by Joshua Breitzer | Dec 27, 2019 | Song of the Day
Over the last hundred years, Hanukkah has swelled in significance and popularity among the American Jewish community. In a twist, this trend strangely seems to suit the ancient rabbinic injunction that the holiday miracle ought to be publicized far and wide. In the...
by Joshua Breitzer | Dec 26, 2019 | Song of the Day
Jewish communities can be found all over the world and can be heard speaking many different languages. Ladino is the vernacular favored by many Jews of Sephardic (Spanish) descent. Also called “Judaeo-Spanish,” it contains elements of Hebrew, Greek, and...
by Joshua Breitzer | Dec 25, 2019 | Song of the Day
This medieval poem so closely associated with Hanukkah is often sung to a triumphant, march-like tune based on a German drinking song. Benedetto Marcello, a Venetian contemporary of Vivaldi, composed this wandering, evocative melody that gives new life to the notion...
by Joshua Breitzer | Dec 24, 2019 | Song of the Day
Hot a gitn Khanike! This week we’re sampling just a smattering of Hanukkah music from around the world and across time. The great 20th century cantor and Yiddish film star Moishe Oysher released a number of self-titled Jewish holiday LPs, including the Moishe...
by Steven Blier | Dec 20, 2019 | Song of the Day
I seem to have spent the week writing about bel canto singing without posting a single aria from the bel canto era. Let’s rectify that with this beauty I found online: the young Renata Scotto singing the Mad Scene from “Lucia di Lammermoor.” It was filmed in Tokyo...
by Steven Blier | Dec 19, 2019 | Song of the Day
I’ve been ruminating about bel canto all week—not just the sometimes thrilling, sometimes mediocre Donizetti operas the term usually implies, but the larger meaning of “beautiful singing.” Maria Callas and Ella Fitzgerald are bel canto singers in their very different...
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