Sing Out

To celebrate their Cultural Heritage Year 2013 Estonia issued this souvenir sheet. It was also the 10th Anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage who had proclaimed the Seto singing tradition as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009.

The Seto people have been described as living on the borders of two worlds, living mostly in SW Estonia but also over the border in the Pechong district of Russia. Their polyphonic singing tradition called leelo is one of a lead singer delivering the verse followed by the choir. Lyrics are learned from former performers but the skill of composition is the mark of an true lead singer. The majority of choirs are composed of women and the most notable singer is crowned on Seto Kingdom Day as the "Mother of Songs". Song infuses everyday life and covers major events in lifetime as well as little things like picking berries. I don't know which choir is shown on the souvenir sheet but I like how the FDC shows a group of young girls continuing the tradition of leelo singing.

2012: Britons of Distinction

Here is someone who sang everything from folk songs to classical and was also accomplished pianist, the contralto Kathleen Ferrier whose death from cancer came at the height of her fame. A stunning voice that is probably mostly heard nowadays, sixty years after her death, in the rendition of "Blow the Wind Southerly".

Lastly we have "La Stupenda", the Great One, Joan Sutherland (Luciano Pavarotti called her "the voice of the century"). Making her concert début in Sydney in 1947 and at London's Convent Garden in 1952 she became an international star after performing in Donizetti's 'Lucia di Lammermoor' in 1959. This demanding role remained in her repertoire for over thirty years and the stamp shows her as Lucia in that opera from a 1980 photograph by Branco Gaica. The cover shows her in a lighter role of Anna Glawari in The Merry Wives. Dame Joan gave her final performance in 1990 but after death in 2010 the Sydney Opera House