On this week's edition of Mark Steyn on the Town Mark celebrates a quartet of great songs that turn one hundred years old this week. Plus: music for St Andrew's Day, and Sinatra sings Gershwin. As does Kate Bush...
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~Last week's centenary observances of Puccini's death attracted a lot of comment. Nancy says:
Mark had me at Puccini (Gee-ackamo that is). Every anecdote and song had me smiling and singing away in my kitchen! One of your best shows Mr. Steyn!
John, a Mark Steyn Club member from the Granite State, writes:
Now that was fun!! We're mild opera fans and our favorite is Puccini so we really enjoyed this show. But our favorite was Frank with Kathryn Grayson singing Mozart.
I don't know how you do it - but keep it up!
Neil Anthony enjoyed it too:
Nice show marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Puccini, Mark. The first ever opera I saw was Tosca performed by Opera North when I was at university in Leeds. Tickets in the gods with student discount – a fiver – cheaper than the Odeon down the road. You can't beat a bit of Puccini!
Tosca for a fiver? That's a helluva deal, Neil.
Fraser Sutherland is taking his listening pleasure to a whole other level:
Lyricist Carolyn Leigh claims 'The Best is Yet to Come'. Well, it has and it's called Mark Steyn's On the Town, 30th edition. Defying logic, every minute of the show was a high point in this Puccini Maestri Fest!
Musetta's Waltz by the maestra of maestre, Maria Callas and fascinating Fifties takes of the more-or-less the same by Della Reese and Tony Russo. 'O Mio Babbino Caro' from a tremendous Sarah Brightman and 'Nessun Dorma' from Turandot completed 'Cafe Continental'.
Palm-wine great Ebeneezer Calendar sang 'Double Decker Bus' and 'Go Home and Come Tomorrow' in a truly fascinating Cafe Imperial.
The high points continued with Lillian Raimondo, baritones Lawrence Tibbett and Robert Merrill and the delightful Kathryn Grayson duetting 'La ci darem la mano' with Don Giovanni Frank Sinatra!
Oh and a bonus masterly throwaway line from Maestro Steyn: ' I don't know if Peter Lawford liked Puccini...' Delicious. Wicked. Roll on next Saturday and sorry, Carolyn Leigh!
Fran, a First Weekend Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, especially liked our dip into Stephen Foster:
Splendid show, Mark. I don't know what it is but I find myself feeling a good cry come on from an otherwise cheerful mood when "Beautiful Dreamer" plays. Well, your musical trips down memory lane often do that. There's something for everyone in this episode. I don't know how you do it, but I sure like that you do.
Fran's fellow First Weekend Founding Member, Josh, prefers Puccini:
Puccini is a gateway drug to more "serious" opera. But what a gateway. St. Louis doesn't have such a gateway.
I don't think a lot during Puccini, but I feel. The Metropolitan Opera holds regional auditions for young singers, and we usually go to the New England Finals at Jordan Hall in downtown Boston. Last year, a wee slip of a girl lit into "Chi il bel sogno" from La Rondine, and then came the waterworks. Outta nowhere. I tell myself he's just 19th century Lloyd Webber, but it doesn't help.
From the Home Counties, an English Steyn Clubber, Alison:
I am very grateful for this well researched, centennial Puccini programme. It finally got me looking for a Puccini biography and I have placed a library reservation for the standard biography by Mocco Carner which sells for hundreds of pounds online... His private life was a tragic opera and a mystery, to some extent..
I would not completely agree with the concept that Puccini produced popular opera any more than Shakespeare produced popular plays in spite of the fact that he composed on an upright piano as if he was in a smoke filled bar. The fact is that he came from generations of top church musicians What inspired his romanticism apart from his many muses must have been the scenery and simple life of Tuscany. When I visited his strangely unchanged house, I inspected the visitor book and a female opera singer had written 'Has any human being ever penned more beautiful songs?' Probably not.
On the issue of copyright, sadly, I think it is crippling art even if it is giving artists a deserved income. Artists used to have patrons to counter intellectual theft, but I think they were more creative, without copyright.
I thought Sinatra listened to classical music at home. If so, probably, he was a Puccini fan.
One more, from Diane Calabrese:
Don't know how many others remember their teachers as though it were yesterday, but...it wasn't yesterday and remember I do. Third grade teacher, Mrs. S- had a great fondness for "Beautiful Dreamer" and thus, whenever we turned to our American song books, that Foster tune would be sung by us at some point. (My favorite Foster was "Oh! Susanna" – and it still is.) Singing, rolling mercury down the aisle, roughriding sliding boards and swings, and outdoor recess save in the most drenching rain – a very different time. How did we survive?
Love "Guys and Dolls" and nice to hear Robert Merrill and Sinatra singing "Good Ol' Reliable Nathan".
Do believe MS has a special affinity for "I Did It My Way" and always enjoy hearing Pavarotti – even better with FS. (Pavarotti could have empathized with Hegseth, or vice versa.)
The plaintive strands of "Lover Come Back to Me" woven together by Lillian Raimondi and FS get the point across: Women are often thinking of one thing and men another. If only that were understood.
Back to something more lighthearted, and "It Happened in Brooklyn" (1947) is both light and full of heart. Remember well FS and Kathryn Grayson singing Mozart (Don Giovanni). Always fascinating when Peter Lawford gets the girl, but FS got Gloria Grahame. (Didn't actually like the movie.)
Were I a time traveler, Puccini's restaurant in Beverly Hills is one of the places I'd visit. Alas, we don't even have a Denny's nearby. Life in 2024.
Thanks very much, MS, for a most eclectic program...
Thanks for all your comments - including the critical ones. On the Town is Steyn's weekly music show on Serenade Radio every Saturday at 5pm British Summer Time - that's 6pm in western and central Europe/12 midday North American Eastern. You can listen from anywhere in the world by clicking the button at top right here.
Mark is a great believer in old-school appointment listening, and loves the way Serenade's Saturday schedule flows through the day. However, we appreciate that many potential listeners are, at the appointed hour, shampooing the cat. So, as a bonus for Steyn Club members, we post On the Town at SteynOnline every weekend. You can find all our previous shows here.
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Mark Steyn on the Town can be heard on Serenade Radio at the following times:
Saturday 5pm London time/12 noon New York
Sunday 5am London time/9pm Los Angeles
Steyn's Song of the Week continues on Sunday, Monday and Thursday at the usual hour.