Since Christa Ludwigs death more than three and a half years ago, her reputation has only increased. A significant portion of that reputation rests on her prowess as a singer of Lieder, a repertoire

Episode 300 of Countermelody is upon us, and I have chosen today to bring you the German-American soprano Helen Donath in all her glory, performing Lieder of both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Sch

Remember the summer of 2020? The good old days of lockdown? That was the first summer that I was producing Countermelody, and during that time I tried to inject a little levity into the podcast by doi

Last week, absorbed in preparations for my own birthday, I passed over the birthday of the great Giuseppe Verdi, born 10 October 1813. Two years ago I produced a pair of Verdi episodes, and today I fe

Today I present part two of my In Memoriam series, honoring treasured singers who have recently died. This week I focus on male singers, covering the gamut from opera singers (Dominic Cossa, Lando B

Im still under the weather, but I cant let that keep me from posting my usual Tuesday episode! Here is another recycled bonus episode, this one posted two years ago in honor of my birthday, which fe

Today on Countermelody is the first of two memorial episodes paying tribute to singers that weve lost just in the past few months. Applying the completely arbitrary rubric of gender, today I am focus

Armed with happy memories of our sojourn to London, which just ended yesterday, I decided to pay tribute today to another favorite British singer of mine, this time in the pop realm, the indescribably

The Bulgarian soprano Mara Coleva (12 March 1922 - 22 October 2014) was a vital and versatile singer, the majority of whose career took place in Italy in the 1950s through the very early sixties. Her

David and I leave tomorrow on a short jaunt to London, my first visit there in absolute ages. As a result, I have had my favorite British singers very much in mind. In 2023, the quintessential British