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The Mapleson Cylinders: A Romantic Heritage Richly Preserved

THE romantic story of the Mapleson made out quite a lot. The first fragment score) and a full- throated trill on the high cylinders, those rowdy but precious is notable for Nordicá s brilliant down- B -flat. Next comes a characteristic Jewel souvenirs of the operatic past, is by now ward scale from the high C; the second Song, which has just moved into the fairly well known. In HIGH FIDELITY for fragment, part of the famous andante (otherwise unrecorded by Melba) "Ache - August 1955, James Hinton, Jr., recounted amoroso section in G -flat major, brings us r'ons la metamorphose" section when the the history of these "live" recordings made the faint but unmistakable sound of the cylinder ends; and lastly an unfamiliar during performances at the Metropolitan great tenor throwing his voice up to the passage from Massenet s Le Cid. This is Opera from 1901 to 1903, and reviewed high C -flat in a noble, distinguished, lei- not, of course, ' Pleurez mes yeux" (which a ten -inch disk (IRCC L 7006) that surely curve. Just after Nordica has en- Melba recorded for HMV), because she effectively transferred several of them to tered with her echo of the same theme, never sang the role of Chimène on the microgroove. Evidently the thrill and fas- the cylinder tantalizingly breaks off - to stage, but the Infantá s "Alleluia" at the cination of these excerpts were widely ap- resume a few pages later, during the stretta, beginning of Act II. It is mostly rather preciated, for Mr. W. H. Seltsam, the from which not very much can be dis- difficult to make out, but again clears up founder of the International Record Col- cerned. The rest of Side s is given over towards the end in time for some brilliant lectors' Club, has now issued a twelve - to Wagner. Nordica sails regally through high B -flats. inch selection, in which only one item (the Brünnhilde's Battle Cry from Die Walküre, Far more effective is the next band, Jean de Reszke -Lucienne Bréval duet from and (with Georg Anthes) crowns the last which brings us Marcella Sembrich in the L'Africaine) is taken over from the earlier page of Siegfried with a vivid high C. latter part of the Queen of the Night's issue. Of the remainder, some had pre- Better recorded is a passage from Act II Act Il aria. This begins just before the viously appeared on 78 rpm; but ten of of Lohengrin, in which Luisa Reuss -Belce passage in triplets, which she negotiates the fragments have never been issued be- sounds a decidedly short-winded Ortrud, with absolute ease (it is the point at which fore in any form. Johanna Gadski a radiant Elsa. The side almost all modern Queens come to grief). As in his previous LP, Mr. Seltsam has ends with the last pages of Die Meister- The famous high F's are not heard (they caused to be printed on the back of the ringer, a fairly well recorded but less in- belong in the earlier part of the aria), but envelope "THIS IS NOT A HIGH FI- teresting choral passage. Mr. Seltsam in- the staccato passages are executed with DELITY RECORD." In this brevity there cludes the name of Gadski in his billing dazzling precision. Sembrich does not end, is wit: perhaps only Dame Edith Evans, of this excerpt; but by this point in the as the score indicates, on the dominant A; in the role of Lady Bracknell, could invest opera neither Eva nor any other character but takes the further leap that was then that little word "not" with all the mean- has any solo music left to sing: they are customary (and was also attempted by ing it must bear. To get the best from the Florence Foster Jenkins) to the tonic high Mapleson records demands much patience D. Then there came several fragments and a degree of aural endurance which from L'Africaine, allowing us to hear more few possess: one must listen for faint of Jean de Reszke (in the final bars of threads of vocal tone through a con- "O parafir ") than is to be heard anywhere siderable racket; one must pore over scores else on these records. By much grimly and be prepared to repeat the same frag- attentive listening to this and the Hu- ment again and again for every scrap of guenots excerpts I have at last arrived at information it will yield. The casual lis- some sort of direct impression of his tone tener, in short, will make nothing of these and style of singing: absolutely smooth, records; but to the student of singing and very leisurely, rather like an heroic en- of operatic history they are priceless. largement of Edmond Clément's lyric tenor. The first four bands of Side t are taken or an upward extension of Pol Plançon's from a 1903 performance of Tosca. with bass; perhaps, at this stage of his career, Emma Eames, Antonio Scotti, and Emilio just a little throaty; yet with real brilliance de Marchi ( the original Cavaradossi ) . Not in the B -flat at the end of "O paradis." much is added to our knowledge of Scotti; A very brief choral episode from L'Afri- but De Marchi's "Vittoria! Vittoria!" rings caine, during which we catch the unmis- out with quite startling force, and Eames takable tones of Plançon at the final displays a more impassioned style than we cadence, leads to the above -mentioned re- find in most of her published Victor dubbing of the Bréval-De Reszke duet, records. The end of her " Vissi d'arte" thus presenting the Africaine excerpts com- shows the expected flawless attack on the plete and in correct sequence. Side 2 ends, three successive high notes; and in the like Side 1, with Wagnerian excerpts final pages of the opera she launches her- which call for little comment: a star - self from the battlements with a perfectly studded "Ride of the Valkyries," and Nor - poised high B -flat. De Marchi appears dica in two overlapping passages from again in two fragments from Cavalleria Isolde's Liebestod. which include some temperamental screams If the Mapleson cylinders are hard to and also some fine singing (including, Jean de Reszke rouses special interest. decipher, the effort will be magnificently surely, an interpolated high B ?) from repaid. No praise can be too high for Calve; but the voice that comes through simply instructed to join in the final the care taken over such points as correct most clearly is the pleasing mezzo of Carrie chorus. pitch; we are fortunate that these precious Bridewell in the offstage song of Lola. Side 2 begins with another of those documents have fallen into the hands of so In these scraps from the past it is the ensembles which are irritatingly apt to scrupulous an editor as Mr. Seltsam. name of Jean de Reszke which always sound better than the more important solo DESMOND SHAWE- TAYLOR arouses the most intense interest; and his passages; this is the passage from Act I presence seems also to give the signal for of Aida immediately preceding ' Ritorna ECHOES OF THE AGE a more than usually furious outburst of vincitor," with Louise Homer prominent as GOLDEN OF OPERA: Volume incidental noises: no doubt his cylinders Amneris and Gadski audible as Aida. The II were played more often than the rest. next three excerpts are all of Nellie Melba. Emma Eames, Lillian Nordica, Marcella There are three excerpts, with Lillian Nor - ' Spargi d'amaro pianto," the cabaletta Sembrich, Nellie Melba, et al. dica as Valentine, from the great duet in from the Lucia Mad Scene, remains very INTERNATIONAL RECORD COLLECTORS' Act IV of Les Huguenots. Oh, for a high- distant until the end, when our patience is CLUB L 7004. 12 -in. (Available from the fidelity tape of this! By dint of constant rewarded by a dazzling down -and -up scale club, 318 Reservoir Ave., Bridgeport 6, listening, my eyes glued to a score, I have passage (more elaborate than that in the Conn.)

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