Countermelody

Next up in my series of Countermelody “vacation episodes,” here’s the tenor counterpart of the soprano episode I published at the beginning of the week. This is the Historical Recording Enterprises mid-1970s release of the first of two issues of “Ten Top Tenors in Ten Live Performances.” Included in the mix are Carlo Bergonzi, Jussi Björling, José Carreras, Franco Corelli, Giuseppe di Stefano, and...

Hello, fans and listeners! I am “Óut of the Office” for the next two weeks, hence the tongue-in-cheek title of this episode, the first of four recycled potpourri episodes bringing you four records issued on the pirate label Historical Recordings Enterprises in the 1970s. Two of them (including today’s) feature great sopranos of that era, and two of them celebrate “ten top tenors” each. A few years...

I have twice featured the great British bass-baritone Norman Bailey (who also sang both regular baritone and, later in his career, regular bass roles) on my podcast. The first time was on the occasion of his death in the fall of 2021 at the age of 88. The second time was a 2025 episode entitled “Norman Bailey Revisited” in which he was heard singing everything from Peter Warlock to Sigmund Romberg...

There was only one way to follow up my interview with the iconic, the unique  Steven Blier published earlier this week: with an episode dedicated to recordings of his exceptional pianism, necessarily highlighting his accomplishments as the co-founder and artistic director of NYFOS, the New York Festival of Song, which is just concluding its 38th season. Going all the way back to Steve’s first reco...

Onelia Fineschi (1921 – 2004) was one of the finest Italian lyric sopranos of her era. Probably most famous today for having provided the singing voice of Gina Lollobrigida in a 1948 filmed version of Pagliacci , she had a wide-ranging repertoire and an up-and-down career trajectory that lasted, however, nearly 25 years. Initially I became interested in Fineschi because one of my listeners gifted...

On my recent Edith Mathis episode, I played her singing one of Handel’s Neun deutsche Arien , a group of religious songs set to German texts by pietist poet Berthold Heinrich Brockes. A number of years ago, I created another episode featuring all nine of the arias sung by a magnificent assembly of fine baroque singers. At that time, as a pendant to that episode, I also did a bonus episode with two...

Today’s featured artist is, I hope, a name that some of you will at least have heard of: the French mezzo-soprano Germaine Cernay, born Germaine Pointu in Le Havre in 1900 and dying tragically young of an epileptic event in war-torn Paris at the age of only 43. Here is an artist who strikes a balance between poise and white heat, with a voice of exquisite timbre anchored by a flawless technique. B...

The rich-voiced and expressive Hungarian mezzo-soprano Júlia Hamari celebrated her 83rd birthday last November, and in honor of that event, I produced an episode which originally appeared only on Patreon, but which I bring to you today as a belated birthday tribute. I’ve put together a program that serves mostly as a tribute to her as a song recitalist (with a nod as well to her matchless accompli...

Two of the greatest and most versatile sopranos of the late 20th century, Christiane Eda-Pierre and Teresa Żylis-Gara, both departed within a year of each other in the early 2020s. They also happened to have hyphenated last names and also both bear certain artistic similarities to last week’s featured artist, Edith Mathis (who also pops up today in a cameo!) Unlike Mathis, both Eda-Pierre and Żyli...

Today a belated memorial tribute to the beloved Swiss soprano Edith Mathis, who died in Salzburg thirteen months ago, two days before her 87th birthday. One of the most highly regarded lyric sopranos of the 1960s and 1970s, Mathis began her career in the late fifties, retiring more than 40 years later in 2001. In between she, armed with a radiant, technically secure voice allied with an understate...

Today’s episode serves numerous purposes: first, as a belated tribute to the great Renata Scotto and in particular her controversial assumption of the title role Vincenzo Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece, Norma . Second, as a memento of International Womens’ Day and Women’s History Month. The remainder of the month will feature various favorite divas in belated Countermelody tributes. In all honest...

As a pendant to, and continuation of, my Black History Month 2026 series on Countermelody , I am pleased and honored to present to you the exquisite African American lyric soprano Klesie Kelly, who, as with numerous other singers that we have explored together this month, has made her life, career, and home abroad, in this case, Germany, where she came to pursue post-university studies in Detmold...

Last week I published an episode about Black Pop Singers who emigrated to Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of these gentlemen settled in the German-speaking countries, where there was a ready market for the “otherness” and exoticism that they embodied. The one outlier on that episode was Henry Wright, born in 1933, who in the late 1950s toured Italy with Lionel Hampton’s band and elected to rem...

As the last official entry in Countermelody ’s Black History Month 2026 series, I bring you a potpourri episode that has long been a dream of mine: one dedicated entirely to the Spiritual, that distinctly American musical form that was born in adversity (specifically enslavement, murder, torture, family separation) and yet by a confluence of miracles yielded the most transcendentally beautiful mus...

As the penultimate episode in my 2026 Black History Month series, I revisit the stories of African American performers who, for a variety of reasons, including seeking to improve their increase their opportunities as artists of color, made their way to Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. Today the focus is on the low-voiced males, baritones, bass-baritones, and basses, in a variety of musical genres, w...

As we hurtle toward the third anniversary (in May already!) of Grace Bumbry’s death, I have had her very much on my mind. It’s true that I consider her greatest achievement to have been as a Liedersängerin . Others opine that her operatic roles as a mezzo (Carmen, Eboli, Amneris among others) represent her at her very finest. There are fewer who focus on her work as a soprano. And yet, when she sa...

Last week the opera world joined in unanimous celebration as Leontyne Price celebrated her 99th birthday. Though I’m a trifle late to the party, I do have a Price episode today, and one with a twist, featuring the beloved diva in a repertoire she only occasionally performed: the operas of Richard Strauss. Today let’s imagine ourselves back in the 1960s and early 1970s in an alternate universe, one...

Today’s Black History Month episode serves also as a belated birthday tribute to the exceptional African American soprano Faye Robinson, who was born in Houston on 2 November 1943. Robinson has a voice that transcends genre, encompassing both lyric-coloratura roles at one end and pure dramatic soprano repertoire on the other. In addition, she has been created vocal works by some of the greatest tw...

Adelaide Hall (1901 – 1993), entertainer extraordinaire, really had it all: voice, talent, beauty, dancing chops, charisma, joie de vivre and sophistication. She was the first Black performer to attain international stardom, even before Joséphine Baker, with whom she shared a number of similarities (though Hall probably had the superior voice). She was the first singer to scat on record; she helpe...

I first published this episode two and a half years ago in June 2023, in commemoration of the death of the great Tina Turner. As always when I take on such an iconic figure, I try to give a different perspective on the artist in question than one would normally encounter. For this reason, I chose to frame Tina within the context of the many other female pop artists of color who emigrated to Europe...

To kick off Black History Month 2026 (which, contrary to the current US administration, is still a thing, and not just on Countermelody , either!), I present to you another Zwischenfach singer, the (mezzo-)soprano Inez Matthews. She was born in Ossining, NY on 23 August 1917 and died in the Bronx on 28 March 2004. She is probably most famous for singing the role of Serena on the legendary 1951 (ne...

Yesterday, January 29th, was the 101st anniversary of the birth of the Canadian soprano (later mezzo) Lois Marshall. Marshall was in so many ways a unique and treasurable artist. Afflicted with polio as a young child, she spent much of her early life hospitalized. It was there that she discovered the expressive power of her singing voice. Following her training at the Royal Conservatory of Music i...

One of the things about my podcast that brings me the greatest joy is when I can introduce my listeners to a wide range of singers that need to be better-known. Back when I was preparing birthday episodes in October, I chose literally hundreds of tracks that I wanted to share with my listeners. At the time I made use of only a handful of them, so today I have once again dipped into that vat of gor...

I’m sure many of you balked when you saw the title of this episode: “But Daniel: Schubert wrote no orchestral songs!” And of course you would be correct. And yet, what about when other composers orchestrate his songs? Therein lies the content of today’s episode. Historical evidence from some of Schubert’s contemporaries and closest associates indicate that he was strict in both tempo and affect in...

Here’s a rare sampling of Countermelody favorite, the refulgent Czech contralto Věra Soukupová, in song repertoire, accompanied by both piano and full orchestra. The featured works are two song cycles of the so-called “late Romantic era,” one by Antonín Dvořák (his 1894 Biblical Songs ), and one by Gustav Mahler, his 1901 Kindertotenlieder cycle. The Dvořák recording stems from 1967 and features C...