The Great Jan Kiepura

 

Jan Kiepura was born on the 16th of May 1902 in Sosnowiec, a quite small industrial town in Poland.

Kiepura discovered his singing voice in his youth and started singing in a school choir. His parents did not encourage him, however, and sent him to Warsaw to study law at the University of Warsaw, to which he was admitted in 1921. He continued studying voice in private, however, determined to become a solo singer in any theater that would give him the chance.  He finally got a chance, in 1924, to perform in a comic operetta called “Halka”

Word began to spread about the law student with the extraordinary voice, and in only one year he was given the chance to sing Faust at the Wielki Theater in Warsaw, when the tenor Dobosz, who was scheduled to sing, did not appear.  Kiepura was a spectacular success that night, receiving a standing ovation for his performance.  Thus began a brilliant career.

Kiepura gained popularity singing in Rigoletto (Verdi), Halka (Moniuszko) and Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni) at the Warsawian Wielki Theater.

In 1926 Puccini's Tosca and Gianni Schicchi were added to his repertoire. Then came Tosca and Turandot as well as Straszny dwór by Moniuszko. Kiepura was becoming famous in Poland, but he very quickly determined to move on to Aivnna and Paris.  He also learned Italian and German, preparing himself for an international career.  He could sing convincingly in Italian, but he sang much more often in German, the language in which he gained his greatest popularity.

Here is a brilliant Nessun Dorma  (Sung in German)


www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYwzFKy2lXA

 

By 1937 Kiepura had married Martha Eggerth, a singer and actress, with whom he appeared in many movies as well as in a production of 'The merry widow' on Broadway. The merry widow was such a success that the production toured throughout the U.S.A. as well as Western Europe, and was sung in four different languages. Kiepura acquired great fame in the '30s, shifting the emphasis from opera to the big screen. On January the 10th 1938 he debuted at the Metropolitan in New York as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme. Kiepura also sang in Tosca, Bizet's Carmen, and Verdi's Rigoletto at the Metropolitan until 1942. The duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) was regarded as his best role.

Kiepura's voice was an outpouring of a rich, warm tone: powerful and generous singing forte, sweet and honeyed when singing piano. Equipped with such an instrument he managed to sing roles throughout virtually the entire tenor fach. He did, however, stay away from the most taxing and heavy roles such as Otello. Besides being successful as an operatic singer he was also a prolific singing movie star richness and spontaneity in his voice.His technique allowed him to sing concerts well into his sixties. Unfortunately a heart attack ended his life prematurely when he was still active as a singer. Jan Kiepura died on August 15th, 1966.

 

Irina Konstantinovna Arkhipova

Irina Konstantinovna Arkhipova was a Russian mezzo-soprano, and later contralto, opera singer. She sang leading roles first in Russia at the Sverdlovsk Opera and the Bolshoi Theater, and then throughout Europe and in the United States.

Born: January 2, 1925,  Moscow, Russia

Died: February 11, 2010, Moscow, Russia

 

 

 

 

She  studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1954 to 1956 and sang with the Sverdlovak Opera where her roles included Marina in Boris Godunov, Eboli in Don Carlos Charlotte in Werther.  Her  first Bolshoi performance was as Carmen, one of her greatest roles.  The Bolshoi became her operatic home and she sang all her greatest roles there.

 

Here is a splendid rendition of Caccini's Ave Maria:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZJaDzQGmBc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radu Marian

Radu Marian

Born in 1977 in Romania, Marian is quite popular in a historical repertoire he has helped bring back to the modern classical music scene. He has been the recipient of many awards and singing prizes, especially in Eastern Europe and Russia. He is much respected, and is commonly featured at important music festivals throughout Europe.

Radu Marian is a true soprano, "soprano" being a vocal part, not a gender. Because of a medical condition, he never went through puberty, so his voice did not change. He was a boy soprano who became an adult soprano. The result is his clear, pure and high sound that makes his singing so very attractive and beautiful. Here is Radu Marian singing "Lascia ch'io pianga," Almirena's aria from Rinaldo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOoy17PPHRI

The Great American Tenor Richard Crooks

Born: June 26, 1900 - Trenton, New Jersey, USA
Died: September 29, 1972 - Potola Valley, California, USA


Richard (Alexander) Crooks, studied with Sidney H. Bourne and Frank LaForge in New York. Richard Crooks first visited Loon Bay, the lake expansion of the Saint Croix River, in 1923. Crooks was a guest of the musical accompanist and arranger Frank La Forge. La Forge had built a studio on his father-in-law's 2700-acre summer estate, and operatic proteges such as Lily Pons and Gladys Swarthout not only honed their talents but also enjoyed camping forays along the river. The grassy knoll overlooking Loon Bay was a favorite camping spot.

After several busy concert seasons as an oratorio and song recital specialist, including participation in the American premiere of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, Richard Crooks traveled to Germany where he made his operatic début in Hamburg as Cavaradossi in 1927. His career took him to the Berlin State Opera, Belgium, and Sweden.

Following appearances in Berlin and other European centers, Richard Crooks returned to the USA, making his American debut in 1930 in Philadelphia as Cavardossi. In February 1933 he made his Metropolitan début in New York as Massenet' s Des Grieux and remained with the company for the next ten years as well as singing in other houses.

Although limited in the upper register, Richard Crooks possessed a voice of uncommon sweetness mixed with virility, and he learned to produce the top notes as cleverly mixed head tones. Max de Schauensee remarked that Crooks was "admired for [his] consistently high standard of tone and [vocal] production. He was a sound musician but an indifferent actor." On this latter point, Peter Davis remarked in The American Opera Singer that "from his photographs at least, Crooks always gave the impression of a friendly insurance salesman. But the voice was by far the most attractive among the American tenors of his generation."

Here is the lovely "Songs my Mother taught me"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpII60yELmg

Here is Richard Crooks' most famous recording, "The Holy City"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM9i_I_kq_A

Dan Beddoe, The Great Welsh Tenor

 

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.

A Cincinnati Enquirer 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 en masse to pay him special tribute."

A December 1931 New York Evening Post article, recalling his singing in the Messiah and the Elijah 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.

A New York Times 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 Messiah. 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."

Here is the great Welsh tenor singing "O Danny Boy:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3otalrk8Ig

And here is "A Moonlight Song:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06OJQ_eJTyY

The Mighty Voice of Kurt Baum

 

Kurt Baum has always held a special place in my heart, because he was the first great opera singer I heard.  I was 17 years old, which has been a very long time ago.  I was listening  to the radio one Saturday afternoon, when the Texaco Opera Theater came on. It was the first opera I had ever heard.  It was Aida, and Rhadames was being sung by none other than the great Kurt Baum.  I simply could not believe what I was hearing.  I didn’t know such voices existed.  I knew” Celeste Aida” from having played it on the piano, but hearing Baum sing the phrase“un trono, vicino al sol “ as he brought the great aria  to its thundering ending was a totally new experience for a 17 year old with no experience at all in opera.  I never looked back.  It’s still one of my favorite arias.  This might be a good place to start:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsF3QoAPD-8

Not the most beautiful voice in opera, but one of the mightiest in the business!

Baum was born in Prague in 1908, and became famous for his 25 seasons at the Met  as a superb House Tenor who was always available, always good and always popular with with the Met audience.  His huge repertoire included Aida, Rosenkavalier, Trovatore, Lohengrin, Pagliacci, Carmen,Tosca / Turridu, Samson, and many, many others, including William Tell.  Here is the stunning “O Muto Asil:”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzGx-Dgonsg

What an extraordinary voice!  He always sang at full blast and always drew great attention to himself.  There were very few voices like it!

Mado Robin

 

Madeleine Marie Robin, generally known as Mado Robin, was a French coloratura soprano,noted for her extreme upper range.  She is commonly considered to have had one of the highest female voicesof all time, similar in many ways to that of Yma Sumac.  Robin was born in Yzeures-sur-Creuse, Touraine.While some considered her  to have been a singer in the general category of the vaudeville singers of earlier days, she was in fact an extraordinary singer and considered a serious vocal artist in France, where she was, generally speaking, treated with respect and greatly appreciated. She appeared widely in concert, and on Radio and TV. I think one famous recording tells the tale.  Here is perhaps the most extraordinary of all recordings of “Spargi d’amaro pianto:”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WyMp8G3Hkg

At age 17, she married Alan Smith, an Englishman, who died shortly after World War II in a car crash. She had one daughter.

Robin died in Paris in 1960 from cancer (some sources state liver cancer, others leukaemia) a few days before the 1500th performance of Lakmé at the Opéra-Comique, which had organized the event for her birthday.

A museum to her life opened in her home town in 2009.

Dear reader:  If you wish to make a comment on this blog, please feel free to contact me at:

Edmund StAustell@ gmail.com    Your comments are always welcome.    Edmund