Countermelody

1:16:28

Episode 473. Renata Scotto and the Opera Queens

Countermelody ·

2026/06/18

We are quickly approaching the third anniversary of the death of Renata Scotto, and that sad commemoration, combined with my desire to produce an episode celebrating Opera Queens, prompted this episode, which features a rare live LP that I once owned a few decades ago and recently returned to my collection. It features live performances of “our diva” from the stage of Carnegie Hall on two different occasions in the mid- to late-1970s: the first, a gala concert on September 12, 1975 with Eve Queler

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1:54:27

Episode 472. Ben Bagley Revisited: Lies Come True

Countermelody ·

2026/06/15

A year ago I published an episode entitled “Gay Eccentrics,” which featured a number of the most delightfully peculiar personalities sprinkled across queer music history. The third of those characters, theatrical and record producer Ben Bagley, reappears on today’s episode. This time I feature selections from his record albums featuring two more gay eccenctrics, Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter! Bagley’s recordings uncovered and/or resuscitated trunk songs and other material by some of the most important

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1:45:44

Episode 471. Joan Caplan In Recital

Countermelody ·

2026/06/12

Today we visit the rare recorded output my beloved teacher, Joan Caplan (15 October 1932 – 19 April 2025), live performances made during her active years as a song recitalist and as an opera and oratorio singer. We hear her complete performances of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Peggy Glanville-Hicks, the Cinco canciones negras by Xavier Montsalvatge, and the Zigeunerlieder of Johannes Brahms, as well as songs by Gustav Mahler from the German folk poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn

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1:36:01

Episode 470. Peter Pears Plays Around

Countermelody ·

2026/06/08

A year ago, I published as my final Pride 2025 episode, Pears Sings Not-Britten, which explored the voice and artistry of British tenor Peter Pears in repertoire other than that written for him by his partner Benjamin Britten. Today’s episode, a refurbished bonus episode originally published nearly a year ago has a new, catchy title that carries that theme even further, in that Britten is entirely absent, either as composer or as Pears’s usual accompanist. Today, I feature collections of songs by

en-US

1:23:21

Episode 469. Muriel and Angela: Together Again for...

Countermelody ·

2026/06/06

The 1950s recorded collaboration between two iconic artists: African American musical star Muriel Smith and Angela Morley: composer, conductor, arranger, and trans pioneer.

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1:50:42

Episode 468. Deutsche Orchesterlieder: Beyond Mahler...

Countermelody ·

2026/06/01

Today’s lengthy episode (I probably should’ve divided it in half!) is another devoted to orchestral song, in this case Deutsche Orchesterlieder. But, in a twist, you will not be hearing any music by either Mahler or Strauss today. (Their orchestral songs have already been amply represented on Countermelody. No, today I am featuring songs ranging from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Some of the composers presented – Alban Berg, Max Reger, Hugo Wolf, Arnold

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1:10:51

Episode 467. Eidé Noréna Sings Gounod

Countermelody ·

2026/05/29

Today I revisit one of my favorite singers of all time, the extraordinary Norwegian lyric-coloratura soprano Eidé Noréna (1884-1968), whose voice and artistry hit me like a bolt out of the blue when I first discovered her recordings several decades ago. Born Karoline Hansen, she made her concert debut at the age of 19 and in 1907 began her operatic career as Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice. In 1909 she married the actor Egil Eide, through whose coaching she became celebrated for her dramatic portrayals

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1:43:22

Episode 466. Baritones Both Butch and Bonnie

Countermelody ·

2026/05/25

Today’s episode features baritones of all stripes (with the occasional bass-baritone) in a program focusing primarily on song in its various manifestations. Whether that be Broadway and pop tunes (sung by Alfred Drake, Allan Evans, and Harve Presnell); Schubert (performed by Doda Conrad, Bernard Diamant, Max van Egmond, Robert Holl, and Siegfried Lorenz); other German Lieder (with Victor Braun and Heinrich Schlusnus); Russian and Nordic song (sung by Matti Lehtinen, Yuri Mazurok, Erik Sædén, Martti

en-US

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,

en-US

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

en-US

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

en-US

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

en-US

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

en-US

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

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

en-US

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

en-US

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