Kernow Classics

30/09/2023

I've had a glorious morning in the company of these superlative sopranos. The times in which they were performing might have been awful but their music-making was top notch.

07/09/2023

Our dog Rollo is up for this, also anything by Raff and Wolf. He'll consider J C Bach but not J S as he thinks it's boring.

The Danish Chamber Orchestra was accompanied by three dogs for their recent performance of the “Hunting Symphony” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s father, Leopold.

29/08/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the tenor Helge Rosvaenge who amongst his many triumphs created the role of Schrenk in Künneke's Die grosse Sünderin at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden on New Year's Eve 1935. Due to the fact that Künneke's wife was half-Jewish, the opera only had a short run before EKs works were banned for a while. Lucky two creator recordings were made of the duet Immerzu with Tiana Lemnitz as well as two of the impossibly high tenor arias.

07/08/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the Austrian soprano Maria Reining (1903-91). She took up singing relatively late having first worked in a Viennese bank. She sand soubrette at the Wiener Staatsoper (1931-33) and returned to Wien in '37 after spells in Darmstadt and München. Her second period in the Austrian capital as 'jugendlich-dramatische' soprano was hugely succesful and she continued to be based there until her retirement. Additionally, she sang Eva with Toscanini at the Salzburger Festspiele | Salzburg Festival as well as Arabella and the Marschallin. She was especially sought-after in Mozart and performed at Covent Garden, La Scala, New York and Chicago etc.
Because the builders are in, most of my music is locked away and pictures are from the internet.

03/08/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the tenor Richard Holm (1912-88) who was a concert and radio singer in Stuttgart before making his operatic debut in 1937. He joined the Bayerische Staatsoper in 1945 and became known as a Mozart singer (Belmonte @ Glyndebourne 1950) but also sang a lot of C20 scores including premieres by Egk and Hindemith. In retirement from the stage and concert platform he taught in München

02/08/2023

This date in 1921 saw the passing of perhaps the greatest singer in any genre of all time: Enrico Caruso

02/08/2023

3 heavenly birthdays today. tenor Hans Hopf (1916-93) and sopranos Nanny Larsén-Todsen (1884-1982) and Claire Dux (1885-1967).

28/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the great German bass Gottlob Frick (1906-94) one of the greatest 'black' basses who excelled equally as a Wagner villain (Hagen, Hunding) and as a bumbling pompous ass with a nasty streak (van Bett, Osmin) and everything in between (Sarastro, Philip II, Gurnemanz, Daland, the Bauer (Die Kluge), Pogner, Rocco etc etc)

27/07/2023

Happy birthday to the baritone Christian Boesch, born on this date in 1941. Part of a singing dynasty - his mother was the soprano & teacher Ruthilde Boesch, his son is the bass baritone Florian Boesch. He studied with Alfred Jerger in Wien. Christian's most famous role was undoubtedly Papageno in which he became famous at the Salzburg Festival in the late 70s. Also an excellent Wozzeck (strange how these two roles often go hand in hand!)

27/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the Norwegian bass Ivar Andrésen (1886-1940) who sang most of his career in Dresden and Berlin, several seasons at Bayreuth and guested in London, New York, Spain, München, Hamburg and Wien. Pictures all from my personal collection include LP sleeves & pages from the 1928 Bayreuth handbook

25/07/2023

Überall rennen die Menschen jetzt in die Opernhäuser, um „Il Barbie di Siviglia“ zu schauen.

24/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the Dutch baritone Cornelis Bronsgeest (1878-1957) who after his debut in Magdeburg in 1900, made his career in Germany first in Hamburg then Berlin. He played a key role in the growth of broadcast opera and was also instrumental in organising performances in Berlin in the aftermath of WW2.

22/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to Licia Albanese, born on this date in 1913.

20/07/2023

If I had to choose one singer alive or dead to see on stage it would be the Germann baritone Hermann Uhde, born on this date in 1914 and who died during a performance on 10 October 1965. One of the greatest singing actors of all time Uhde made his debut in 1936 in Bremen and belonged to the Freiburg and München companies before being interned in a POW camp in France. After the war he sang in Hannover, Hamburg, Wien, München, Stuttgart, and Salzburg (where he created Creon in Orff's Antigone) and from 1951 at Bayreuth. Further guest appearances around the world including the Met, CG, Paris etc.

17/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the american soprano Eleanor Steber. Long a favourite of mine, I wrote to her soon after I began to think about making singing my career. I got a very detailed reply which basically said 'hang in there but know that you are up against it however talented you might be'

17/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the mezzo soprano Lilian Benningsen born (according to whichever sources one trusts: Opernwelt or Kutsch & Riemens) on this date in 1924/26.

16/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the German soprano Emmy Bettendorf (1895-1963), the singer who inspired me to collect 78s properly. I have loads of her 78s (and she recorded prolifically for Parlophon) and LP rereleases of her 78s but one of the possessions i treasure the most is this large signed photo of her.

13/07/2023

And special heavenly birthday wishes to one of my most loved and admired Italian operatic tenors Carlo Bergonzi (1924-2019). One of his performances I will never forget was him strutting about the Covent Garden stage as Manrico. His boots were too big but that voice!!

13/07/2023

Two very special tenors celebrating their heavenly birthdays today: First Karl Erb (1877 who also passed away on his birthday in 1958)

12/07/2023

I missed his heavenly birthday on Monday: Carl Orff (1895-1982). Not everybody's cup of tea but I personally have a lot of time for his works. Certainly he was one of the most influential composers of all time and the staging of his operas and other dramas left their mark on twentieth century musical theatre, from the scenic cantatas (Carmina Burana, Catulli Carmina, Trionfi), the Bavarian folk dramas (der Mond, die Kluge, die Bernauerin, Astutuli, the Easter and Christmas miracle plays), the early works (Gisei and MND) and the ancient dramas (Oedipus der Tyrann, Antigone, Prometheus, De temporum fine comoedia). He also 'realised' works by Monteverdi and JS Bach and developed an educational tool for schools with Gunild Keetman still in use today.

12/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the Italian baritone Mario Basiola (1892-1965) who made his debut in 1918 and sang in Firenze and the San Carlo Napoli with whom he toured america. This led to six seasons at the Met (1925-31) usually alternating with Ruffo, Danise and de Luca. In the 30s he sang regularly at La Scala and Rome Opera. Sensational season at Covent Garden in '39 singing Scarpia and Iago. Upon retirement Basiola moved to Australia where he taught in Sydney for some years. His son Mario Jr featured in several recordings.

12/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to possibly the greatest Wagner soprano of all time: Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962). She made her debut in Oslo in Eugene d'Albert's Tiefland and as an ensemble artist, sang anything and everything for several years. She made her Bayreuth debut in 1933 and her Met debut in 1935. The rest, as they say, is history. She officially retired in 1955 but was tempted back for very occasional recordings for Decca.

11/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to Hermann Prey (born 1929), one of my absolute favourites. I had two wonderful interactions with him: the first following a concert of Loewe and Schubert ballads in Salzburg where he sang a series of encores to those who hung behind after the concert officially ended. He went down a row of standees taking requests of all sorts of things both he and his accompanist Irwin Gage knew. Someone before me asked for On the Street Where You Live. When it was my turn i asked if he knew any G&S. He sang all three verses of Tit Willow, word perfect.
The second was at a signing session at the Colisseum shop for the publication of his autobiog in English. He spent some time going through Verdorben! Gestorben (Königskinder) with me - it was one of my audition pieces at the time - and then I asked him to inscribe the book to my wife Zeb. Of course he was unfamiliar with the name so I dictated it in German, explaining it was short for Deborah. He wrote 'Zab'!. What a lovely man ❤❤ but what a tragic ending!!

11/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to Nicolai Gedda (born 1925)

11/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to Ebe Stignani (born 1904)

11/07/2023

And Josephine Veasey (born 1930) who was singing on my first visit to Covent Garden in 1964.

11/07/2023

Next Ljuba Welitsch (born 1913)

11/07/2023

Some key opera singer heavenly birthdays yesterday: firstly Vera Schwarz (born in 1888)

08/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the soprano Christel Goltz (1912-2008), an outstanding Salome whose first professional engagement was as a dancer. She sang several seasons in Dresden and in Berlin and in the 50s in Vienna. She guested at Covent Garden, the Met, La Scala, Paris and Brussels.

06/07/2023

Happy heavenly birthday to the Swiss tenor Ernst Haefliger (1919-2007). The autograph from a collection in my possession was signed by Haefliger after a performance as Belmonte in Berlin in 1953.