Years ago, when I was living in Germany, it seemed every opera queen I knew owned an album by some woman who paid to rent out Carnegie Hall and recorded an album of opera “hits”.
It was truly horrendous - so much so that her album became a cult must-have for German opera fans. They never failed to play the album at parties and watch friends cringe in agony as they listened.
I was mentioning this to an American friend but cannot recall the name of this singer. Anyone know who I am talking about?
Another member of the (thankfully small) bad singing pantheon is Leona Anderson. However, the only opera number she did was the Habanera from “Carmen”.
That appeared on her album “Music to Suffer by”. Two more tracks from that album are “Rats in my Room” (used by Ernie Kovacs) and Limburger Lover. They are wonderfully awful.
From the link: “. . . dismissed the laughter which often came from the audience during her performances as coming from her rivals consumed by ‘professional jealousy.’ She was aware of her critics, however, saying ‘People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing’ . . . .”
I’m inspired. I’m booked at Lincoln Center (Alice Tully Hall) for next month, the 25th. You all can e-mail me for tickets. (No, don’t, not for real; I don’t want to be inundated with requests.)