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Raffaello DE BANFIELD ’s Love Letter

Also available ID VAR TR NA AS Y

1 g 958 Recordin 8.112023-24 8.111360-61 Astrid Varnay • Gertrude Ribla Nicoletta Carruba • Mario Carlin Academy Symphony Orchestra of Rome Nicola Rescigno

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GREAT RECORDINGS Appendix at night, reads to herself from the Bible. She cries out Berg: Three scenes from Wozzeck, Op. 7 that she wants forgiveness, as she is haunted by her infidelity to Wozzeck. ! After the interlude which links the second scene of the first act, in which Wozzeck experiences frightening # Wozzeck has killed Marie, and drowned himself. visions, and the third scene, a military parade passes by After an intense interlude, which starts by depicting the outside the room of Marie, Wozzeck’s mistress. Marie, rising water that leads to Wozzeck’s death, children are after singing along to the military music, shuts the seen playing in the sunshine. Hearing that Marie’s window and proceeds to sing a lullaby to her son by body has been found, the children run off to see it, Raffaello Wozzeck. except for her little boy, who after an oblivious moment, follows the others. DE BANFIELD @ At the beginning of the third act, Marie, in her room David Patmore (1922–2008)

Lord Byron’s Love Letter Also available Opera in One Act Libretto by Tennessee Williams

The Old Woman ...... Astrid Varnay () The Spinster (Ariadne) ...... Gertrude Ribla (soprano) The Matron ...... Nicoletta Carruba (contralto) The Husband ...... Mario Carlin () Academy Symphony Orchestra of Rome Nicola Rescigno

Recorded in Rome in 1958 First issued on RCA Victor LM-2258

Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Special thanks to Maynard F. Bertolet and James Miller for providing source material

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Synopsis 6 While they speak an image of the Acropolis may be Total time 50:51 Scene 5 seen with a young girl and her middle-aged companion 0 Canaille! Canaille! Canaille! 4:26 The setting is the parlour of a faded house in the present. The companion leaves the young girl on her Scene 1 (Spinster, Old Woman) French Quarter of New Orleans. The time is the late own. The Old Woman speaks of the scene as if in a 1 When are you going to learn nineteenth century. The noise of the Mardi Gras trance. The Spinster describes the presence of Byron. how to play that piece? 6:34 Appendix 15:45 festivities may be heard from outside. Set stage left On stage a handsome young man can be seen watching (Old Woman, Spinster) there is a marble mantelpiece, and beyond it there is a the young girl. She drops her glove, which the young Scene 2 Gertrude Ribla in three scenes thick, dark and dusty curtain. Stage right a high door man returns to her. The Spinster reads how the young 2 opens onto a cavernous hall. The furnishings are heavy girl recognizes Byron, while the Old Woman relives Won’t you come in? 6:13 from Berg’s Wozzeck Victorian in style. Beside a rose shaded lamp a woman the scene. (Spinster, Matron, Old Woman) 3 of forty, the Spinster, is playing an upright piano, 7 The Old Woman tells the Spinster to stop reading. Also he swam the Hellespont 3:34 Alban BERG (1885–1935): faultily. In the opposite corner, the Old Woman, in a The Matron asks if there is any more. The Old Woman (Old Woman, Spinster, Matron) Wozzeck, Op. 7 black silk dress, sits motionless. replies that there is, and the Spinster offers to show the Scene 3 1 The Old Woman asks the Spinster when she is Matron the letter. As the Matron starts to open it, the 4 Ah! Winston! Remove that silly hat! 5:43 ! Soldaten, Soldaten sind schöner Burschen! 5:41 going to be able to play the piece of piano music Old Woman says she cannot do this. The Spinster (Matron, Spinster, Old Woman, Husband) (Interlude, Military Music and Cradle Song, Act 1) correctly. The Spinster stops, distressed, and opens the explains that shortly afterwards Byron was killed; Scene 4 @ Aber die Pharisäer brachten ein Weib zu ihm 3:53 window, swaying slightly to the sound of the music when her grandmother heard this she retired from the 5 “We set out in the early morning (Marie’s Bible Reading, Act 3)) outside. She returns to her sewing. A knock is heard world. The Matron comments that this was foolish, for the Acropolis” 3:47 # Ringel, Ringel, Rosenkranz 6:11 from the hall. The Old Woman conceals herself behind which provokes reactions from both the Old Woman (Spinster, Old Woman) (Death of Wozzeck and Final Scene, Act 3) the curtain while the Spinster goes out to open the and the Spinster. The Spinster offers to read a sonnet 6 Do you mind if I don’t climb any higher? 9:07 door. which the young lady wrote to Byron’s memory, 2 (Old Woman, Spinster, Matron) Gertrude Ribla, soprano The Spinster invites the Matron in. The latter entitled ‘Enchantment’. 7 explains that she and her husband are visiting New 8 The Spinster starts to read the sonnet. As she does Stop there! It’s quite enough 5:18 The Philadelphia Orchestra • Eugene Ormandy Orleans from Milwaukee for the Mardi Gras. She asks (Old Woman, Spinster, Matron, Husband) so the Old Woman starts to accompany her, becoming 8 to see the letter of Lord Byron advertised on the door. more intense as she does so. At the climax she enters “Une saison enchantée! I mused. Beguiled 4:35 Recorded in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, The Spinster explains that it was written to her the room from behind the curtain. (Spinster, Old Woman) 1st November, 1947 • Matrix nos.: XCO-39256/9 grandmother, who had met Byron in Greece. The Old 9 As the music from outside also gets louder, the 9 Mama, mama – you’ll miss it! 1:32 First issued on Columbia 13117/8-D Woman keeps up a laconic commentary while the Husband rushes out. The Spinster requests some (Husband, Matron, Spinster, Old Woman) in album MX-347 Matron and the Spinster talk about Byron’s exploits. money. Distracted by her Husband’s departure, the 3 The Matron, interested, goes out to fetch her Matron herself leaves hurriedly. husband. 0 The Spinster bitterly calls after the departing 4 The Matron returns with her Husband. He is couple. At the door she is momentarily held by a figure Producer’s Note wearing a paper cap sprinkled with confetti. The in a grotesque mask. She yields but the figure rushes Matron explains to her Husband that the Spinster’s out, slamming the door. The Old Woman points to the grandmother met Byron. The Old Woman asks the letter from the Spinster’s grandfather which the The sources for the transfer of the de Banfield were first edition red “Shaded Dog” label American RCA pressings. Spinster to read a passage from the journal recording Spinster has dropped on the floor. The Spinster gives Although taped a year after RCA began recording complete in stereo in Rome, this disc was only ever the encounter. The Old Woman comments that the the letter to the Old Woman, as the noise of the Mardi released in mono. A rarity, it did not remain long in the catalogue, and has never been reissued. There is a Husband has been drinking. Gras festivities outside grows louder. momentary pitch fluctuation at 3:09 in Track 2 which is present in the LP master tape. The “Academy Symphony 5 The Spinster starts to read from the journal while Orchestra of Rome” is most likely a nom de disque for the orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. the Old Woman repeats and comments upon passages Since Astrid Varnay is already well represented on compact disc, I have chosen to fill out this release with one from it. of the few recordings made by her Lord Byron co-star, Gertrude Ribla, again heard in twentieth-century opera. The Wozzeck scenes were transferred from the early 10-inch LP (ML-2140) which was its only previous reissue and was itself transferred from Columbia’s wide-frequency range 33 1/3 rpm master lacquer discs. Mark Obert-Thorn 8.111362 63 8.111362 8.111362 bk DeBanfield_EU:8.111362 bk DeBanfield_EU 21-11-2010 14:35 Pagina 4

Raffaello de Banfield (1922–2008) the original Broadway production of Rodgers and made her last appearance in Munich in 1995, almost Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, for which she fifty-five years after her Metropolitan début. Her Lord Byron’s Love Letter received a Tony Award. The present recording of Lord brilliant career is well documented in both commercial Byron’s Love Letter was made in Rome by RCA three and unofficial sound recordings. The composer Raffaello de Banfield was born in 1922 comprehensively renovated and modernised. In year’s after the work’s première, with the soprano Gertrude Ribla (1919–1980) was born in New York in the English city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to the addition from 1978 to 1986 he was director of the Gertrude Ribla taking over the part of The Spinster, and and studied singing with Frances Alda. She won an Austrian flying ace Gottfried von Banfield (the last Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, , which had the distinguished American-Italian musician, Nicola amateur singing competition in 1936 and made her first Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresa) and the been founded in 1958 by the composer Gian Carlo Rescigno, conducting. When released in America at the NBC radio broadcast in 1941, subsequently singing in the Countess Maria Tripcovich, who originated from Menotti. De Banfield achieved international recognition end of 1958, Time magazine commented that ‘Italian 1943 national NBC broadcast of the third act of Rigoletto Trieste, Italy. The couple had settled in Newcastle in for his compositions, which included the ballets Composer Banfield’s score offers some green and with Toscanini conducting. She won the Metropolitan 1920. De Banfield studied in Switzerland at the Quatuor (1957) and Acostino (1958), the one-act operas willowy moments of vocal beauty’. Nonetheless the Opera’s Auditions of the Air in 1948, and made her début international Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz and subsequently Lord Byron’s Love Letter (1955) and Alissa (1965), and recording’s time in the catalogue was short, since when at the Metropolitan during the following year as Aida. in Trieste at the Lyceum Dante Alighieri. He attended the Ritratto lirico, Colloquio col Tango ossìa La it has never been commercially reissued, becoming a Other parts which she sang there until 1951 included the and the Benedetto Marcello Formica (Conversation with the Tango or The Ant) sought-after rarity in the process, until its present re- Leonore in Il trovatore. During the 1950s she was active Conservatory in , where he was a pupil of Gian (1959), as well as several works for solo soprano and publication. across America, singing in Chicago and New Orleans as Francesco Malipiero. In 1946 he moved to Paris, to orchestra, including For Ophelia, sung by Kiri Te The dramatic soprano Astrid Varnay (1918–2006) well as with the Opera. In 1958 she took study composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Henri Kanawa at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London was born into an operatic family: her mother was a part in an Italian radio broadcast of Weinberger’s Büsser, and also with Nadia Boulanger. He remained at in the mid-1970s. He received many honours, including coloratura soprano and her father a spinto tenor. The Schwanda the Bagpiper. Other parts which she sang the Conservatoire until 1949, and during this time came being made a Grand Ufficiale of Italy and a Grand year in which she was born they founded the Opera included the title rôle in Turandot, Santuzza in into contact with many leading figures in French Cavalier of the Légion d’Honneur in France. He died at Comique Theatre in Kristiania, Sweden, although they Cavalleria rusticana, and Marie in Wozzeck, excerpts intellectual life of the period, such as Picasso, Cocteau his home at Rive d’Arcano, near Trieste, in 2008. were both born in Hungary, and they managed it until from which she recorded with Eugene Ormandy and Poulenc, as well as the conductor Herbert von The opera Lord Byron’s Love Letter is as well- 1921.The family then moved to Argentina and later to conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1947. These are Karajan, who remained a life-long friend. The painter known for its libretto as for its music. The text provided New York, where her father died in 1924. Her mother included as a bonus in this present release. introduced him to the French by Tennessee Williams is based on a play that he wrote subsequently remarried another tenor, and the young The conductor Nicola Rescigno (1916–2008) was choreographer and ballet dancer . As a in 1946. The setting is Williams’s beloved New Orleans Astrid, after studying to be a pianist, decided at the age born into a musical family in New York. He studied result de Banfield composed the music for Petit’s ballet at the time of the annual Mardi Gras, during the late of eighteen to become a singer. She worked intensively, music with Pizzetti, Giannini and Polacco and made his Le combat (The Duel), which had its first production in nineteenth century. The plot revolves around an first with her mother and then with the Metropolitan conducting début in 1943, leading La traviata in London in 1949. Based upon the Tancred and Clorinda eccentric old lady, lost in the past, and her spinster Opera conductor and coach Hermann Weigert, whom Brooklyn. He subsequently was music director for opera episode in ’s epic poem Gerusalemme granddaughter. Together they live, none too she later married. She made her sensational stage début companies in Connecticut and Havana, and first appeared liberata, this ballet was subsequently performed comfortably, in a decrepit house in New Orleans. The at the Metropolitan in 1941, substituting at short notice at San Francisco in 1950, directing frequently at the between 1959 and focus of their lives is an old love letter, purportedly for Lotte Lehmann as Sieglinde in Die Walküre with no and Il barbiere di Siviglia. He was a co-founder of the 1973, with choreography by Dimitrije Parlic. written by Lord Byron, which they display to visitors rehearsal. After this triumph, six days later she replaced Chicago Lyric Opera in 1953, and worked there until De Banfield led an international existence, and in for money. The opera Lord Byron’s Love Letter was Helen Traubel in the same opera as Brünnhilde, and her 1956, when he left to inaugurate the Civic Opera, America he became a member of the intellectual circle first performed at Dixon Hall, Tulane University, New operatic career was effectively launched. She made her where he was the music director until 1990. Here he surrounding the writer and composer . Orleans on 17th January 1955, with the principal parts Covent Garden début in 1948 and, at the suggestion of worked with many of the world’s top singers, having Through this he met the writer and playwright of the Old Woman and The Spinster taken by Astrid Kirsten Flagstad, her Bayreuth Festival début in 1951. already struck up a close professional relationship with Tennessee Williams and the composer and conductor Varnay and respectively. Both were She sang every year at Bayreuth for the next seventeen , with whom he recorded extensively. He . Up until 1958 he divided his time leading singers of the time: Varnay was renowned for years and at the Met until 1956, when she left following first conducted at the , where his between Paris and New York, and maintained a her unrivalled command of the Wagnerian repertoire on a disagreement with Rudolf Bing. She henceforth father had been a trumpet player, in 1978. He appeared as friendship with Maria Callas. Later, after oscillating both sides of the Atlantic, and Neway for her creation of concentrated her career on Germany where she was a guest in Italy, Mexico, Portugal and the United between homes in Italy, France, England and the United the part of Magda Sorel in Menotti’s opera The Consul revered, living in Munich. She moved from the Kingdom. He was particularly admired for his skills as an States, where he lived for more than ten years, he served (available on Naxos 8.112023-24, coupled with dramatic soprano repertoire into that for mezzo-soprano operatic accompanist. between 1972 and 1996 as director of the Trieste opera Menotti’s first opera Amelia al ballo). Neway in 1969, and during the 1980s into character parts. She David Patmore house, the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi, which he subsequently created the rôle of the Mother Superior in 8.111362 45 8.111362