June 13, 2002


To the Editors and Publishers of the Major Music Magazines worldwide:


Last January in the process of selling back issues of Opera News magazines I was contacted by Donald Collup of NY who particularly wanted the issues from the 1950s. Although too young to actually remember that era he felt that Bing's first decade brought more stars to the Met than at any other similar period of time. What Donald had done was to collect recordings of all the Saturday afternoon broadcasts, and wanted the issues of Opera News to complement his collection. He also had made a point to meet as many singers of that period as possible and besides making friends, getting first hand information and insight. (And he can tell you from memory the dates and casts of those 200 plus broadcasts.)




The complete collection Opera News Magazines from the 1950s


As we corresponded about his collection I found his web site (www.collup.com) which I heartily advise you all to investigate. It contains a wealth of personal information but also a wealth of information about many operatic subjects, and gorgeous pictures. I learned that he had been a singer, first a boy soprano, and then a lyric baritone, and also a pianist and all of very high quality judging from his awards and reviews. There were striking similarities between my listening years (I am much older than him) and his developing career. The most serendipitous occasion was that I had actually heard what was to be his last public performance, as Pelléas, in a concert version given in Concord, MA, near to my home.<


I therefore made a point to meet Donald when I next went to NY and had a thoroughly enjoyable time over dinner and a trip to the top of the Empire State Building at night, plus an enormous amount of operatic reminiscing. His public career had come to an end because of illness, but he was thriving doing all the collecting and recording, and carrying on correspondence far and wide with the famous and not so famous.

I wanted to hear him sing, and as you can see from his web site there are 8 CDs available, but Donald suggested sending me a 2 CD sampling. It should also have contained his playing of the "famous" Chopin Polonaise (which somehow got cut) but did contain his accompaniment of a Fauré Sonata for Piano and Violin so that we can see what a fine pianist and accompanist he was as well.

Well, I was bowled over by the voice. Throughout his career, even as a boy soprano of great strength and range and flexibility, he has been the consummate musician. His attention to all details produced musical performances of the highest degree of accuracy of pitch, rhythm, languages, attention to the meaning of the texts, and above all, an emotional depth that is outstanding. Many times I said to myself I have never heard this song or aria sung better." His particular fach seems to be the French repertoire, but I enjoyed most the arias from Die tote Stadt; and Roméo et Juliette, as well as songs by Schubert, Wolf and Mahler. There is simply a remarkable loveliness to the quality of his voice from his childhood through his adulthood. What a blessing, and how sorry I am tha he has been unable to carry on his career. He is still a young man.

Donald also shows an enormous sense of humor in the singing of some American songs (he is a friend of Ned Rorem) and especially in his accompanying himself in two excerpts from Argento's A Waterbird Talk.

I want all of you who are unfamiliar with Donald's singing to be in touch with him at his web site and order these CDs and hear for yourself this extraordinary voice. In some ways the final selection, the love scene and death of Pelléas (Act IV, scene 4) is the most touching, knowing that it is Donald's favorite opera, that he was finally able to sing it on the stage, that he managed not only all the high notes (what a role!) but conveyed the urgency and tragedy that can so easily be overlooked in this difficult score.


Martin Segal

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