A Golden Age Richard Strauss Compilation

  A compilation of arias and scenes from Richard Strauss operas.(announced). Included are such artists as:  Lotte Lehmann, Maria Ivogun, Rose Pauly, Charles Kullmann, Barbara Kemp, Richard Mayr, Tiana Lemnitz, Viorica Ursuleac, Erna Berger, Margarete Teschemacher, and Gerhard Husch. (68 min.)

Direct download: Strauss_Compil..mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:21am EDT

La Traviata with Beverly Sills

  I recently found out that the San Carlo,Naples audience carried on so much after Sills' "Amami,Alfredo" that she had to return to the stage for a bow after she had gone into her dressing room. Sills gives her usual heart-wrenching performance and she is joined by Alfredo Kraus and Mario Zanasi. The conductor in this 1970 performance is Aldo Ceccato.  (73 min.)

Just a little aside from me: The many times I saw Sills, I always said that she was "better than the sum of her parts." One would not think of her in the Bolena or the Roberto Devereux, or even as Violetta with an essentially "coloratura" voice that excelled in operas such as Le Coq D'Or and Julius Caesar. However, what emerged was a phenomenal career and I am so thanksful  I saw her in just about all her roles.

Direct download: Traviata_Sills.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:55am EDT

Fabulous Forza!!!

From 1956 Florence under Gabriele Santini we present an all-star Forza del Destino, with Renata Tebaldi in glorious voice, Giuseppe Di Stefano,Giulio Neri, and Giangiacomo Guelfi. (74 min.)

Direct download: Forza_Tebaldi_1956.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:43pm EDT

More Divas of the era from 1906-1935

  A collection of arias as sung by some of the great divas of the past. The selections are announced but the list (in proper order) is as follows:

Luisa Tetrazzini, Nelly Melba, Adelina Patti, Frieda Hempel, Amelita Galli-Curci, Rosa Ponselle, Lotte Lehmann, Eva Turner, Nina Koshetz, Eide Norena, Maria Nemeth, and Claudia Muzio  (69 min.)

Direct download: Divas2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:50am EDT

Les Contes D'Hoffmann, 1955

Pierre Monteux conducts Offenbach's opera from 1955 with a cast headed by Richard Tucker and including Martial Singher, Roberta Peters, Rise Stevens, Lucine Amara,Mildred Miller, Norman Scott (Crespel), Alessio de Paolis (comic tenor roles), Clifford Harvuot (Schlemil), and Sandra Warfield (Mother's voice.)

Direct download: Hoffman_Tucker.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:06am EDT

Two Pearl Fishers

Scenes from two performances of Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers." The first,in Italian,is from Milano under Armando LaRosa Parodi in 1960, featuring Alfredo Kraus,Giuseppe Taddei, and Pina Margarini.

The second performance is from French Radio under Manuel Rosenthal in 1959 with Alain Vanzo, Gabriel Bacquier, and Janine Micheau.   (69 min.)

Direct download: Pearl_F.Kraus-Vanzo.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:20pm EDT

  This absolutely divine lady was born on June 20, 1892..Just the way she sings, "Oh Signor" is worth everything when you are so STARVED for this kind of singing..totally absent today.

Category:general -- posted at: 10:10am EDT

Susannah by  Carlisle Floyd

An exciting performance of Floyd's "Susannah" from 1999 under James Conlon with Renee Fleming, Samuel Ramey, Jerry Hadley, and John McVeigh. This has become one of the most famous of American operas.  (73 min.)

Direct download: Susannah.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:39pm EDT

Tristan und Isolde from 1955

  A superb Tristan und Isolde from 1955 under Rudolf Kempe with a great cast that features Astrid Varnay, Set Svanholm, Josef Metternich,Blanche Thebom, and Jerome Hines   (69 min.)

Direct download: Tristan_1955.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:33pm EDT

Happy Birthday,Odabella

 To honor my dear Maria Galvany on her June 19th birthday, I present an Attila from 1979 featuring Justino Diaz, Enrico Di Giuseppe, and Cornelius Opthof from Cincinatti, conducted by Anton Coppola. This is a thrilling performance and we all wish Mme.Galvany a very happy birthday!! (68 min.)

Direct download: Attila_Galvny.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:08pm EDT

Orfeo with Fedora Barbieri

  The luscious organ-like voice of Fedora Barbieri is heard in this La Scala 1950 Orfeo under Wilhelm Furtwaengler. Hilde Gueden is Euridice and Magda Gabory is Amor.  (72 min.)

Direct download: Orfeo_Barbieri1.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:10am EDT

     Just enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 12:31am EDT

HAPPY FATHERS'DAY!!!!

  To all you daddies out there...Have a GREAT DAY!!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 1:57pm EDT

Happy Fathers' Day!!!!!! Sorry that Rigoletto and Gilda were not in a particularly good mood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 1:51pm EDT

  I have posted this before..but we have new members..or old members who want to sample the greatness of Mari Lyn..WITH TITLES!!!!!  I sent this to Joyce di Donato...I hope she will still talk to me....

Category:general -- posted at: 11:00am EDT

LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


  One can love Cesare Valletti or Irmgard Seefried, but what is wrong with also loving a BIG VOICE???? Some crabs frown on my saying that a certain voice "blew the roof off the theatre." Maybe they want to have everyone sound as if they are singing the Dichterliebe instead of Norma?
    What singers knocked you out in your life?  For ancient me, it was Nilsson,Tebaldi,Verrett,Corelli,MacNeil,Del Monaco..and other "provincial"(doity woid) singers like Lando Bartolini, Nicola Martinucci,Gino Penno,Caterina Mancini (I assume Mancini) who thrilled the hell out of us.
    Recently a singer said to me, "They don't like SQUILLO." Well, tough!!!!
No one should ever have to be apologetic for loving singers who made you feel as if the roof was shaking. In contrast, some voices cannot project at all,and despite their artistry and perhaps nice vocal quality, they cannot get the voice over the orchestra (and I assume not even with water running in my bathroom.)
       Just sit back and revel in the BIG NOISES...do we have any today???? Zajick is a rarity....I guess teachers are afraid to produce Nilssons and Corellis, and that is why a  lot of the dramatic moments in opera go for naught. Also, you could turn up a Niilsson or a Corelli recording to ear-splitting volume, and you still would not know what the artist sounded live...but you are all young and will have to accept what is there.
                                                                                    Charlie  (Guleghina fan)

Category:general -- posted at: 12:15pm EDT

Rise Stevens' Birthday

  Sad day for me, remembering dear Rise and that she would have turned 100 today. The photo you see is a young me with Rise at our last music club gathering, and I feel so fortunate to have known her for those years. She is the first singer I ever met, and to this day,I can "feel" the handshake and the greasepaint when I first met her after a Met Carmen. I was 16, but the memories are so vivid.

    As we go on in life, there are some people who will forever remain in our hearts, and Rise was one of them

Category:general -- posted at: 2:23pm EDT

Hello, WORLD!!!!!

   After all these years, I just noticed that I can trace your downloads in some countries to the extent that I can see,for example, what individual provinces of China (my second most popular nation for downloads). I therefore LEARN the names of the various areas of certain countries..not all. This is very interesting, and as always I am so happy to see that these podcasts go to so many parts of the world.(nothing yet in Greenland..why?)

   As always,I thank you for your support.We are at about one million two hundred thousand "hits" in six years. What did I do when I was teaching and there was no internet?

   I thank you for your continued support. So far I have not run out of material. Again,if you have any special requests, e-mail me at Placido21@aol.com. Placido..oh yeah..he is singing all the unborn kids in Frau next season!! (Just kidding...i think.)


Category:general -- posted at: 2:18pm EDT

Der Rosenkavalier Act 3 from SF

  The beloved Rise Stevens would be 100 on June 11, the exact same day as Richard Strauss was born in 1864. How appropriate that a great Octavian would share this day with the composer of this great work, a work in which Rise excelled. George Sebastian in San Francisco, 1945, conducts the third act of Rosenkavalier, with Rise, Lotte Lehmann, Lorenzo Alvary, Nadine Conner, Herta Glaz and Allesio de Paolis (Valzacchi and Annina), and Walter Olitzki (Faninal.)   (52 min.)

Direct download: Rosenk.act_3_SF.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:51pm EDT

How appropriate that Rise Stevens,who would have been 100 on June 11, was born on the same day as Richard Strauss (1864). He would be PROUD!!!!

 Bless my dear Rise forever in my heart!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 10:45pm EDT

Mefistofele, 1967 From Carnegie Hall

 An all-star cast in Boito's Mefistofele under Lamberto Gardelli. Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, and Nicolai Ghiaurov make this a marvelous performance.  (73 min.)

Direct download: Mef.NY_Tebaldi.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:54pm EDT

Elisir D'Amore from Florence, 1967

 A veritable LESSON in singing by the legendary Carlo Bergonzi, the Nemorino on this 1967 Elisir under Gianandrea Gavazzeni. In addition, Renata Scotto, Giuseppe Taddei, and Ivo Vinco perform magnificently and show what proper Italianate style is all about .  (73 min.)

Direct download: Elisir_Bergonzi.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:58am EDT

La Forza del Destino from 1943

  Under the legendary Bruno Walter, here are scenes from a most exciting "Forza del Destino" featuring Stella Roman, Ezio Pinza, Lawrence Tibbett, Frederick Jagel, and Salvatore Baccaloni. We were most fortunate that during World War Two we were still able to assemble a great cast, lacking some artists unable to come here. It is a wonderful era in opera history, and I think this performance exemplifies the period.  (72 min.)

Direct download: Forza_Roman.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 6:40pm EDT

  Countertenor???????  I think his mommy played Tebaldi when she was pregnant.

GREAT!!!! Not a countertenor in my view...but a male soprano.....amazing!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 2:10am EDT

EINE NACHT IN VENEDIG

Highlights from a 1938 Berlin performance of Strauss' "A Night in Venice," featuring the superb Marcel Wittrisch as Caramello and a cast including Karl Schmitt-Walter (Herzog), Carla Spletter (Anna), Rosl Seegers (Ciboletta), and Margarethe Arndt-Ober ( Agricola). The conductor is Heinrich Steiner.   (64 min.)

Direct download: Night_in_Venice.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:25am EDT

Should I laugh or cry???

Teresa Stich-Randall had an illustrious career, and I am sure she did some fine singing, but these arias from Puritani,Ernani, and Traviata always were part of what we called a "party tape." I guess it is the lack of vibrato that drives us to hysteria...but you figure it out. i just do not understand it. (25 min.)

Direct download: Stich-Randall.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:11am EDT

Fedora Part Two

  Act three of the Freni/Domingo Fedora, followed by some scenes featuring Ferruccio Tagliavini and Pia Tassinari. This is such beautiful and emotional music.  (69 min.)

Direct download: Fedora_Freni_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:17pm EDT

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