Cathy Berberian was this phenomenal opera/modern classical/anything vocally challenging singer. Born in Attleboro, Massachusetts in 1925, Berberian was into music at an early age, starting with the Armenian folk music of her ancestry, and also opera.
After devoting much studies toward theatre, music and singing, she made her professional debut in 1957. By 1960 she was a bonafide star, and in addition to opera, she took on some of the most daunting vocal challenges, with many composers, including husband Luciano Berio, composing music that probably only Berberian herself was capable of performing.
She’s best known for the self-composed Stripsody, where Berberian used her amazing voice to mimic comic-book sounds. She didn’t make contemporary music forms off limits, though: Berberian even once applied baroque interpretations to Beatles songs. Her life was tragically cut short at the age of 57, however, when she died from an apparent heart attack.
Why all this about a long-deceased singer that few of us here knows about, much less even care about?
Well for one, it helps in understanding a line in the Steely Dan song “Your Gold Teeth”:
Even Cathy Berberian knows / There’s one roulade she can’t sing.
- Rich Halley 4 – ‘Dusk And Dawn’ (2024) - November 13, 2024
- Vazesh [Lloyd Swanton, Jeremy Rose + Hamed Sadeghi] – ‘Tapestry’ (2024) - November 12, 2024
- Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock + Paul Motian – ‘The Old Country’ (1992; 2024 release) - November 7, 2024
