Oberon's Glade

Tag: Roberta Peters

  • Jon Crain

    J crain

    Tenor Jon Crain sang with the New York City Opera and at The Met, where his roles included Don Jose, Narraboth in SALOME, and Matteo in ARABELLA. He also participated in a studio recording of CAROUSEL with Roberta Peters, Alfred Drake, Claramae Turner, and Norman Treigle, and in an abridged English-language recording of TALES OF HOFFMANN issued by The Metropolitan Opera. Crain appeared on radio programs devoted to opera and song. 

    Following his retirement, the tenor joined the music faculty at West Virginia University. He passed away in 2003.

    Jon Crain ~ Ariadne auf Naxos – excerpt in English ~ 1958

  • Roberta Peters Has Passed Away

    Roberta-Peters-ConvertImage

    Roberta Peters has passed away at the age of 86. I first heard her voice on the Texaco broadcasts in the early 1960s, when I was in the earliest stages of my lifelong obsession with opera. She was also on the very first opera LP set I ever owned: an RCA aria collection which my parents had given me. Roberta appeared frequently on the Ed Sullivan Show during those years.

    I first saw Roberta live at the Old Met; she sang Despina in an English-language production of COSI FAN TUTTE, and her co-stars included Leontyne Price, Rosalind Elias, and Richard Tucker. After the New Met opened at Lincoln Center in 1966, I saw her as Gilda, the Queen of the Night, Oscar in BALLO IN MASCHERA, Adina (with Pavarotti), and Norina.

    My parents took me to Saratoga, where Eugene Ormandy conducted a concert FLEDERMAUS in which Roberta sang Adele opposite Hilde Gueden (Rosalinda) and Kitty Carlisle (Prince Orlofsky). While I was living in Houston briefly in 1973, Roberta gave a delightful recital there, singing everything from Donizetti to Debussy. I saw her onstage for the last time at the Met’s 100th Anniversary Gala in 1983; she sang in the sextet from LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR.

    Her recordings of Gilda, the Queen of the Night, and Rosina remain favorites of mine, and – even with Sutherland, Scotto, and Sills being among my most memorable Lucias – I still really enjoy Roberta’s recording of the role, opposite Jan Peerce.

    Roberta Peters – Spargi d’amaro pianto – LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR

  • Anna Maria Rota

    A-1919174-1451049234-1126.jpeg

    Anna Maria Rota is perhaps best known to opera-lovers for her appearance as Maddalena on the old, classic RCA recording of Verdi’s RIGOLETTO, with Roberta Peters, Jussi Bjoerling, and Robert Merrill. It was one of the first LP opera sets I owned as a youngster. I loved it, and played it til it wore out, though I was somewhat put off by what seems to be the noticeable sound of the conductor Jonel Perlea breathing heavily much of the time.

    Lately, in a quest for tracking down souvenirs of some of the voices I enjoyed in my earliest days of listening to opera, I found some good Rota-rarities, such as these:

    Anna Maria Rota – Liber Scriptus~Verdi REQUIEM – RTF 1960

    Anna Maria Rota – O don fatale ~ DON CARLO 1961

    {Note: It takes a few moments for the “O don fatale” to start playing.}

  • The Young Björling

    1467513_330_449

    Jussi Björling’s was the first tenor voice I fell in love with. After I had discovered opera in 1959, my parents gifted me with a two-LP set of excerpts from RCA’s Verdi and Puccini catalog. The singers on those records –  Licia Albanese, Roberta Peters, Zinka Milanov, Jan Peerce, Robert Merrill, Leonard Warren, and Giorgio Tozzi, in addition to Björling – assumed god-like status for me.

    It was the plaintive sweetness of Björling’s voice that really ignited my imagination; and thru the ensuing years, it has often been the tenors – Tucker, Bergonzi, Corelli, Vickers, Pavarotti, Domingo – who provided the greatest thrills and chills in the many performances I have seen and heard.

    In the early 1930s, Björling made his first aria recordings, in Swedish. On a quiet afternoon yesterday, I was listening to – and savoring – the youthful lyricism of this remarkable voice; he had turned twenty in 1931:

    Jussi Björling – TOSCA aria – in Swedish

    By the end of that decade, Björling’s career was well underway, his voice was in full bloom, and he was singing in Italian:

    Jussi Björling – O Paradiso – L’AFRICANA

    He made many recordings in the ensuing years, including the Verdi REQUIEM under Fritz Reiner, which was recorded in June 1960; three months later, Björling died.

    Björlings_grav

    The great tenor was buried at Stora Tuna in the Dalarna province of his native land.

    Two decades before the Reiner recording of the REQUIEM was made, Björling recorded the Ingemisco from the Verdi masterpiece:

    Jussi Björling – Ingemisco – from Verdi REQUIEM