "The American Caruso," a title suggested by Rudolf (later Sir Rudolf) Bing, the general manager of the Met during most of my father's tenure there. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Father Hesburgh, due to his obligations as Notre Dame's president, could not attend the funeral at the Met, but he honored my father several months later by coming to New York City to celebrate a Requiem Mass in my father's memory at St. Patrick's Cathedral. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As was his way, from what I have since learned about him, Father Ted called no public attention to the fact that he was coming to Manhattan to perform a Requiem Mass in memory of my father. The Mass took place on </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tuesday, October 14, 1975, but despite Father Ted's best intentions for its privacy (although anyone in the New York Archdiocese could have attended the Mass), <i>The New York Times</i> learned of it and published a story about it the next morning. According to the <i>Times</i>, the Requiem said by Father Hesburgh "was believed to be the first memorial mass for a Jew at St. Patrick's Cathedral."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Although I was not present on that occasion (I was practicing medicine as an Ophthalmologist in Cincinnati, so I had responsibilities for performing surgeries, making hospital rounds, and examining patients), my mother told me how the Requiem had come about. From his campus residence in South Bend, Father Hesburgh had called my mother to tell her about his intention to offer the Mass, and had urged her to be present in the cathedral with him. She had been very reluctant, she told me, because she felt that it would be inappropriate to lend her presence to a Christian rite, even though the celebrant was Father Ted Hesburgh. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">My mother, as anyone will tell you who knew her, had an iron will. When she made up her mind about something--no matter what the issue was, nor what anyone else (including, at times, my father) thought about it, nor what her family or her friends would think of her--she would hold her ground and stay anchored to her decisions. Not that she wouldn't listen to another person's reasons why she should do or think differently. She would listen, but if she didn't hear anything persuasive, she would halt the discussion with a firm "No, I disagree, and that's that."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mother was so resolute about not attending a Catholic-Christian service that she told Father Hesburgh that she would not come to any church, not even St. Patrick's Cathedral, and not even for Father Ted, who was a friend of the family. "How am I going to explain this to my own Jewish people?" she said repeatedly to Father Ted. "What you did for my husband at Notre Dame was wonderful, and we love you for it, but how could I explain to my people what I was doing at St. Patrick's!" </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She told me that no matter how many times Father Ted would try to interject, "Now, Sara, let me explain," she would exclaim, "No! Never! He was a Jew, so am I, and I am <i>not</i> coming to a church!" After a moment of silence on the other end of the telephone line, she told me, Father Ted had said simply, "Sara, our Lord Jesus was a Jew." In that instant, she told me, she changed her mind completely. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After he had gotten her consent, Father Hesburgh had a request for my mother: he asked her to recommend a cantor to sing the "El Mole Rachamim" at the end of the Requiem Mass. For those who are not familiar with it, the "El Mole Rachamim" (sometimes rendered in English as "Kel Molai" or "Chel Mole") is a Hebrew prayer sung by a cantor during a traditional Jewish funeral service. It is a prayer intended to induce open, heartfelt, even visceral mourning among those who hear the cantor intone the prayer. It begins slowly, solemnly, in the middle of the cantor's vocal range, and then steadily rises in pitch and intensity until the music reaches a peak. It is at that peak, in a vocal cry at full volume, that the cantor intones the name of the deceased and thereby prompts the congregants to sob openly, to wail in grief, as the cantor continues to sing the prayer until its end. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There have been many variations of the musical form of the "El Mole Rachamim," but the one which set the standard for cantors in America was composed and sung by <i>Hazzan </i>Josef (Yossele) Rosenblatt in the early 1900's. Although his unique voice, expansive vocal range, and emotive singing were not very influential in my father's cantorial development (the powerful tenor-cantor Mordechai Hershman was my father's inspiration), Yossele Rosenblatt, a contemporary of Caruso, was the best-known cantor on phonograph recordings in America. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After the sinking of the <i>Titanic</i> in 1912, in which so many Jewish men, women, and children perished, Cantor Rosenblatt was urged to make a special recording of the "El Mole" for the victims, survivors, and the public who had followed the ship's fate in the newspapers. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span style="color: #222222;">On </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346769"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">July 29</span></span></span></a>, 1913--exactly 32 days before my father was born in Brooklyn--Cantor Rosenblatt recorded <i>El Mole Rachmin (für Titanik)</i>, as it was spelled on the label of the Victor disc. For months after its release, the recording could be heard pouring from open windows throughout Jewish communities in every major American city:</span></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/QUKnjO6XP0U" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://youtu.be/QUKnjO6XP0U</span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For the Requiem by Father Hesburgh at St. Patrick's, when he asked my mother to recommend a cantor to sing "El Mole," she immediately suggested Herman Malamood, a young <i>hazzan</i> who, like my father, had made the transition from the <i>bima</i>, or pulpit, to the opera stage. Herman, who at that time was a leading tenor at the New York City Opera, would eventually make his Metropolitan Opera debut as Canio in <i>I Pagliacc</i>i, a role he had first sung in Philadelphia in 1970 on the rare occasion when my father was indisposed. Herman always referred to my father as his mentor, and he considered this performance of the "Ya-Aleh," which my father recorded in 1959, to be the finest performance of this demanding cantorial masterpiece:</span></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/0xO9dwe4AlY" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://youtu.be/0xO9dwe4AlY</span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Herman Malamood and his lovely wife, Anna, were almost members of the Tucker family. Herman was a trim and handsome young man with a distinctive lyric tenor voice. He had a fine stage presence, was a competent <i>verismo</i> actor, and had a voice substantial enough for <i>Pagliacci </i>(which he sang with Cornell MacNeil as Tonio) and also for <i>Idomeneo</i>, in which Herman replaced Luciano Pavarotti in the title role for some Met performances of that production. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regrettably, very few of Herman's recordings are currently posted on YouTube. But this "live" recording of a scene from Bellini's <i>Norma</i>, in a Toulouse production in which he sang Pollione to the Norma of soprano Radmila Bakočević, captures the quality of Herman Malamood's voice. While the entire scene is compelling, Herman's singing begins at the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346770"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">3:39</span></span></span></a> timing mark in this YouTube video: </span></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/b44Vx13_qTA" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://youtu.be/b44Vx13_qTA</span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Before Herman Malamood chanted the "El Mole Rachamim" at the end of the Requiem Mass at St. Patrick's, Father Ted Hesburgh once again created an unforgettable moment for our family, and most especially for my mother. From the altar, in perfect Hebrew, Father Ted recited the <i>Kaddish</i>, the Jewish prayer of mourning for the deceased. As he intoned the opening of the prayer, my mother, our family, and Jewish friends who came to the Mass at my mother's request, recited in unison the traditional response from the congregation: "May His great name be blessed forever, and to all eternity."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">My mother lived ten years after my father passed away. She continued to live in our family home in Great Neck, Long Island, and often came into Manhattan to spend time with my brothers and my sister-in-law Joan, and from time to time she flew to Cincinnati to stay with Lynda and me and our children. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She dabbled (her word) in painting, she studied the many facets of the Modern Art movement, and she collected art works that appealed to her. (The great Marc Chagall, whose enormous paintings adorn the front lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House, could rarely resist my mother's appeals for "just one more" of his paintings or drawings.) Regularly, too, she would have lunch with the close friends whom she and my father had known since they had gotten married in 1936. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Amid her grief for the loss of my Dad, she continued his (and her) lifelong dedication to Jewish causes and to the state of Israel, she watched her grandchildren grow and prosper, and happily and eagerly played her role as matriarch of the ever-growing Tucker family. She also led the creation of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, which stemmed from an informal conversation that she had with my brother Barry and Herman Krawitz, who had served as an Assistant Manager at the Metropolitan Opera during the Bing administration. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Spurred by that conversation in the winter of 1975, she and Barry gathered their thoughts and sought expert advice to create a non-profit foundation, in my father's name, to provide financial support to promising young American singers. The Richard Tucker Music Foundation was chartered in 1975, with my mother as its founding president and Barry, Henry, and me as founding members of its board of directors. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At the first Gala Concert in the autumn of 1975, the roster was led by Luciano Pavarotti and also included a nostalgic performance by my father's tenor colleague Giuseppe di Stefano. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When my mother passed away in 1985, Barry succeeded her as president, and he has steadily elevated the Foundation to an unprecedented level of prestige. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Today, through the annual Richard Tucker Gala Concerts televised by PBS, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation is not only the largest music-related organization of its kind in the nation, but also, as my mother had intended, the Foundation has played a direct role in building the careers of Renee Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee, Stephen Costello, Ailyn </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-image: none; border-image: none; border: 0px currentColor; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pérez</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">, and </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Michael Fabbiano, among many others who have received the prestigious Richard Tucker Award. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This past Thursday, February 26, shortly before <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1594346771" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">midnight</span></span></span>, the Richard Tucker family lost a beloved friend, the Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh, "Father Ted," who died peacefully at the age of 97 in a residence adjacent to the University of Notre Dame. As the University has described him on its website, he was "a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and one of the nation’s most influential figures in higher education, the Catholic Church, and national and international affairs." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In his memory, as I feel certain that my parents would want me to do, I will close these reminiscences with the voice of my father, in a prayer which I dedicate to Father Hesburgh's memory, a prayer which expresses a transcendent human hope:</span></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/XHPkvRRPRuk" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://youtu.be/XHPkvRRPRuk</span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">May your soul rest in peace, Father Ted. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>David N. Tucker, M.D.</i></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-52637171288296012422015-02-27T16:31:00.001-05:002015-02-28T14:38:47.677-05:00<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <strong>Jeanne Gerville-Réache</strong></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijliLSgKSIzjR3rN6oIq30Voo6hsCA4tuICyuaJ8cfpQEGEGO183rLH5EoIg-_pvUi8z7FrHVIaLbkmliHSebe6KE42Z3wy-4D54Xo_GDrn3EOZRcIq2E5Y1Iv-uZ_fxHxm9spLOE9MxA/s1600/samson-et-dalila-jeanne-gordon-as-dalila.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijliLSgKSIzjR3rN6oIq30Voo6hsCA4tuICyuaJ8cfpQEGEGO183rLH5EoIg-_pvUi8z7FrHVIaLbkmliHSebe6KE42Z3wy-4D54Xo_GDrn3EOZRcIq2E5Y1Iv-uZ_fxHxm9spLOE9MxA/s1600/samson-et-dalila-jeanne-gordon-as-dalila.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jeanne Gerville-Réache <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1882 -1915) était une grande contralto d’opéra
connue et admirée pour sa très belle voix,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>soutenue par une technique de chant qui lui a permis de chanter dans deux
registres vocaux-- mezzo soprano et contralto. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Née à Orthez,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>elle<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>passa son enfance en Martinique, où son père était le gouverneur. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parce qu'il est evident qu'elle était douée
depuis sa jeunesse, elle fut emmenée à Paris étudier sous Rosine Laborde, qui
aura permis que la jeune cantatrice vienne rencontrer Emma Calvé.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Calvé à son
tour a permis que la jeune et douée Gerville-Réache vienne faire ses débuts
professionels en Orphée et Eurydice de Glück, a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>l’Opéra Comique, en 1899.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Premièrement, il est important d'entendre
la voix extraordinaire, et un bon début serait un air indicatif de <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samson et Dalila</i>. Voici "Printemps
qui commence", enregistré en 1909, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>aux débuts de sa carrière:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36j6i0Pa4JQ"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=36j6i0Pa4JQ</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Quelle belle
voix de contralto! Il apparaît immédiatement que c’était un grand talent. Malheureusement,
ces voix n’existent plus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Après un début rapide et réussi, la carrière
de Gerville-Réache a progressé avec empressement. Elle a reçu une position permanente
à l'Opéra-Comique en 1900.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="FR" style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pendant
ce temps, elle a chanté dans deux premières : </span><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Catherine dans <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le Juif polonais</i> de Camille Erlanger, et le rôle de Geneviève dans <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pelléas et Mélisande</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Debussy <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1902.) Peu de temps après Pelléas et
Mélisande, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>la jeune cantatrice eut un
désaccord avec Albert Carré, directeur et quitta ce théâtre. En 1903, elle
rejoint la liste au Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie à Bruxelles, où elle est
apparue dans cinq opéras au cours des deux prochaines saisons. Elle a ensuite
fait ses débuts au Royal Opera House, à Londres, en 1905, dans le rôle
d'Orphée.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pendant
cette période, son répertoire a commencé à augmenter notamment. Voici un
enregistrement de L'Air de Lia de "L'Enfant Prodigue:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74j7Qy6H0Ms"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=74j7Qy6H0Ms</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Elle est
venue en Amérique du Nord en 1907 et presque immédiatement atteint un grand
succès en tant que chanteuse, jusqu'à sa mort tragique et prématurée en 1915, à
32 ans, d'une maladie provoquée par une intoxication alimentaire.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Au cours de
la période américaine,on peut commencer à voir les enregistrements d'œuvres
dramatiques d’opéra italien. Je crois que si elle ne était pas morte si jeune,
nous aurions vu beaucoup plus de ce genre de musique, surtout compte tenu du
fait que l'italien a toujours été la langue de l'opéra en Amérique. Voici un
bon exemple de ce que nous aurions pu nous attendre! Ce est un enregistrement
de “Stride La Vampa,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Il Trovatore</i> 1911:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxKmiphDhxc"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxKmiphDhxc</span></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Quelque soit
la musique, quelque soit la langue, une chose est certaine: c’ était l'un des
plus grands de voix de contralto!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-16679708639820432922015-02-22T11:44:00.002-05:002015-02-22T11:44:57.410-05:00<br />
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BEVERLY SILLS<br />
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Beverly Sills, (Belle Miriam Silverman) was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Ukrainian immigrants, and as a child Sills was exposed to many languages at home, including French, Yiddish, and Russian, along with her native English. This exposure gave her a very natural facility with foreign languages, which was helpful in her later career. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAnR8nrXmaYA51AvgHN32t5v0OAuJm8JslfEgjCSkqJzcMnRC_915ADn3vpeF7sGjFO0HKSQUwuDdRfNwmoJ1x404vFpL937roKyqQcSFP7rPu3Ad94tDp1Sv0p16IpjIovbCZnGXBH6I/s1600/sills.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAnR8nrXmaYA51AvgHN32t5v0OAuJm8JslfEgjCSkqJzcMnRC_915ADn3vpeF7sGjFO0HKSQUwuDdRfNwmoJ1x404vFpL937roKyqQcSFP7rPu3Ad94tDp1Sv0p16IpjIovbCZnGXBH6I/s1600/sills.jpg" sda="true" /></a>Sills was precocious in the extreme as a child. Starting by winning a child beauty contest at the age of 3, she began performing on the radio at the age of 4 as "Bubbles" Silverman. She started taking lessons with Estelle Liebling, and by 1937, when she was 8 years old, she had appeared in a film, released the following year, which fortunately is preserved and viewable on Youtube. Because it tells us so very much about her, I think that here is a good place to see it. The film is called "Uncle Sol Solves It," and it is far more than a vaudeville shtick because of the difficulty of the piece, and the serious way Sills sings. Notice the extraordinary presence and charm of this little girl! Also, watch the video to the very end and notice Uncle Sol's final advice to her:</div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAz2HgSZaDs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAz2HgSZaDs</a><br />
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Now how adorable is that!? The amazing thing is that she handles the fioratura quite well! Also, she has been taught, or naturally understands, what the great bel canto tenor Fernando de Lucía once told his student Georges Thill: "...per cantare bene, bisogna aprire la bocca!!" Which little Bubbles did! It's not hard to see why they called her "Bubbles," is it:-) Also, one other thing needs to be noticed. Did you notice Uncle Sol's advice at the end? Stay right here and study in this country., no matter how hanxious your hancestors are to do otherwise:-) .....we have great teachers here. That was one of the first things I noticed. It is important, because this was the grateful and patriotic attitude of so many at that time. The culture these Jewish immigrants, largely from Russia and Eastern Europe, brought to this country was enormous, beyond measure. You can see it in Sill's life-long attitude and work, and also in the attitudes of Jan Peerce, Roberta Peters, and many others. What they went on to contribute—and still do—is a story in itself, one of which every American can be proud, and for which all should be grateful.<br />
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Liebling encouraged little Beverly to appear on radio talent shows, which she did, and won a series of them, bringing increasing attention to herself. By age 16, she had joined a Gilbert and Sullivan touring company and began accumulating practical stage experience. Two years later, at 18, she made her operatic stage debut as the Spanish gypsy Frasquita in Bizet's <em>Carmen</em> with the Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company. By 1953, when she was 24, she appeared with the San Francisco opera as Helen of Troy in Boito's <em>Mefistofele</em>, and also sang Elivra in <em>Don Giovanni</em> with them the same year. From this moment on, her career virtually exploded. She went on, over the course of her career, to sing very many roles, in virtually all the major houses. Although she sang a repertoire from Handel, Mozart and Puccini, to Massenet and Verdi, she was known for her performances in coloratura soprano roles. Favorite operas were <em>Lucia</em>, <em>La Fille du Régiment</em>, <em>Manon,</em> <em>Les Contes d'Hoffmann</em>, <em>The Barber of Seville</em>, <em>Roberto Devereux,</em> <em>La Traviata</em>, and <em>I Puritani</em>.<br />
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Sills' life was music, from beginning to end: it never stops. The honors and accolades were extraordinary, as was her public relations work on behalf of music and charity, her administrative work at New York City Opera, and The Metropolitan. It is a vast biography, much too long to discuss here, but very easily consulted. Also, she has written an autobiography She was, without question, one of the most famous and respected figures in mid-twentieth century American cultural life. <br />
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Let us turn to Sills the artist. Here she is in her preferred repertoire, singing "Come per me sereno" from Bellini's <em>La Sonnambula</em>. It is a real coloratura tour-de-force. The trills, fioratura, and (very) high notes are simply stunning. It is a video of a certain length (nine minutes). If you have not the time to listen to it all now, skip the recitative. You don't want to miss any fireworks:<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuaGuKrq9fY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuaGuKrq9fY</a><br />
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There simply can be no doubt about that technique. It is extraordinary, by any standard. The principles of bel canto singing have been thoroughly internalized, to the point where they simply come to define the singing. Few other sopranos of the twentieth century could match those trills. Sutherland could, but after that one starts to run down the list. Just amazing. And the speed of the coloratura is dazzling. This is a woman who was almost born singing, and was well taught from childhood. I would be so bold as to say that her technique was second to none. <br />
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Finally, from an American opera, the "Willow Song" from <em>The Ballad of Baby Doe</em>, by Douglas Moore. Sills distinguished herself in this opera, and was Moore's personal favorite in the title role (watch her, around 2:50, pick a D natural above high C out of the air!)<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNg8VGrIqls&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNg8VGrIqls&feature=related</a><br />
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To a very great soprano, from a grateful American public—Thank you, Bubbles!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-73319598582212206842015-02-20T13:54:00.000-05:002015-02-20T13:54:03.774-05:00Emma Calvé: The Great Femme Fatale
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<span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Emma Calvé:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Great <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Femme
Fatale</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Emma Calvé
was born in 1858, in Aveyron. She spent her childhood in Spain, but moved to
Paris with her mother after her parents separated. She began her vocal studies
at this point. Her debut was in Brussels in 1881, in Faust, but she did not
find much if any success at the beginning, and small roles over the next year
or so were not much of a showcase. She returned to Paris and began to study
with Mathilde Marchesi, a well-known mezzo soprano of the day who had herself
studied with Manuel García, the famous teacher and codifier of bel canto singing
techniques. She did not now have to wait long for success. After a tour of
Italy, where she watched and studied famous and successful singers, she
returned to Paris in 1891 to create the part of Suzel in Mascagni's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">L'Amico Fritz.</i> She scored a success, and
was asked to create the role of Santuzza in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cavalleria
Rusticana</i>. That turned out to be the magic moment. Italian melodrama, the
staple of the newly emerging<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> verismo</i>,
perfectly suited her intense temperament, renowned acting abilities, and
artistic instincts. Her success was huge and she went on to repeat it in
London. Santuzza was ever after considered one of her signature roles, another
being Carmen. Both these roles presented Calvé with an opportunity to display
all her skills, which were everywhere celebrated. She was, in fact, so fiery
and melodramatic in her stage portrayals that some newspaper critics were
offended by such earthy and passionate emotional displays from a woman on the
pubic stage. It did not conform at all—especially in Victorian London—to upper
middle class notions of female propriety, even (or perhaps particularly) in the
theater.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is a
recording made in 1907 of "Voi lo sapete, o mamma." It needs to be
remembered that we are dealing here with a soprano from so long ago (she was
born two years before the American Civil War began!) that even her earliest
recordings capture only the voice of a middle aged woman. She was, for example,
nearly 50 years old when this record was made:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmPNjpfyic"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmPNjpfyic</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An
absolutely fascinating recording from one hundred and four years ago! It is
immediately apparent that the intensity and melodrama, if you will, of her
presentation is strictly musical and stylistic in its nature. There is no
shouting, no grating, gasping sobs, or any other kind of artistic indiscretion
that some sopranos (especially mezzo sopranos) allow to infiltrate this piece.
Her vocal instincts were always musical; it was the dramatic conception of the
music and—from virtually all accounts—her acting that was so special. Indeed,
she uses a vocal technique (the famously dark and intense chest voice so common
in Belle Époque singing), to make her dramatic points. Its discreet use turns
out to be all that is necessary to convey the emotional intensity of the music
here. She leaves the essentially soprano part of her voice free from such
affectation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let us turn
to the other role for which she was so famous—Carmen. So powerful, according to
contemporary accounts, was her portrayal of Carmen that it was many years
before any other soprano or mezzo soprano could claim to equal it. Some record
collectors claim that CD re-recordings do not do justice to the subtlety or
intensity of her voice and pronunciation because record companies have
"muffled" the sound in an attempt to get rid of the scratches on the
old records. To put that idea to the test, here is a 1908 recording, directly
from the old record, of the "Seguidilla" from Carmen. I ask you to
tolerate the scratches in favor of the "live" feeling of the
recording, and again, I stress the musicality of the vocal drama:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5LWakZv-w0"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5LWakZv-w0</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think the
old recording does give a better idea of the vocal drama being played out here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A word is in
order about the classification of her voice. The term "mezzo-soprano"
was not much used in Calve's era. She was most commonly called simply
"soprano." The floods of classifications were to come later, largely
invented by critics. I have written elsewhere on this subject, and I do not
hesitate to reiterate my feeling that much of this is simply unnecessary. There
are other ways to describe voices than to create a new category every time some
singer sounds a bit different from another singing the same parts. I daresay
the old SATB choral designations would work remarkably well if we talked more
about color, flexibility and tone, and less about mezzo, lyric, dramatic,
coloratura, spinto, leggiero, profundo, etc. etc. etc. But I digress:) Let's
settle for “soprano with a strong chest register” in Calve's case.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Actually,
there is, in addition to all the drama, a lot of traditional bel canto soprano
to be tapped here, as can be amply demonstrated by this lovely recording of
"Charmant oiseau," from Félicien David's La Perle du Brésil, 1908:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwfbH7--_JE"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwfbH7--_JE</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Emma Calvé
was important in her day because she led the way for women as passionate, real
flesh and blood characters on the stage. That she could do so within the
aesthetic framework of traditionally beautiful singing makes her all the more
remarkable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6166918155946600787.post-73256284071541343102015-02-14T05:57:00.001-05:002015-02-14T07:05:58.799-05:00<br />
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<span style="font-size: 36pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">DENISE SCHARLEY<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 36pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Father Cornelius Mattei<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is a great pleasure for me to<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">present, in our continuing series<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">of guest authors, Father Cornelius Mattei,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Monastery of The Holy Cross, East Setauket, New York.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Father is a genuine authority on French art and
culture,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">most especially classical vocal music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His willingness<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">to share that vast knowledge with us today is generous<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">and much appreciated!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>-</span>Edmund StAustell<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When considering great
opera singers, to whom this blog is dedicated, we are first captivated by the
sound of a voice. What do the recorded voices of, say, Caruso, Chaliapin,
Callas share?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">They are unmistakable...a
personal timbre and manner which puts them beyond the possibility of confusion
with any other voice. Such was the case with Denise Scharley (1917-2011), for those
who were privileged to experience her performances in the flesh, an
unforgettable force of nature. Indeed, for the author of these words, an almost
overwhelming encounter across the footlights of the Palais Garnier….the Paris
Opera... which, nearly a half-century on, remains a burning memory. So, by way
of introduction, let us hear her in this rare audio clip, in the very rôle and with the same tenor, Paul
Finel, who sang with her in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carmen</i>
that evening.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4pEdhJjJEs"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4pEdhJjJEs</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Born Denise Besse in
Picardy, where her father had relocated his young family from their native
Angoulême due to wartime employment, she proved robust enough to survive a near </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">fatal encounter with the
Spanish influenza epidemic. Denise grew up in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil
and, encouraged by her father, a gifted amateur with a fine bass voice,
cultivated </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">her own singing,
originally as a soprano! Accepted into the Paris Conservatoire just before the
beginning of the Second World War, she supported herself as a secretary. A
student of </span></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">baritone Roger Bourdin,
she was soon singing operettas and musical revues at the Châtelet theater, as
well as opera, gaining valuable stage experience: her first Carmen at the
Théâtre </span></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Montansier in Versailles.
In 1942, she graduated with three ¨Premiers Prix,¨ high honors, with a contract
for the Opéra Comique. There, on November 29 1942, she made her official début as
Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande. She was an immediate success. Indeed her
career, although limited to Europe, was one of... dare one say.. almost
monotonous success. Such parts as Mignon, Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther and
Carmen were soon to follow in rapid succession. After the end of hostilities,
Scharley…. a stage name adopted from a childhood nickname...newly married to
the baritone Jacques Hivert (also a stage name, the family name is Lecaillon),
remembered from the original cast and recording of Poulenc’s <em>Les Mamelles de Tirésias</em>
began singing further afield. There were brief appearances in Belgium, England,
the Netherlands and Switzerland, but above all in Italy where, besides
appearances in Naples and Bologna, she appeared as Carmen in Rome opposite
Mario del Monaco in his first-ever Don<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>José.
That was in 1947. The following year, she had the first of several contretemps
with management over the course of her career and quit on the spot, spending
the next four years </span></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">mostly at the Monnaie in
Brussels and in the French theaters from Belgium to North Africa.During that
time she bore two children, Sylvie and Gérard, the latter a well-regarded actor
and </span></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">director. </span></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Returning to Paris, she
made her début at the Opéra in 1952, remaining there until 1973. Shortly after
her return, as Maddalena in Rigoletto, she was entrusted with the rôle of the<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">eponymous temptress in
Saint-Saën’s Samson et Dalila.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>¨Amour, viens aider...¨</span></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq-l7o69a28"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq-l7o69a28</span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Besides Carmen, the rôle
she sang most often, Dalila was her other protagonist ¨warhorse,¨ sung opposite
all the tenors who appeared in Paris as Samson in the 1950s and 60s: Luccioni<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">and Verdière, Delmonaco
and Chauvet. One notes, however, that Scharley performed an eclectic
répertoire, from Rameau and Gluck via Verdi and Wagner (she sang both Erda and
the<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First Norn in the
Knappertsbusch-led first-ever German-language Ring at the Opéra) to Milhaud, Honegger,
Sauget, Stravisnky and, most significantly Poulenc: her most unforgettable
creation being the rôle of Mme. de Croissy, the Old Prioress, in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dialogues of the Carmelites</i> in the French-language
version, the Italian version having been mounted first at La Scala as the score
was the property of the Milan publisher, Ricordi. Most collectors in North
America will know her via her electrifying contribution to the original Paris
cast recording, 1958. The present author can attest to its heart-stopping
impact: sitting in an audience so overcome as to be hardly able to breathe at
the end of the scene of her atrocious death, let alone applaud!</span></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">During the second half of
her forty-one year professional career...she retired in 1983….Scharley sang
without let-up, gradually giving up her more glamorous rôles. Whether in Paris
or Geneva, her second artistic home, Marseilles, Venice,Toulouse, Bordeaux,
Barcelona or Rouen, she was<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Indefatigable. Developing
a close artistic relationship with Giancarlo Menotti, she created the French
language version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Medium</i> in
Marseille, and later at the Opéra Comique, 1968. Excerpts from the television
film of that production may be seen on YouTube. Not only did she make Madame
Flora her own, but she also appeared in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Consul</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maria Golovine</i>. She also
shone as Carmen Gloria in the one-woman opera by Raffaelo de Banfield known in
French as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tango pour une femme seule</i>
and in Italian as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Colloquio col tango</i>.
She also appeared in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alissa</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lord Byron’s Love Letter</i>. Her final
Paris appearances were in Daniel-Lesur’s </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Ondine</span></i><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> in
1982. Her farewell to the stage, after more than forty years, was as Dame
Marthe in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faust</i> in Toulouse the
following year. Let’s hear her once more:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6U5BC1fhXQ"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6U5BC1fhXQ</span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What to say of Scharley’s
voice? If I have withheld comment, it is because the reader’s ear may be more
adept to receive than I am to describe. The voluminous and almost uniformly<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">laudatory reviews of her
performances in several languages by most of the prominent music critics in
Europe...she never crossed the Atlantic, alas…. ever praise the unique, smoky
timbre and homogeneity of that dramatic mezzo-soprano voice impinged upon
contralto depths which make such as the descent to the final low A of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samson and Delilah</i> aria appended here so
memorable. What recordings cannot convey was her physical,
kick-to-the-solar-plexus stage<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">persona, compounding the
impact of that hard-hitting voice...with her concentrated, restrained movements,
blazing green eyes and strong features….when she walked onstage all eyes were on
her. When she opened her mouth to sing, she ¨sucked up¨ all the oxygen in the
theater. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At seventeen years of age,
I could not sleep the night of that first Carmen. It was as if she had thrown
that flower to me. I’m certain I wasn’t the only one!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Father Cornelius Mattei<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15