PODCAST

Countermelody

DANIEL GUNDLACH

Countermelody devoted to the glories of the human voice raised in song.

music music commentary

All Episodes

1:35:46

Episode 465. Black Bach, Part I

Countermelody ·

2026/05/22

Here is an episode I have been dreaming of putting together since the very early days of the podcast: Black Bach, an historical survey of the solo vocal music of Johann Sebastian Bach as performed by African American singers. In nearly the entire first half of the Twentieth Century, the performance of Black singers was restricted primarily to the concert platform. Even young singers of color who were first making their mark in the 1950s barely dared to aspire to a career in opera. In such a context,

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1:46:39

Episode 464. Moffo and Gedda: Together Yet Apart

Countermelody ·

2026/05/18

Today’s episode goes back three and a half years to two artists whom I had recently featured on back-to-back Countermelody episodes: Anna Moffo and Nicolai Gedda. In the case of each of these singers, I entered the ring with a not-altogether-positive impression: in the case of Gedda, it was because of an apparent desire by either him or his record company to sing nearly everything, with sometimes uneven results. In the case of Moffo, it was the more serious issue of the vocal difficulties she

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1:16:26

Episode 463. Arie antiche, Gigli Edition

Countermelody ·

2026/05/15

I’ve decided to make it Tenor Week here on Countermelody. Earlier this week, we heard Charles Kullman in a smattering of live and studio recordings. Back in November, as I was collating material for the arie antiche episode, which featured more than a century’s worth of great singers, I noticed one singer who frequently programmed such (restyled) Italian baroque songs in his concerts and recordings, the Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli, considered by many to be the greatest tenor, Italian or otherwise,

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1:34:59

Episode 462. Get to Know Charles Kullman

Countermelody ·

2026/05/11

I’ve had a real urge lately to revisit the voices and careers of some of my favorite tenors. So today I bring you the exceptional American artist Charles Kullman (1903 – 1983). The early years of his career were spent primarily in Berlin and Vienna, but for twenty-five years beginning in 1935, he was also a mainstay at the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang a total of 33 different roles. The sheen and spin on his lyric voice, allied to a firm technique, allowed him sing everything from Rinuccio and

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1:35:36

Episode 461. Bubbles on the Nile (Original Edition)

Countermelody ·

2026/05/08

I recently obtained a copy of the rare pirate recording entitled “Bubbles on the Nile (and Other Rare Phenomena): Familiar Divas in Unfamiliar Repertoire.” It foregrounds 13 favorite twentieth-century divas singing roles with which they were not commonly associated. Prominently featured, of course, is the artist featured in a lovingly caricatured drawing on the cover of the LP, Beverly Sills (AKA Bubbles) singing, as the title implies, the title role of Verdi’s Aida, a role which she seldom sang,

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1:16:23

Episode 460. A Countermelody Nosegay (Mostly Mezzos...

Countermelody ·

2026/05/04

One of my favorite kinds of Countermelody episode is a potpourri of singers, music, and recordings that charm and enchant to me at that given moment. Today’s episode, which began as a compiled setlist about six months ago, is a particularly enchanting bouquet of musical delights, or, to coin a favorite word from my childhood, a “nosegay.” Today’s bevy of mostly mezzos and contraltos includes such old favorites of mine as Helen Watts, Ninon Vallin, Lisa Kirk, Mitsuko Shirai, Tatiana Troyanos, Elena

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1:55:57

Episode 459. The Art of Steven Blier

Countermelody ·

2026/05/02

There was only one way to follow up my interview with the iconic, the unique Steven Blier published earlier this week, and that is with an episode dedicated to his dazzling at the keyboard and 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 recordings in the late 1980s, I have compiled a setlist that is a testament to his love of song, and his ever-expanding

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1:36:01

Episode 458. From Ear to Ear: A Conversation with...

Countermelody ·

2026/04/27

Today a new segment of Countermelody Conversations that has been months in the offing! One of the ineffable delights of hosting Countermelody over the years is the connection it has brought me with my listeners, fans, and subjects, including some extraordinary (and sometimes famous) musicians and people. One of the podcast’s most devoted fans is a man that I have held in adulation for years: pianist and educator Steven Blier, co-founder of the New York Festival of Song, now concluding its 38th

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Episode 458. A Conversation with Steven Blier: From...

Countermelody ·

2026/04/27

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1:39:06

Episode 457. Ein Opernabend mit… Anna Tomowa-Sintow

Countermelody ·

2026/04/24

Today’s episode serves two purposes: First, I introduce my listeners to a wonderful series first released on Eterna, the East German state record label, entitled “Ein Opernabend mit…” which featured singers, some but not all of them German, active in East Germany between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Some of these singers are well-known to lovers of great singers, with others much less-so. The quality of the singing varies from release to release, but the very best of these represents

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1:26:45

Episode 456. John Wustman in Memoriam

Countermelody ·

2026/04/20

I had hoped not to be bringing this episode to my listeners until many years hence. Alas, my dear teacher and mentor John Wustman, one of the most influential, pathbreaking, and inspired of all accompanists (a term he far preferred to “collaborative pianist”) died this past Thursday at the age of 95. I have already featured his magnificent artistry on countless episodes, including two devoted expressly to his superb artistry and musicianship. Rather than simply reissuing one of those episodes (or

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57:56

Episode 455. Back in the Saddle

Countermelody ·

2026/04/16

Greetings to all from your recently Venetianized podcaster, now (as the title of today’s episode indicates) once again back in the saddle and bringing you the fourth and final of my vacation (or holiday, if you prefer) episodes featuring great sopranos and tenors of the 1960s and 1970s, as compiled by the late great collector and vocal aficionado Ed Rosen. Today is the second of the tenor LPs from that collection and once again features a range of the brightest and best of that era in thrilling live

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1:03:48

Episode 454. Gone Fishing

Countermelody ·

2026/04/13

David and I are still on holiday in the magical city of Venice; it’s my first vist here in nearly forty years and it has been beguiling and enchanting (as well as exhausting)! Before we left, I put together yet another episode of great sopranos of the 1960s and 1970s in stunning live performances as compiled on a 1970s pirate release by Historical Recording Enterprises which I present to you here. Many of my favorites (Callas, Olivero, Scotto, Cruz-Romo, Freni), capped by an unforgettable

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1:10:45

Episode 453. Out of Commission

Countermelody ·

2026/04/10

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 others singing favorite tenor arias from Manon Lescaut, La forza del destino, L’elisir d’amore, Tosca,

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59:46

Episode 452. Out of the Office

Countermelody ·

2026/04/05

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 ago, David was preparing to downsize to a new apartment in NYC and one of my tasks was to go through

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1:01:55

Episode 451. Norman Bailey Sings Three Song Cycles

Countermelody ·

2026/04/03

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 to the great Heldenbariton roles of Wagner and Strauss for which he was particularly celebrated. Today,

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1:55:57

Episode 459. The Art of Steven Blier

Countermelody ·

2026/04/01

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 recordings in the late 1980s, I have compiled a setlist that is a testament to his love of song and his

en-US

1:39:28

Episode 450. Onelia Fineschi Sings the Undoing of Women

Countermelody ·

2026/03/30

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 me with a visually arresting Cetra LP of her 1947 recordings of various opera arias, which, upon

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1:03:30

Episode 449. Adele Stolte and Margot Guilleaume Sing...

Countermelody ·

2026/03/27

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 of the lesser-known of those singers, German sopranos Margot Guilleaume (12 January 1910 – 25 June 2004)

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1:32:17

Episode 448. Get to Know Germaine Cernay

Countermelody ·

2026/03/24

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. Between making her debut at the Opéra-Comique in 1927 and her early retirement from her singing career

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