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Romophone
Romophone was a record label specializing in the restoration and reissue of historic 78 rpm recordings of singers from the "Golden Age" of opera on compact disc. Romophone was founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 by Louse Barder and Virginia Barder. Romophone CDs characteristically present the complete recording output of a singer on a particular label in chronological order. Romophone has been praised for the accuracy and faithfulness of the material it presents, both discographic and musical. The CD liner notes include biographical material about the singers and photographs (often rare and previously unpublished). Libretti and lyrics are not included in the liner notes. Among the singers whose recordings have been reissued on the Romophone label, include Frances Alda, Lucrezia Bori, Edmond Clement, Léon David, Emma Calvé, Emmy Destinn, Emma Eames, Kirsten Flagstad, Amelita Galli-Curci, Mary Garden, Beniamino Gigli, Lotte Lehmann, Giovanni Martinelli, Edith Mason, John McCo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amelita Galli-Curci
Amelita Galli-Curci (18 November 1882 – 26 November 1963) was an Italian lyric coloratura soprano. She was one of the most famous operatic singers of the 20th century and a popular recording artist, with her records selling in large numbers. Early life She was born as Amelita Galli into an upper-middle-class Italian family of Spanish heritage in Milan, where she studied piano at the Milan Conservatory, winning a gold medal for piano performance, and at the age of 16 was offered a professorship. She was inspired to sing by her grandmother. Operatic composer Pietro Mascagni also encouraged Galli-Curci's singing ambitions. By her own choice, Galli-Curci's voice was largely self-trained at the beginning of her career. She honed her technique by listening to other sopranos, reading old singing-method books, and doing piano exercises with her voice instead of using a keyboard. During the 1920s and '30s, she was coached by Estelle Liebling in New York City. Career Galli-Curci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claudia Muzio
Claudia Muzio (7 February 1889 – 24 May 1936) was an Italian operatic lyric soprano who enjoyed an international career during the early 20th century. Early years Claudina Emilia Maria Muzzio was born in Pavia, the daughter of Carlo Muzio, an operatic stage manager, whose engagements during her childhood took the family to opera houses around Italy as well as to Covent Garden in London and to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her mother was a choir singer, Giovanna Gavirati. Muzio arrived in London at the age of 2 and went to school there, becoming fluent in English, before returning to Italy at the age of 16 to study in Turin with Annetta Casaloni, a piano teacher and former operatic mezzo-soprano who had created the role of Maddalena in the world première of Verdi's ''Rigoletto''. Muzio then continued her vocal studies in Milan with Elettra Callery-Viviani. She also took the stage name of Claudia Muzio. Career Muzio made her operatic début in Arezzo (15 January 1910) in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosa Ponselle
Rosa Ponzillo, known as Rosa Ponselle (January 22, 1897 – May 25, 1981) was an American operatic dramatic soprano. She sang mainly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and is generally considered to have been one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century."Rosa Ponselle, dramatic soprano dies" by Allen Hughes, '''', May 26, 1981 Early life [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pol Plançon
Pol Henri Plançon (; 12 June 1851 – 11 August 1914) was a French operatic Bass (vocal range), bass (''basse chantante''). He was one of the most acclaimed singers active during the 1880s, 1890s and early 20th century—a period often referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera". In addition to being among the earliest international opera stars to have made recordings, he was a versatile singer who performed roles ranging from Sarastro in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' to the core bass roles by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Meyerbeer, Charles Gounod, Gounod, Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi and Richard Wagner, Wagner, among others. He was renowned for his legato singing as well as for his diction, tone, intonation, and mastery of ornaments and fioriture. Biography Pol Plançon was born in Fumay, in the Ardennes ''département'' of France, near the Belgian border. "Pol" is a pet form of Paul. Training Blessed with a fine natural voice, he commenced learning to sing with the piv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luisa Tetrazzini
Luisa Tetrazzini (29 June 1871 – 28 April 1940) was an Italian coloratura soprano of great international fame. Tetrazzini "had a scintillating voice with a brilliant timbre and a range and agility well beyond the norm...". She enjoyed a highly successful operatic and concert career in Europe and America from the 1890s through to the 1920s. Her voice lives on in recordings made from 1904–1920. She wrote a memoir, ''My Life of Song'', in 1921 and a treatise, ''How to Sing'', in 1923. After retirement, she taught voice in her homes in Milan and Rome until her death. Biography Early life Tetrazzini was born on 29 June 1871, in Florence, Italy. Her father was a tailor and she had two sisters and two brothers. Reportedly, she began singing at the age of three. Luisa herself recalled singing early on as a child and reminisced that her father was the first person to ever compare her to the famous bel canto soprano, Adelina Patti. Luisa first studied singing with her oldest si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the longstanding General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera said, "I have given America two great gifts — Caruso and Flagstad." Called "the voice of the century", she ranks among the greatest singers of the 20th century. Desmond Shawe-Taylor wrote of her in the ''New Grove Dictionary of Opera'': "No one within living memory surpassed her in sheer beauty and consistency of line and tone." Early life and career Flagstad was born in Hamar, Norway, in her grandparents' home, now the Kirsten Flagstad Museum. Though she never actually lived in Hamar, she always considered it her home town. She was raised in Oslo within a musical family; her father Michael Flagstad was a conductor and her mother Maja Flagstad a pianist. Their other ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emma Eames
Emma Eames (August 13, 1865 – June 13, 1952) was an American first lyric soprano, later dramatic soprano renowned for the beauty of her voice. She sang major lyric and lyric-dramatic roles in opera and had an important career in New York City, London and Paris during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century. Early life The daughter of an international lawyer, Eames was born in Shanghai, China, and raised in Portland, Maine, Portland and Bath, Maine, Bath in the American state of Maine. The promising quality of her voice was recognised early by her mother and she received singing lessons as a small girl. She attended school in Boston where she studied singing under Clara Munger, and later with Charles R. Adams. Later she took voice lessons in Paris with the highly successful but autocratic teacher of bel canto sopranos, Mathilde Marchesi. It was noted in the press at the time of Marchesi's death in 1913 that Eames had praised the tuition she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emma Calvé
Emma Calvé, born Rosa Emma Calvet (15 August 1858 – 6 January 1942) was a French operatic dramatic soprano. Calvé was probably the most famous French female opera singer of the Belle Époque. Hers was an international career, and she sang regularly at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and the Royal Opera House, London. Early life Calvé was born on 15 August 1858 in Decazeville, Aveyron. Her birth name was Rosa Emma Calvet. Her father, Justin Calvet, was a civil engineer. She spent her childhood at first in Spain with her parents, then in different convent schools in Roquefort and Tournemire (Aveyron). After her parents separated, she moved with her mother to Paris. There she attempted to enter the Paris Conservatory, while she studied singing under Jules Puget. She started learning music in Paris from Mathilde Marchesi, a retired German mezzo-soprano and Manuel García. She made a tour of Italy, where she saw the famous actress Eleonora Duse, whose impersonations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucrezia Bori
Lucrezia Bori (24 December 1887 – 14 May 1960) was a Spanish operatic singer, a lyric soprano and a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Opera. Biography Lucrezia Bori was born on 24 December 1887, in Valencia, Spain. Her real name was Lucrecia Borja y González de Riancho. Her father was an officer in the Spanish army. Her family were descended from the influential family of the Italian Renaissance, the House of Borgia and she herself was named after her ancestor, Lucrezia Borgia. Her voice had a unique timbre and transparent quality unlike any present-day singer. She studied in Milan with Vidal and made her debut at the Teatro Adriano in Rome as Micaëla in Bizet's ''Carmen'' on 31 October 1908. In December 1910, she made her debut at La Scala as Carolina in Cimarosa's ''Il matrimonio segreto''; the following year, she sang Octavian in the Italian premiere of ''Der Rosenkavalier'' there. Her career at the Metropolitan Opera began in the summer of 1910 during the Met's firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mattia Battistini
Mattia Battistini (27 February 1856 – 7 November 1928) was an Italian operatic baritone, referred to as the "King of Baritones" in multiple publications.Steane, J.B., 1998. Singers of the Century, vol. 2. Amadeus Press, Portland, pp. 48–52. Early life Battistini was born in Rome on 27 February 1856. He spent most of his childhood in the Collebaccaro di Contigliano village, near Rieti, where his parents owned an estate. His grandfather Giovanni and uncle Raffaele were personal physicians to the Pope, and his father, Cavaliere Luigi Battistini, was a professor of anatomy at the University of Rome. Battistini attended the Collegio Bandinelli and later the Istituto dell' Apollinare. Battistini dropped out of law school to study music with Emilio Terziani (who taught composition) and with Venceslao Persichini (professor of singing) at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia—then the Liceo Musicale of Rome. Battistini worked with conductor Luigi Mancinelli and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona (28 February 1860 – 23 February 1931), was a leading Italian baritone and master of bel canto singing. He appeared at some of the most important opera houses in Europe and America during what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera". Career Ancona was born into a middle-class Jewish family at Livorno, Tuscany, on 28 February 1860. After embarking on a business career he decided to study voice with a local singing teacher named Matteini in his native city of Livorno. Later, he took lessons from Giuseppe Cima in Milan. Ancona is reputed to have made his debut as an amateur singer in 1880; but according to ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera''—from which many of the ensuing appearance dates, venues and career highlights are taken—his earliest known professional appearance in an opera did not occur until 1889, when he sang the role of Scindia in Massenet's '' Le roi de Lahore'' in Trieste. Not long afterwards, he appeared in another Massenet op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcella Sembrich
Prakseda Marcelina Kochańska (February 15, 1858 – January 11, 1935), known professionally as Marcella Sembrich, was a Polish dramatic coloratura soprano. She is known for her extensive range of two and a half octaves, precise intonation, charm, portamento, vocal fluidity, and impressive coloratura. Her voice was regarded as flute-like, sweet, pure, light, and brilliant. She had an important international singing career, chiefly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House, in London. Early life Sembrich was born at Wisniewczyk which lies in the Polish region of Austro-Hungarian occupied Galicia, now part of Ukraine. The young Sembrich first studied violin and piano with her father, and earned money to support her family and pay for studies by playing for parties of nobility. She would often play in the town center, and became well known and liked by locals. An elderly man nicknamed Dziadek Lanowitch, took a liking to her and at age ten sent her to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
