TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. FRESH AIR's classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz has often spoke about the American mezzo soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson who died 20 years ago at 52. A new release of a remastered recording of her singing Handel arias reminded Lloyd, to his embarrassment, that the very first time he heard her, he wasn't sure how special she was.
(SOUNDBITE OF LORRAINE HUNT LIEBERSON, ET. AL SONG, "THEODORA, HWV 68: ARIA: 'AS WITH ROSY STEPS THE MORN' (2025 REMASTERED)")
LLOYD SCHWARTZ, BYLINE: Critics don't always get it right. The first time I heard a soprano named Lorraine Hunt, back in 1984, she was not yet married to composer Peter Lieberson. She played a featured role in an early Mozart opera. I had known her before only as a violist in the orchestra of Boston's Emmanuel Church. My critic colleagues were totally knocked out by her. But while I was impressed by her rich, sonorous voice, I thought her phrasing was a little stiff and without much character. I didn't keep that opinion for long.
A year later, she was in the landmark Peter Sellars' production of Handel's "Julius Caesar." She played the son of Pompey, whom Caesar has beheaded. The two arias of rage that Hunt sang are among the most memorable arias Handel ever wrote, but I'd never heard them sung with such torment and such rage. She was hair-raising. And until she died at only 52, at the height of her career, she never failed to be hair-raising, whether in comedy or tragedy, in Bach, Handel or Mozart or as some of the great operatic heroines - a fierce but tragic Carmen and Berlioz's noble and tragic Queen Dido, to the blowsy, yet poignant Myrtle Wilson in the world premiere of John Harbison's "The Great Gatsby," the role of her Met debut.
Near the end of her life, she was singing her husband Peter Lieberson's haunting Neruda Songs composed for her. She seemed to take in and explore every aspect of a role and a score. Her recordings are still being reissued. The latest is a beautifully remastered version of an album called "Handel Arias," mainly arias from one of the composer's last oratorios, "Theodora," his only dramatic work set in early Christian times, and in his lifetime, one of his biggest flops. Hunt Lieberson sings the role of the Christian martyr Theodora's solicitous friend, Irene, who has some of Handel's most spiritual music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THEODORA, HWV 68: ARIA: 'AS WITH ROSY STEPS THE MORN' (2025 REMASTERED)")
LORRAINE HUNT LIEBERSON: (Singing) As with rosy steps, the morn advancing drives the shades of night. So from virtuous toils well-borne, raise thou our hopes of endless light - raise thou our hopes of endless light
SCHWARTZ: This album also includes one of Handel's most famous arias - "Ombra Mai Fu" - never was shade so dear - surely the greatest love song ever written to a tree.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SERSE, HWV 40: ARIA: 'OMBRA MAI FU' (2025 REMASTERED)")
HUNT LIEBERSON: (Singing in Italian).
SCHWARTZ: I was lucky to be able to hear Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in person. It's tragic that she was with us for such a short time, yet she's almost as miraculous on this recording as she was on stage.
MOSLEY: Lloyd Schwartz reviewed a newly remastered album of "Handel Arias" sung by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, accompanied by Harry Bicket and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Lloyd's new book of poems is called "Artur Schnabel and Joseph Szigeti Play Mozart At The Frick Collection - April 4, 1948 - And Other Poems."
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(SOUNDBITE OF JAMES CARTER'S "AVALON")
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FRESH AIR's executive producer is Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our engineer today is Adam Staniszewski. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF JAMES CARTER'S "AVALON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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