Eleanor Steber assays florid Mozart at age 65

Описание: THE SONGBIRD: Eleanor Steber (1914 - 1990), born in West Virginia, was known for bringing her lush, flexible lyric soprano to a large swath of roles from Mozart and Strauss to Verdi and Puccini, as well as modern works including the world premiere of Barber's "Vanessa" in 1958. She made her debut at The Met in 1940 as Sophie in "Der Rosenkavalier" and sang hundreds of performances there until her last appearance in the Gala Farewell to the Old Met house in 1966. Other roles included Fiordiligi, Countess Almaviva, Donna Anna, Konstanze, Pamina, Arabella, Marguerite, Micaela, Manon, Manon Lescaut, Alice Ford, Violetta, Desdemona, Mimi, Tosca, Minnie, Rosalinde, and Wagner's Eva and Elsa. Steber became popular early on through radio performances of light music. After she retired from singing, she taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Juilliard.

THE MUSIC: Not much is known about K.119. Its relatively low initial Köchel Catalogue listing would have placed its composition around 1771, but in later revisions of the catalogue (as new research gets uncovered), it was changed to K.382h, which equates to 1782. As it so happens this is the exact same time frame as his Aloysia Weber aria K.383 "Nehmt meinen Dank." Could this be another aria he wrote for Aloysia? It's quite florid -- but tops out at a few high Bs, so doesn't have Aloysia's typical footprint of acuti (though neither does K.383). It's a lovely and quaint piece, here sung by the legendary Steber in recital when she was 65 years old!