Countermelody
Countermelody is devoted to the glories of the human voice raised in song.
Episodes
June 18, 2026 • 76 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 473. Renata...
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June 15, 2026 • 114 mins
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 … Continue reading <...
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June 12, 2026 • 105 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 471. Joan Caplan In...
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June 8, 2026 • 96 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 470. Pete...
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June 5, 2026 • 83 mins
Today’s Pride episode foregrounds trans pioneer Angela Morley (10 March 1924 – 14 January 2009), who achieved great fame in her native England as a composer, arranger and conductor of popular music, becoming the music director for the British division of Philips records in 1953. She transitioned in 1970 and went public with her new … Continue reading Episode 469....
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June 1, 2026 • 110 mins
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 … Continue reading
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May 29, 2026 • 70 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 467. Eidé Noréna Sings Gou...
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May 25, 2026 • 103 mins
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 … Continue reading
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May 21, 2026 • 95 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 465. Black Bach, Part I
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May 18, 2026 • 106 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 464. Moffo and Gedd...
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May 15, 2026 • 76 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 463. ...
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May 11, 2026 • 94 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 462. Get to Know Charles Kullma...
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May 8, 2026 • 95 mins
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 … Continue reading
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May 4, 2026 • 76 mins
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, … Continue reading Episode 460. A Counterme...
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May 2, 2026 • 115 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 459. The Art of Steven Blier
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April 27, 2026 • 96 mins
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 … Continue reading Epis...
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April 24, 2026 • 99 mins
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 … Continue reading
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April 20, 2026 • 86 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 456. John Wustman in ...
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April 16, 2026 • 57 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 455. Back in the...
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April 13, 2026 • 63 mins
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 … Continue reading Episode 454. Gone Fishing
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