Oberon's Grove

George Szell ~ Verdi REQUIEM ~ Cleveland 1968

George Szell (above) conducts the Cleveland Orchestra in a live performance of the Messa di Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi given in 1968.  Gabriella Tucci, Dame Janet Baker, Pierre Duval, and Martti Talvela are the soloists.

Listen here.

Junetta Jones

Above: soprano Junetta Jones performing with the Goldman Band in Central Park in the early 1960s.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1936, Junetta Jones studied at the Peabody Conservatory and later at the New England Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center.

In 1963, Ms. Jones was a winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions (Jane Marsh and Justino Diaz were also winners that year); she made her Met debut as the Celestial Voice in Verdi's DON CARLO a few months after her Auditions win. Her other Met roles were a Genie in THE MAGIC FLUTE, the Page in RIGOLETTO, and Barbarina in NOZZE DI FIGARO. She last appeared at The Met in 1965.

Like so many young American singers at that time, Junetta Jones then re-located to Europe where she sang at Dusseldorf, Wuppertal, Regensburg, Munster, Trier, and Lucerne. She returned to the USA from time to time, singing with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. When she appeared in Handel's SAMSON at Carnegie Hall in 1965, the New York Times called her singing "beguiling".

Above: Junetta Jones in MADAMA BUTTERFLY; date and venue not specified

Following her retirement from performing, Ms. Jones worked for 20 years on the advisory committee for art and culture for the city of Baltimore. She passed away in 2015.

Listen to Junetta Jones in her Met debut role, the Celestial Voice, here.

Riccardo Muti ~ Schubert's "Kupelwieser Waltz"

Maestro Riccardo Muti plays Schubert's Kupelwieser Waltz. Watch and listen here.

Discoveries IV

Things I found by chance on YouTube during the pandemic:

Gustav Mahler's "Frühlingsmorgen" sung by soprano Dési Halban. Listen here.

Ms. Halban was the daughter of the celebrated soprano Selma Kurz.

Colette Boky and Richard Verreau sing the duet "Ah! viens, dans la forêt profonde" from Léo Delibes' LAKME from a televised program presented by Radio-Canada in 1963.

Watch and listen here.

I saw Ms. Boky at The Met as Gilda and Juliette, and I was at Mr. Verreau's Met debut (at the Old House) as FAUST in November 1963.

A rare pairing of Ileana Cotrubas and Lucia Valentini-Terrani in a duet from Bellini's NORMA from a concert in Macau in 1987.

Listen watch and listen here.

Benjamin Luxon sings George Butterworth's 'With rue my heart is laden'; the pianist is David Willison. Listen here.

Reri Grist sings Claude Debussy's Quatre chansons de jeunesse from a live performance; the date and location of the performance are unknown, and we don't have the name of the pianist either. Listen here.

Reri Grist is a very special singer for me: she was my first Zerbinetta, Sophie in ROSENKAVALIER, and Oscar in BALLO IN MASCHERA.

Listen to basso Boris Carmeli sing "Quia fecit mihi magna" from Bach's Magnificat in D-major here. This is from a live performance conducted by Hermann Scherchen in 1963.

My first experience hearing Mr. Carmeli was in a speaking role in the 1998 U.S. premiere of Krzystof Penderecki's seventh symphony, which is almost always referred to as SEVEN GATES OF JERUSALEM. Mr. Carmeli owned this part during his lifetime, and he appears in both CD and DVD performances of the work.

ANDREA CHENIER ~ Final Duet

So thrilled to have found this souvenir of one of my favorite sopranos, Gilda Cruz-Romo, singing Maddalena in the final duet from Giordano's ANDREA CHENIER. Tenor Ermanno Mauro is the poet Chenier in this performance from Tulsa 1981. I simply love the vast wave of applause that sweeps over the house after "Viva la morte insiem!"

I met and befriended Gilda at the time of her New York City Opera debut in 1969. I saw her many times at both NYC Opera and The Met. We stayed in touch after she retired and settled in San Antonio, Texas. I shall never forget her great kindness to me.