Beverly Wesp - Benedict: La capinera (The Wren), ca. 1976

Details

Description

THE SONGBIRD: Beverly Wesp is a coloratura soprano from New Jersey who trained with Estelle Liebling -- one of Liebling's two "Beverlys," the other being Beverly Sills. Wesp seems to have sung mostly in concert and radio gigs in the New York and New Jersey area in the 1970s and 1980s. She issued a few of her own private recital discs to showcase her singing.

THE MUSIC: Julius Benedict (1804 - 1885) was a German-born composer who lived most of his life and career in England, where he moved to 1835 at the suggestion of soprano Maria Malibran. He was a conductor and musical director, and composed several mostly now-forgotten operas, as well as orchestral and choral works. He is best remembered now, if at all, for a few of his coloratura art songs with flute obbligato that were regularly heard in recitals and recorded by operatic divas in the so-called "Golden Age," and still occasionally pop up in coloratura programs now. One of those is "La capinera" (The Wren), a short perky ditty published in 1881.