111139 bk Ponselle2 1/15/07 11:59 AM Page 5 TOSTI: MEYERBEER: L’Africana [L’Africaine]: DI CHIARA: Tracks 6 & 7: with Frances Lapitino, harp 8.111139 1 Good-bye 3:53 ! In grembo a me [Sur mes genoux] 3:40 ¡ La Spagnola 2:42 Tracks 12-22: with orchestra conducted by 11th April 1924; C 29876-1 14th January 1925; C 31710-2 5th June 1925; BVE 32873-2 (HMV VA 69) Josef Pasternack GREAT SINGERS • PONSELLE ADD (unpublished on 78 rpm) (unpublished on 78 rpm) All other tracks with orchestra conducted by SILBERTA: Rosario Bourdon TOSTI: HEWETT: ™ Beloved 2:51 Tracks 1-3, 6-7, 12-22: sung in English 2 Good-bye 3:56 @ The Little Old Garden 2:28 5th June 1925; BVE 32852-5 (HMV VA 67) Tracks 4, 8-11: sung in Italian 11th April 1924; C 29876-2 (Victor 6453 A) 1st June 1925; BVE 32850-2 (HMV VA 67) Track 5: sung in Neapolitan dialect Rosa MONRO-HIGGINS: BLAND: 3 My lovely Celia 2:46 # Carry Me Back to Old Virginny 4:10 11th April 1924; B 29877-2 (Victor 1057 B) with male vocal quartet PONSELLE 2nd June 1925; CVE 32856-3 (Victor 6509 A) DE CURTIS: 4 Carmè 3:09 FOSTER: Also available: 11th April 1924; B 29878-2 (Victor 1013 B) $ My Old Kentucky Home 4:08 American Recordings with male vocal quartet DI CAPUA: 2nd June 1925; CVE 32857-1 (Victor 6509 B) 5 Maria, Mari! 3:36 1923-1929, Volume 2 11th April 1924; B 29411-4 (Victor 1013 A) BISHOP: % Home, Sweet Home 3:58 TOSTI: 3rd June 1925; CVE 32866-2 (HMV VB 74) 6 Serenade 4:05 12th April 1924; C 29879-1 (Victor 6453 B) BLAND: ^ A Perfect Day 3:07 TOSTI: 3rd June 1925; BVE 32867-1 (Victor 1098 B) SUICIDIO! 7 Serenade 4:08 12th April 1924; C 29879-3 FOSTER: (unpublished on 78rpm) & Old Folks at Home 4:01 IN GREMBO A ME 4th June 1925; CVE 32865-3 (IRCC 126) PONCHIELLI: La Gioconda: GOOD-BYE 8 Suicidio! 4:16 FOSTER: 14th January 1925; C 31709-1 (Victor 6496 A) * Old Folks at Home 4:03 MARIA, MARI! 4th June 1925; CVE 32865-4 (HMV DB 872) PONCHIELLI: La Gioconda: HOME, SWEET HOME 9 Suicidio! 4:14 DUPONT: 14th January 1925; C 31709-2 ( La Rosita 3:04 8.111138 (unpublished on 78 rpm) 4th June 1925; BVE 32851-5 (HMV VA 69) THE LITTLE OLD GARDEN MEYERBEER: L’Africana [L’Africaine]: NEVIN: MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME 0 In grembo a me [Sur mes genoux] 3:34 ) The Rosary 2:35 14th January 1925; C 31710-1 (Victor 6496 B) 5th June 1925; BVE 32864-7 (Victor 1098 A) New restorations by Ward Marston 8.111139 5 6 8.111139 111139 bk Ponselle2 1/15/07 11:59 AM Page 2 Rosa Ponselle (1897-1981) Pine Orchard, Connecticut, where she prepared her Ponchielli and Rossini, and songs by Paisiello, 1925, followed in rapid succession by Sélika and using this ‘new’ process. Only one of the items recorded American Recordings 1923-1929, Vol. 2 rôles under the guidance of the conductor and composer Schumann, Fourdain, Strauss, Ganz Alvarez and Gioconda. Two arias from the latter rôles, In grembo a at this first session - The Little Old Garden (also known Romano Romani. others’. Less than two weeks later, on 5th December me from L’Africana and Suicidio from La Gioconda, as Sanctuary) by John Hewett - achieved publication While visiting Lily Pons at her Dallas home in Following her engagement there, the customers of the Ponselle’s historic début in Forza alongside Caruso 1923, Ponselle was in Camden, New Jersey, to make were recorded for Victor on 14th January, and are and that occurred more than twenty years after the early May 1962, I asked if she were planning to attend rival Star Theater in Meriden began to dwindle because took place on 15th November 1918. A review in The her first records for the Victor Company. (The soprano surely among Ponselle’s loveliest and best record was made. At the session the following day, the Met performance of La forza del destino later that they preferred to hear Rosa singing at the Crystal New York Times the following day is headlined: Rosa always ‘blamed’ her manager William Thorner for performances on disc. In April she again joined the Met however, she successfully recorded the two songs week. The diva’s large brown eyes grew wide, and she Theater. As a result, Richard Halliwell, the owner of the Poncelli [sic] Captivates - Young Soprano Debutante having her initially sign with Columbia rather than the on tour, singing favourite rôles in both Atlanta and which made up her first electric double-sided answered an immediate, emphatic ‘No!’ ‘Why should I Star Theater, approached her and offered to double her Displays a Sweet Voice of Natural Beauty - Caruso more prestigious Victor label, but it is probable that Cleveland. ‘Coupling’ - Carry Me Back to Old Virginny and My go to Forza?’, she inquired. ‘I heard Rosa Ponselle as salary if she would sing in his three theatres. In one of Sings Gloriously.’In the heart of the review the Romani, who was a conductor for Columbia, was also On 11th March 1925 the Victor Company officially Old Kentucky Home. Leonora!’ these, the San Carlino in New Haven, Rosa sang distinguished critic James Gibbons Huneker wrote: involved in the decision. Ponselle’s last recordings for dedicated its newly equipped studio for electrical Lily Pons’s admiration for Ponselle’s voice and popular songs of the day for Yale students as well as ‘Added to her personal attractiveness, she possesses a Columbia on 11th and 14th January 1924 - a month recordings. Less than three months later, on 1st June, artistry has been echoed many times by other singers Italian songs, accompanied by an orchestra which voice of natural beauty that may prove a gold mine; it is after her first Victors - were to fulfil her contractual Ponselle was in the studio to make her first recordings © Bill Park and musicians, and this great popularity continues performed Rosa’s own instrumental arrangements. vocal gold, anyhow, with its luscious lower and middle obligations to Columbia for a specific number of titles.) today through the amazing phonographic legacy she James Ceriani heard her at the San Carlino and soon tones, dark, rich and ductile.’ A second journey to Victor for more recordings was left. Ponselle’s records reveal a voice of richness and hired her to perform in his Café Mellone. He compared In her next rôle as Santuzza with the Met in made on 11th December 1923, and less than a week power, a dark, exciting colour so unmistakable, her voice to that of Emmy Destinn, and took Rosa to Philadelphia, the Bulletin reported: ‘The new soprano later she made her first seasonal appearance at the Met combined with a formidable coloratura technique. Yet her first Met opera performance - Tosca with Caruso has a “presence” and an aptitude for operatic as Maddalena in an Andrea Chenier which included Ida Cook, the author of We Followed Our Stars, who and Farrar. On the same trip to New York she had an interpretation that at once is apparent. Best of all, Gigli, Ruffo and Tibbett (Ponselle had, in fact, heard her in person, wrote: ‘Occasionally on record one audition with Gene Hughes to become part of a ‘sister however, she disclosed a voice of splendid capabilities, auditioned Tibbett at the request of Frank La Forge catches a breath of the magic that was Ponselle - act’ with Carmela in vaudeville. Rosa sang ‘Kiss Me of fine range, volume and beauty, a pure dramatic when she visited Hollywood for the first time in May particularly the Vestale record, the final Trio from Again’ from Mlle Modiste and got the job. soprano, of a full, rich and even quality.’ Of her Rezia in earlier that year). Forza, the finale of Aida and the rare Africana record. I Rosa’s début in vaudeville (with Carmela as ‘the Oberon on 28th December 1918 The New York Times She added Leonora in Il trovatore to her Met remember distinctly that when we could hear her in Ponzillo Sisters’) took place at the Star Theater in the mentions ‘her dramatic temperament, musical repertoire on 19th April 1924, and concluded the season person, my sister and I put away our Ponselle records Bronx in September 1916. Two years later they were intelligence, with her beautiful natural voice and its in the same rôle in Cleveland on 3rd May before sailing because they were such a pale shadow of the real thing.’ featured at the Keith Riverside, and on 29th October remarkable range from a rich, velvety contralto to a for the first time to Europe three weeks later. Her But those remarkable discs continue to win new 1917 they gave their first performance at the prestigious vibrating, silvery soprano ... Her scale is seamless, so priorities for the trip were ‘clothes, study and generations of fans who take on faith ‘the dramatic gift Palace. Billed as ‘Two fascinating Italian girls with equal are her tones from top to bottom.’ amusement’. In Viareggio she met Puccini and sang of almost equal intensity [to her extraordinary vocal Grand Opera voices’, they gave a total of twelve With each new season Ponselle’s artistic growth Vissi d’arte for him. power] and stage presence’ described by Cook. performances. Appearances at other theatres followed, continued. In 1919 she appeared as Carmelita in In the Met’s 1924-25 season Ponselle first appeared Rosa Ponselle was born Rosa Ponzillo on 22nd and their last known vaudeville performance took place The Legend and Rachel in La juive opposite Caruso.