Oberon's Glade

Author: Philip Gardner

  • Gabriella Tucci ~ “Vissi d’arte”

    Gabriella_Tucci

    While it was the voice of Renata Tebaldi that initiated my lifelong obsession with opera, it was her compatriot, Gabriella Tucci, who was my favorite soprano during the 1960s when I was glued to the radio for every Met matinee radio broadcast. Tucci’s singing of Aida, both Leonoras, Violetta, Desdemona, Cio-Cio-San, Alice Ford, and Marguerite in FAUST on these broadcasts captivated me, and thru her I developed a love for hearing the words sung with such colour and feeling.

    Seeing Gabriella Tucci in TROVATORE at the Old Met was a very special experience for me. I went on to see her in more roles – Liu, Elisabetta, Mimi – at the New Met, and enjoyed her so much, yet it was those formative Old Met broadcasts that linger in my mind to this day: I was learning these great operas at the time, and she taught me how beautifully they could be sung.

    I’ve just come upon this video of Ms. Tucci singing Tosca’s “Vissi d’arte” on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1962, and it reminds me of everything I loved about her.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Ravel: Shéhérazade ~ Christiane Karg

    Karg-Christiane

    Soprano Christiane Karg (above) sings Maurice Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Stanisław Skrowaczewski conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. The performance took place in September 2013.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Lukas Lemcke sings Franz Schubert’s ‘Der Wanderer’

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    German basso Lukas Lemcke sings Franz Schubert’s Der Wanderer, with  Manfred Schiebel at the piano.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Lucia Valentini-Terrani sings Brahms

    Terrani

    While best-remembered as an interpreter of the great Rossini mezzo-soprano roles, Lucia Valentini-Terrani here shows another facet of her artistry, singing Johannes Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody. Peter Maag conducts.

    Lucia Valentini-Terrani – Brahms ~ Alto Rhapsody – Peter Maag cond – RAI 1979

    Valentini-Terrani, born in Padua, sang at all the major Italian opera houses, as well as at Paris, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Chicago, and Washington DC. She debuted at The Met as Isabella in L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI in 1974, and had a huge success at Covent Garden in 1976 in LA CENERENTOLA. Beyond Rossini, her repertoire extended to such diverse roles as Eboli, Carmen, Charlotte in WERTHER, and Jocasta in OEDIPUS REX. 

    Diagnosed with leukemia in 1996, Lucia Valentini-Terrani passed away in 1998 at the age of 51.

  • Silent Noon

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    “Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, 
    The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
    Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
    ‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
    All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
    Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
    Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
    ‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

    Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly
    Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: –
    So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above.
    Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
    This close-companioned inarticulate hour
    When twofold silence was the song of love.”

    ~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

  • Zelenka ~ Magnificat in D

    Snapshot bach collegium

    The Bach-Collegium Prague in a performance of Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Magnificat in D, given in 2018.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Julia Hamari ~ Bach’s “Erbarme dich”

    Hamari

    The Hungarian contralto Julia Hamari (above) is perhaps best-loved for her classic performance in Karl Richter’s 1971 televised performance of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, which is preserved on video. Her singing of the aria “Erbarme dich“, with violin soloist Otto Büchner, is spellbinding. Watch it here.

  • Julia Hamari ~ Bach’s “Erbarme dich”

    Hamari

    The Hungarian contralto Julia Hamari (above) is perhaps best-loved for her classic performance in Karl Richter’s 1971 televised performance of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, which is preserved on video. Her singing of the aria “Erbarme dich“, with violin soloist Otto Büchner, is spellbinding. Watch it here.

  • ERWARTUNG

    K a - Copy

    Arnold Schönberg’s ERWARTUNG performed by soprano Karen Armstrong in a Götz Friedrich film.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Morten Lauridsen’s AVE MARIA

    Lauridsen - Copy

    Above: composer Morten Lauridsen

    The Luther College Nordic Choir perform Lauridsen’s Ave Maria. Watch and listen here.

    The performance took place at Bethany Lutheran Church in Denver, Colorado, in January 2012.