Song of the Day for May 17 – 23, 2021

Monday Sluefoot from Daddy Long Legs (1955) Leslie Caron and Fred Astaire (4:51) Tuesday Today I’m just going to hand over a big lovely chunk of classics: Ella and Louis – Jazz About Love  (53:12) Wednesday Back to some choral music. I cannot get over how beautiful the work of Morten Lauridsen is. I’ve already shared the last song, “Dirait-on,” (watch out, it gets stuck in your brain!) Here’s the complete set of the  Songs of the Roses, performed by the Elora Festival Singer...
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Song of the Day for May 10 – 16, 2021

Monday Here’s Monday’s very late Song of the Day, Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, two great, great, singers singing a duet (Mira, O Norma) from Bellini’s opera, Norma. The characters are the Druid priestess Norma and her acolyte, Adalgisa. They love the same man, who has two children with Norma, secret children, because she’s a priestess, but it turns out he’s a lying cheater, so they bond and stay friends. It doesn’t end well for Norma, or the guy. That’s opera, folks. https://www.yout...
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Song of the Day for May 3 – 9, 2021: Laurie’s Week!

Monday Morgan, thank you for letting me act as DJ for a week! Leontyne Price, one of my favorite singers (and I hope one of yours, too) sings Death of Butterfly (from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly) as an encore. This video of a live performance has a glitch in it towards the end, but I think the rest of the performance makes the glitch well-worth overlooking. Leontyne Price-Death of Butterfly. Rare private film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL-delzX4QI&list=RDYL-delzX4QI&inde...
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Song of the Day for April 26 – May 2, 2021

Monday Good Morning, Good Morning - The Beatles (2:41) Tuesday Apparently I took the day off! Wednesday The other day one of my singing idols passed away. Mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig was one of the truly great singers of the 20th century. She started performing just after WWII, and retired in 1994. Here she is singing a selection from Richard Wagner’s five Wesendonk Lieder, Träume (Dreams). (4:56) It’s a song cycle, but since it’s Wagner, he wrote it with a huge orchestra.  Tr...
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Song of the Day for April 19 – 25, 2021

Monday Bang Your Drum – Dead Man Fall  (4:32) I've been thinking about the things that, are stuck inside in my head and I can’t get them out. And I've been waking, at four in the morning; I don’t know why I can’t get back to sleep again tonight. Keep Banging On And your day will come Keep Banging On Banging on your drum And they will hear you I am wishing, that I was making, a list of all the good things that I've ever done with my life And everybody thinks I have wasted, wasted e...
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