Not available in the United States due to possible copyright restrictions
PONSELLE, Rosa: Rosa Ponselle Sings Verdi (1918-1928)
Tracklist
Piave, Francesco Maria - Lyricist
Studio orchestra (Orchestra)
Bourdon, Rosario (Conductor)
Studio orchestra (Orchestra)
Bourdon, Rosario (Conductor)
Duveyrier, Charles - Lyricist
Scribe, Augustin-Eugène - Lyricist
Cammarano, Salvadore - Lyricist
Piave, Francesco Maria - Lyricist
Ghislanzoni, Antonio - Lyricist
Boito, Arrigo - Lyricist
This splendid disc celebrating the glorious of Rosa Ponselle’s unique voice and interpretative powers bring excellent CD transfers of her most celebrated electrical recording made fro RCA in 1928, including the heroine’s big aria from Ernani, spectacularly well done, and the sequence of Forza recordings with Martinelli and Pinza—as well as Columbia recordings from the pre-electric period, made between 1918 and 1924—all chosen by Ward Marston as being the finest Ponselle versions of each item. The result is a wonderful gallery of perfection, beautifully transferred with the voice vividly caught.
"The transfers seek out the full glory, the roundness, the purity and (in the 'Miserere' particularly) the dark dramatic power."
Ponselle (real name Rose Ponzillo: her parents had emigrated from Naples to America) displayed a superb natural voice at a very early age. Initially she studied the piano with Anna Ryan, the organist of the local Catholic church, and accompanied silent films in local cinemas; but influenced by her elder sister Carmela, who was successfully pursuing a career as a cabaret singer, she began to sing songs while the projectionists changed reels and by 1914 had secured a long-term engagement as a singer at the San Carlino Theater, one of the largest cinemas in New Haven.
The following year Carmela, who by now was an established vaudeville singer, having enjoyed success in 1912 on Broadway in the musical The Girl from Brighton, arranged for Ponselle to audition for her agent. As a result both were hired as a headlining sister-act on the Keith Vaudeville Circuit, earning a considerable income from 1915 to 1918, when they were dropped after requesting an increase in pay. Carmela then introduced Rosa to her voice teacher William Thorner, who arranged for them to be heard firstly by Victor Maurel and then by Enrico Caruso. Caruso, impressed by Rosa’s singing, arranged for her to be auditioned by Gatti-Casazza, who immediately offered her a contract with the Metropolitan Opera.
Ponselle made her debut as Leonora / La forza del destino, opposite Caruso in November 1918—her first performance on an operatic stage. The critic James Huneker, writing in the New York Times, described her voice as ‘vocal gold… with its luscious lower and middle tones, dark, rich and ductile, brilliant in the upper register’. During the same season she sang Santuzza / Cavalleria rusticana, Reiza / Oberon and Carmelita in the first performance of Breil’s The Legend. Later roles included the title parts in Aida (1921) and La Gioconda (1924), Rachel / La Juive (1919), Elisabetta / Don Carlo (1920), Elvira / Ernani (1921), Margared / Le Roi d’Ys (1922), Maddalena / Andrea Chénier, Selika / L’Africaine and Mathilde / William Tell (all 1923), Leonora / Il trovatore (1924) and Giulia / La vestale (1925), which firmly established her as the Met’s prima donna assoluta. This was followed by the title part in Norma in 1927, with Ponselle rightfully claiming this role in succession to the Met’s last great Norma, Lilli Lehmann, who had sung it in 1892. Norma was followed by Fiora / L’amore dei tre re (1928), Donna Anna / Don Giovanni (1930), Luisa / Luisa Miller (1930), and Violetta / La traviata and Zoraima in Montemezzi’s La notte di Zoraima (both 1931). Concerned about the weakness at the top of her voice, she sang the title role in Carmen in 1935; but though popular with the public this was not a critical success. She gave her last performance with the Met in this role in Cleveland in 1937, disillusoned both by the company’s refusal to mount Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur for her and a failed attempt at a Hollywood career.
When not singing at the Met Ponselle enjoyed a lucrative concert career throughout America. Her European appearances were very few: she sang at the Royal Opera House, London annually between 1929 and 1931 in roles that included Norma and Gioconda (1929), Violetta (her first performances in this part) and Fiora (1930), and Leonora (Forza) and the title role in Fedra, composed by her long-term coach Romano Romani (1931). She gave her only performances in Italy as Giulia (La vestale) at the Maggio Musicale Florence in 1933.
Always nervous when performing, Ponselle retired to Baltimore after her marriage to the industrialist Carl Jackson in 1936. Here they built the Villa Pace, her home for the rest of her life. The marriage ended in 1950 after which Ponselle suffered a nervous breakdown; but her voice remained as magnificent as ever, as domestic recordings made by RCA in the 1950s demonstrate. From the late 1940s she supported the Baltimore Civic Opera Company and taught. Her pupils included Beverly Sills, Sherrill Milnes, Plácido Domingo and James Morris.
Technically Ponselle was in a class of her own, with all the registers perfectly joined, superb agility and excellent control of dynamics, and an innate musical understanding. She was a true dramatic coloratura soprano, with a voice both voluptuous and very beautiful; only its top presented problems, as she got older. She recorded extensively: for Columbia-USA from 1918 to 1923 and then for Victor from 1923 to 1939. Her live recordings from the Met of La traviata and Carmen are extraordinarily valuable documents, displaying a level of vocal and dramatic virtuosity rarely encountered. Geraldine Farrar commented about her: ‘When discussing singers, there are two you must first set aside: Rosa Ponselle and Enrico Caruso. Then you may begin.’
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).
Giovanni Martinelli was born into a large family, being the eldest of fourteen children, and as a child learnt to play the clarinet. During his military service he served as a bandsman, but the power of his voice so impressed his bandmaster that he arranged singing lessons for him with Giuseppe Mandolini in Milan. Martinelli’s very first role on-stage was the Messenger / Aida: this was in 1908 and his formal debut came in 1910, with Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the Teatro dal Verme, Milan when he substituted for the tenor Giuseppe Sala. His immediate success led to his appearance at the same theatre in the title role of Ernani a few weeks later.
Puccini’s La fanciulla del West had its Italian premiere in Rome during 1911. Together with tenor Amedeo Bassi, Martinelli auditioned successfully before Toscanini, Puccini and Ricordi for the part of Dick Johnson. Martinelli sang the final three performances in Rome, after which he sang the part in the first performances at La Scala, Milan in 1912, with Toscanini conducting, as well as in productions later mounted at Naples, Brescia, Genoa and Monte Carlo. In 1912 also Martinelli enjoyed a successful debut at the Royal Opera House in London as Cavaradossi / Tosca. Later roles in London included Canio / Pagliacci, Pinkerton / Madama Butterfly, Rodolfo / La Bohème, Dick Johnson (1912), Gennaro / I gioielli della Madonna (Wolf-Ferrari, 1913), Riccardo / Un ballo in maschera and Paolo / Francesca da Rimini (Zandonai, 1914), a role which he also sang at the opera’s Italian premiere in Milan during 1916.
Martinelli made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 1913 as Rodolfo; this company was to be his principal arena of activity until 1945. During this time he sang more than 900 performances of thirty-eight operas. At the Met he became a close colleague of Caruso, who gave him his costume for Canio; and after Caruso’s death in 1921 Martinelli assumed many of his dramatic roles. He proved to be an outstanding singer of the often taxing dramatic tenor roles in operas by Verdi, such as Manrico / Il trovatore, Radamès / Aida and Alvaro / La forza del destino; as well as of other demanding parts such as Raoul / Les Huguenots, Jean / Le Prophète, Vasco / L’Africaine, Eleazar / La Juive, Don José / Carmen, Enzo / La Gioconda, des Grieux / Manon Lescaut and the title role in Andrea Chénier. Roles in premieres at the Met in which he participated included Lefèvre / Madame Sans-Gêne (Giordano, 1915), Fernando / Goyescas (Granados, 1916) and Huon / Oberon (Weber, 1918); and in their US premieres Lensky / Eugene Onegin (1920), Carlo / Don Carlo (1920), Heinrich / La campana sommersa (Respighi, 1928) and Gabriele / Simon Boccanegra (1932).
Occasionally Martinelli sang elsewhere, appearing for instance at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires in 1916 and 1921, at the Rome Opera for the 1928–1929 season, and at the Teatro dal Verme, Milan in 1929. He made a triumphant return to Covent Garden for the Coronation Season of 1937 as Calaf / Turandot and in the title role of Otello, a role which he repeated in Chicago, San Francisco and New York. He also sang Tristan opposite Kirsten Flagstad’s Isolde in Chicago in 1939.
His farewell performance at the Met was in 1945 as Pollione / Norma, although he continued to sing in fund-raising events at the Met and in 1967, at the age of eighty-two, sang the Emperor in Turandot. From 1946 onwards he was active in New York as a teacher.
A man of great personal charm, Martinelli enjoyed a reputation as a bon viveur. His voice had a clarion-like quality to it, ideally matching his extraordinary vocal stamina, and he cut a dramatically convincing figure on stage. His substantial recorded legacy, both official and unofficial, well captures the vigour, passion and authority of his singing.
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).
Pinza was born into humble circumstances and initially wished to pursue a career as a racing cyclist; but having studied singing at the conservatories of Ravenna and Bologna with Ruzza and Vizzani, he made his operatic stage debut in 1914 as Oroveso / Norma at Soncino in the province of Cremona.
Service in the Italian army throughout World War I intervened, but Pinza resumed his operatic career after its conclusion. He appeared at the Teatro Verdi, Florence in 1919 and at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome from 1920, in a wide range of operas including La forza del destino, La Gioconda, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Aida, Rigoletto, Thaïs, Salome and Tristan und Isolde, in which he sang King Mark in Italian translation. During 1921 he appeared in Turin as Oroveso and in Naples, where he later enjoyed great success with the title role of Boito’s Mefistofele.
At La Scala, Milan Pinza made his debut in 1922 as Pogner / Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and sang there regularly until 1924, being especially admired by Toscanini. In addition to repertoire operas he took part in several first performances at La Scala, including those of Pizetti’s Debora e Jaele in 1922 and in 1924 (the same year in which he toured Germany and Switzerland with Max Sauter’s travelling opera company) Boito’s Nerone, in which he sang Tigellino.
Pinza first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 1926 as the Pontifex Maximus (High Priest) in Spontini’s La vestale, singing opposite Rosa Ponselle in the title role. The Met proved to be his spiritual and physical home and he remained there for twenty-two seasons until 1948, giving his final performance with the company as Don Giovanni in Cleveland in May 1948. Pinza sang over fifty roles at the Met and became a great favourite with the public through his charismatic stage presence, compelling acting and beautiful voice. His repertoire was focused predominantly upon Italian opera and Mozart. Major roles included, in the Italian repertoire: Oroveso, Padre Guardiano / La forza del destino, Fiesco / Simon Boccangera, Ramfis / Aida, Sparafucile / Rigoletto, Raimondo / Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Basilio / Il barbiere di Siviglia, Alvise / La Gioconda, Silva / Ernani, Colline / La Bohème, Archibaldo / L’amore dei tre re, Dulcamara / L’elisir d’amore and Rodolfo / La sonnambula; and in Mozart: Figaro / Le nozze di Figaro, Sarastro / Die Zauberflöte and the title role in Don Giovanni, in which perhaps he made the greatest impact, especially in performances conducted by Bruno Walter. In the American premiere of Alfano’s Madonna Imperia in 1928 he created the role of Chancellor Ragusa.
Roles in French operas included the Father / Louise, Méphistophélès / Faust, Nilakantha / Lakmé, Lothario / Mignon, Zacharie / Le Prophète, Golaud / Pelléas et Mélisande, Escamillo / Carmen, Cardinal de Brogni / La Juive, High Priest / Samson et Dalila and Frère Laurent / Roméo et Juliette. In Russian opera, Pinza sang Pimen and the title role in Boris Godunov (in Italian) and King Didon in Rimsky- Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or (in French). In the German repertoire he sang isolated performances as Hermann / Tannhäuser and King Mark.
While primarily active in New York, Pinza also sang in Chicago and San Francisco and appeared regularly in Europe: singing in five international seasons between 1930 and 1939 at the Royal Opera House, London; at the Paris Opera; at the pre-war Salzburg Festival, where his Don Giovanni and Figaro were greatly admired; Florence and the Vienna State Opera. He also appeared every season at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires from 1925 until 1932.
After leaving the Met Pinza started a second career in musical theatre. His performance on Broadway of Emil de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific in 1949 made him a national celebrity as well as a matinée idol and won him a Tony Award in 1950 for the best lead actor in a musical. He then moved into films and television comedy before returning to Broadway in 1954 in Harold Rome’s musical Fanny, which ran until 1956. Shortly before his death he completed his memoirs, which were published in 1958.
The outstanding basso cantante of his generation, rivalled only by Tancredi Pasero who, however, lacked his charisma on stage, Pinza possessed a beautiful, velvet tone and a remarkable (and rare) vocal flexibility. Possibly because he could not read music, he was more willing than many to follow a conductor’s concept; certainly he was admired by Toscanini, Serafin and Walter. He recorded extensively during the 78rpm era and many of his performances at the Met have been released commercially. All can be recommended unreservedly.
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).
Stracciari, whose father was a stone-mason and sculptor, studied at the Bologna Conservatory for a short time after first obtaining a diploma in engineering. After this, from 1894 he took part in various theatrical productions as a chorister, most notably with the operetta company of Giovanni Gargano, while also continuing to study singing with Umberto Masetti in Bologna. He made his concert debut in 1898 in Florence, replacing Giuseppe Kaschmann at short notice in Lorenzo Perosi’s oratorio La risurrezione di Lazarro, followed shortly afterwards by his operatic debut as Marcello / La Bohème at the Teatro Duse in Bologna.
Thereafter Stracciari made solid progress: singing in the Italian provinces (for instance in the theatres of Livorno, Spezia, Rovigo and Trieste), taking part in the 1900–1901 season in Lisbon and returning there in 1903–1904, as well as singing in Egypt and Chile. He made his debut at La Scala, Milan in 1904 as Amonasro / Aida, and sang there regularly between 1904 and 1906, when he took part in The Queen of Spades and Alfano’s Risurrezione, and then between 1908 (in a notable production of Spontini’s La vestale) and 1909. He sang at the Royal Opera House, London during 1905, appearing as Rigoletto, Amonasro, Germont père / La traviata, and di Luna / Il trovatore.
From the end of 1906 to the spring of 1908 Stracciari was active at the Metropolitan Opera, New York: making his debut as Valentin / Faust and subsequently appearing as Enrico / Lucia di Lammermoor, Amonasro, Marcello, Alfio / Cavalleria rusticana, Tonio / Pagliacci, Sharpless / Madama Butterfly, Nelusko / L’Africaine, Rigoletto, Germont père, di Luna and a single performance as Geronte / Manon Lescaut. He was a frequent guest at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires following his debut in 1906, singing in the local (1913) premieres of Un ballo in maschera, Richard Strauss’s Feuersnot (in Italian) and Catalani’s Loreley. Between 1909 and 1911 he appeared at the Teatro Real, Madrid. He returned to La Scala in 1916 as Gérard / Andrea Chénier and Figaro / Il barbiere di Siviglia, and in 1923 as Napoléon / Madame Sans-Gêne (Giordano).
By now Stracciari’s career was based mainly in Italy, Spain and South America, although between 1917 and 1919 he sang with the Chicago Opera Association, where during his first season his Rigoletto made a good impression, as did his interpretations of Scarpia / Tosca, Don Carlo / Ernani and Germont père. These were followed during 1918–1919 by Enrico, Antonio / Linda di Chamounix (Donizetti), Figaro (Rossini), Tonio and Fabrizio / Crispino e la comare (Luigi Ricci). During 1920 he was engaged by the Italian businessman Adolfo Bracale to sing in Aida opposite Caruso at the Gran Teatro Nacional in Havana; as the curtain went up a bomb exploded in the auditorium causing considerable devastation. The following year, 1921, Stracciari toured the USA as a member of Antonio Scotti’s Opera Company. After appearances in Rome and Genoa in 1924, he sang with the San Francisco Opera during 1925, his Scarpia being described as displaying a ‘flinty hardness and Roman severity’.
From 1926 Stracciari began to devote himself to teaching, initially in Naples, where he took part in the premiere of Alfano’s L’ultimo Lord in 1930, and later in Milan and Rome. His pupils included Alexander Svéd, Enzo Mascherini, Paolo Silveri, Raffaele Arië, Boris Christoff and Anna di Stasio. He gave his final performance in 1944 at the Teatro Lirico, Milan as Germont père.
Stracciari recorded extensively between 1904 and 1930 and committed to disc in complete recordings two of his most notable roles (the Rossini Figaro and Rigoletto) for the Columbia Graphophone Company in Milan in 1929 and 1930 respectively. He stood alongside Pasquale Amato and Titta Ruffo as one of the outstanding baritones of his generation. In addition to the dramatic roles of Verdi, he excelled in works which allowed him to display his fine enunciation, legato singing, polished phrasing and musical sensibility: operas such as La favorita, Ernani and especially La traviata, in which he portrayed Germont père with great dramatic effect.
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).
Verdi dominated the world of Italian opera from his first considerable success in 1842 with Nabucco until his final Shakespearean operas Otello, staged at La Scala, Milan in 1887, and Falstaff, mounted at the same opera house in 1893. His career coincided with the rise of Italian nationalism and the unification of the country, causes with which he was openly associated.
Operas
The best known of Verdi’s 28 operas are Nabucco (‘Nebuchadnezzar’), Macbeth, Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Les Vêpres siciliennes (‘The Sicilian Vespers’), Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera (‘A Masked Ball’), La forza del destino (‘The Force of Destiny’), Don Carlo, Aida, Otello and Falstaff.
Church Music
In addition to settings of the Te Deum and the Stabat Mater Verdi wrote an impressive large-scale setting of the Requiem, its origin stemming from the death of Rossini in 1868 and the death of the writer Manzoni. The Requiem is a work of operatic magnificence, none the less moving for its theatrical elements.
The Quattro pezzi sacri (‘Four Sacred Pieces’) were written at various times in Verdi’s later years. The first, Ave Maria sulla scala enigmatica, written in 1889, was followed in publication by Stabat mater, Laudi alla Vergine Maria (on a text from Dante), and Te Deum for double chorus and orchestra. The Quattro pezzi sacri were published in 1898.