If youre like me (and I hope that, at least in this way, you are!) you have adored Tina Turner since you first became aware of her. In my case, it was circa 1971, seeing her perform Proud Mary on t

Todays episode celebrates the Italian tenore di grazia Cesare Valletti (18 December 1923 13 May 2000), perhaps the last in a lineage of Italian lyric tenors. Valletti studied under his illustrious

Ive been plotting an episode on the subject of Dreams for a while. Given the profusion of music that references that altered state of consciousness, my challenge was narrowing down the topic. I chose

This past week the world of opera was plunged in mourning at the news of the death of the unique, the irreplaceable Grace Bumbry (04 January 1937 - 07 May 2023), an artist equal parts daredevil and re

Last summer, I produced a miniseries of episodes on Countermelody entitled Forgotten Broadway, the third and final segment of which was originally published as a bonus episode for my Patreon support

Todays is a mammoth episode, one of my longest ever, so I suggest you listen to it in easily digestible segments. Its mammoth because its a gigantic subject: great Mozart tenors of the 20th century

If I were to indulge in the foolish task of dubbing certain artists the Greatest Ever, I would have little hesitation in naming Ukrainian-American bass Alexander Kipnis (18911978) the greatest in

A number of significant classical and opera singers have died in this calendar year, and this episode pays tribute to three of them. First, James Bowman, the most significant British countertenor sinc

Welcome to all listeners both old and new to the podcast! This week I am focusing on music related to the Christian observation of Holy Week: oratorios, motets, cantatas, songs and song cycles, even o

Its time for my fourth annual April Fools Day episode! The first one that I published exactly four years ago, entitled Alternate Universe Bel Canto, has proven to be one of my most popular, and one t