Today is the second part of my Latin American orchestral song tribute. Last week we explored Villa-Lobos and Revueltas; today we devote ourselves to Argentina, and primarily two composers: Alberto Gin

Its Pride Month, and what better time to focus on queer musical culture in all its various manifestations! As far back as I can remember, I have been an Opera Queen, and today I kick off our queer ce

A few weeks ago I had the idea of doing a program devoted to American orchestral song. It did not take me long to realize that once again American [that is to say, US] Exceptionalism was distorting

Five years ago, I awoke to the horrifying news of the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis Police Department. I had been working on cobbling together an episode on French Glamour, whi

Ive been so lucky this week to cross paths with several beloved friends and colleagues, in some cases for the first time in ages. One of those friends of many years standing is the legendary counter

Benjamin Luxon, the esteemed Cornish baritone who died at the age of 87 last July, had one of the most wide-ranging repertoires of any singer of the past century, from the classical repertoire (includ

The earliest selection on last weeks Elisabeth Sderstrm episode featured the soprano at 24 singing the title role of Madama Butterfly. In that live recording, we also heard as Sharpless her compatr

There are very few singers that mean more to me than does Elisabeth Sderstrm. I was first made aware of her at the tender age of ten, when I became obsessed with Pellas et Mlisande after hearing t

Today I offer three different recordings of excerpts, sung in German, from Charles Gounods opera Faust, which was known in the day in Germany as Margarethe. The Germans have always regarded this work

Directly after the disastrous November election in the United States, I compiled a setlist for two episodes self-explanitorially entitled Mezzos on the Verge and Mezzos in Extremis. One of the fea