CLARAMAE TURNER: Opera Arias & Scenes, 1946-53 (CD)

Best remembered today as Cousin Nettie in the 1956 film version of Carousel (“You’ll Never Walk Alone”), American contralto Claramae Turner enjoyed a major operatic career. Among other distinctions, she created the role of Madame Flora in Menotti’s The Medium in 1946, and in 1954 Arturo Toscanini chose her as Ulrica for his nationwide radio broadcast of Un Ballo in Maschera. This CD collection features the great singer in live radio and concert performances of arias and scenes from Carmen, Samson and Delilah, Cavalleria Rusticana, The Medium, and more. Mono, 69 minutes

Bizet: CARMEN
1. Séguedille (2:00)
2. En vain pour éviter (Card Song) (3:20)
3. C’est toi? – C’est moi (Act IV Finale) (8:36) with Brian Sullivan, tenor

Saint-Saëns: SAMSON ET DALILA
4. Je viens célébrer (4:10) with Giovanni Martinelli, tenor, Lloyd Harris, bass
5. Printemps qui commence (3:06)
6. Amour, viens aider ma faiblesse (3:46)
7. J’ai gravi la montagne (Duet: Dalila and High Priest) (6:59)
with Clifford Harvuot, baritone
8. Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix (5:53)

9. Thomas: MIGNON Connais-tu le pays (5:37)
10. Verdi: DON CARLO O don fatale (4:31)

Ponchielli: LA GIOCONDA
11. Voce di donna (3:28)
12. È un anatema! (Duet: Gioconda and Laura) (3:50)
with Regina Resnik, soprano

13. Mascagni: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
Il signore vi manda (Duet: Santuzza and Alfio) (4:54)
with Hugh Thompson, baritone

14. Wagner: DAS RHEINGOLD Wotan, hear my warning! (Erda’s Warning) [Weiche, Wotan, weiche!] (4:21)

15. Menotti: THE MEDIUM Afraid? Am I afraid? (4:34)
(Earliest known recording of Claramae Turner in the role she created in The Medium)