MAY ISSUE
Breaking news:
Australian tenor ALBERT LANCE died this week in southern France from a lung-heart condition. Click here for an obituary. (photos Charles Mintzer collection)
Click here to hear him sing live in Tosca (French television)
Listen below to a complete WERTHER opposite Régine Crespin :
IN MEMORIAM
German mezzosoprano Ruthild ENGERT died in Berlin on May 5 (info and photo courtesy Manfred Krugmann)
Argentinian soprano DELIA RIGAL died on May 8. (info courtesy Cesar Dillon, photos courtesy Charles Mintzer archive)
Click here for a bio, Spanish only
Listen to her below in a rare and early Forza excerpt from the Colon with del Monaco and the Don Carlo duet with Bjoerling.
Dutch mezzo MIMI AARDEN died in Breda on May 3, she was 89 (info courtesy Mark Duijnstee)
Click here to read more about her
Megastar DEANNE DURBIN died last April she was 91. Click here for an obituary. Click here for a biography.
Click here for her last interview ever
Listn to her rendition of Nessun dorma at a time the aria was sort of hardly known and few tenors recorded it!!!
ARTHUR ENDREZE : splendid CD issue (special offer of 5 cd's priced as 3 cd's) of his recordings by Ward Marston !!!!
(Endreze on the right with the late Morris Springer in Chicago 1974, courtesy Charles Mintzer archive)
Arthur Endres Kraeckmann was born in Chicago on 28 November 1893. He won a scholarship to study at the American Conservatory in Fontainbleau for the summer of 1921, yet Kraeckmann remained in France. He studied with no less than Jean De Reszke and Reynaldo Hahn, and established himself (under the name of Arthur Endrèze) as one of the great "French" baritones. Endrèze rarely visited the United States, and his career was almost entirely in France. Endrèze returned to Chicago in 1974, where he died less than a year later. The recorded output of Arthur Endrèze is historically important and has never been issued in its entirety. Endrèze is firmly footed in the French style of singing, an art that is lost today.
A NEW BOOK - Dutch only - ON OPERETTA COMPOSER FRANZ LEHAR HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED. Click here to read an extensive review by Jan Neckers.
<
Paul De Decker wrote down his memories of his father the Flemish bass EDUARD DE DECKER (1904 - 1970), Dutch only.
(as Mefisto in Faust)
This 79 page book is a modest scrapbook like tribute by the son to his father. In other words do not expect a kind of Henstock/de Lucia biography, nevertheless most of his professional career is mentioned and discussed. So we do get a survey of the roles he sang and a discography. The book is lavishly illustrated with photos, reviews and newspaper clippings. There is no chronology but all the places where he sang are mentioned. De Decker did sing at the New York City Opera in the 1950 season but most of his career was spent in Flanders, Straatsburg (Strassbourg) during world war two and after the war again at the Royal Flemish Opera in Antwerp. Later he taught singing at the Antwerp conservatory amongst other music institutes. De Decker only recorded "songs" but live tapes of his operatic performances do circulate. Please visit our youtube channel to listen to him.
ONE OF THE BEST CD RELEASES MALIBRAN EVER COMPILED HAS JUST BEEN RELEASED : AMELIE TALEXIS, click here to read more about it and how to order it.
British conductor COLIN DAVIS passed away on Sunday 14 April, click here for an obituary
Click here for more info on his life and career
(photo courtesy Charles Mintzer)
German tenors Herold Kraus died on April 22 and Markus Müller died on April 28 (photos and info courtesy Manfred Krugmann)
French Conductor Jean-Francois Paillard died in April in Saint-Auban sur l´Ouvèze (info and photo courtesy Manfred Krugmann)
Click here to read more about him
British baritone THOMAS HEMSLEY died on April 11,click here for more information
(the baritone and Kirsten Flagstad, 1951)
Italian comprimario tenor PIERO DE PALMA born 1924 died on April 5. Click here for short bio
Hungarian Tenor Alfonz Bartha died on April 2. (info and photo courtesy Manfred Krugmann)
RISE STEVENS legendary opera singer and megastar : IN MEMORIAM
Click here to read Charles Mintzer's memories of the singer
Click here to read the obituary
(with Eleanor Steber and Bing Crosby, photos courtesy Charles Mintzer collection)
Luciano di Cave of Rome shares us his memories of the great mezzos he heard in his hometown.
Click here to read the article
Click here to read more about the author
(photos courtesy Luciano di Cave)
Puertorican Tenor Ricardo LEDESMA ( Jesús Quinones Ledesma ) died on March 19 in Jacksonville/Florida . (info and photo courtesy Manfred Krugmann)
Click here to read more about him
MICHAEL RHODES, Brooklyn born baritone who studied with de Luca and also taught Jonas Kaufmann died in Trier on March 17 (info courtesy Manfred Krugmann)
(As Amfortas in Basel 1960)
Rhodes was born in Brooklyn in 1923 , first studied acting and then singing with Giuseppe de Luca. He made his NYC opera debut in 1947. George London advises him to go to Europa and he appears in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Rome and Milan amongst others. Marriage brought him to Trier where he started also coaching and teaching. Jonas Kaufmann studied for three years with him.
"Rhodes said in an email reply to questions that he instructed Kaufmann in the use of a technique he calls "sbadigliare," from the Italian for yawning, which he himself had learned from the great baritone Giuseppe De Luca.
"Sbadigliare requires one to relax the whole body and really yawn – an involuntary reaction," Rhodes said. "In this state of relaxation, the voice is completely free, as Jonas's is."
Kaufmann said that after he had studied with Rhodes, many colleagues who knew him from before predicted he would quickly come to ruin. "They said, `Maybe another two to three years, maybe five, but then it's over.' Because everyone expected me to overdo, to artificially darken the sound. It was impossible to believe that this would be my own voice." (quote from an article by Mike Silverman)
(Kaufmann in The Student Prince, coached by Rhodes)
Recommended : a book has been published on Italo MONTEMEZZI and his opera LA NAVE.
Click here to read all about it and how to order it.
GIFT RECOMMENDATIONS
Ward Marston's fabulous releases of the Edison legacy continues with this second volume at a special price.
Click here for all info on this -again- fabulous release
Fritz Hofmann wrote a book on his brother PETER HOFMANN the most important post-war German Wagnerian tenor until Kaufmann came long.
Click here to read more about the memoirs and how to order them.
Click here to read our comments about the book and how to order it !!!!!!
(Albrecht Dumling)
Another fascinating book on an opera singer has come out in Germany : Robert Pflanzl wrote a book on his father the Salzburg born bass-baritone Heinrich PFLANZL using the singer's diaries and much more. It makes fascinating reading. Click here to read our review.
At last the only and definitive biography - by Maurizio Tiberi - on legendary tenor GIACOMO LAURI-VOLPI has been written.
Read our comments with details of how to get it, click here.
(photo courtesy Charles Mintzer coll)
!!!SEE OUR "FOUNDING" EDITORIAL SECTION FOR A COMPLETE SURVEY OF THOSE WHO LEFT US !!! We especially want to thank Manfred Krugmann for his permanent support to our website