FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £30!

Melba’s Farewell | Australian Eloquence ELQ4828093

Melba’s Farewell

Label: Australian Eloquence

Cat No: ELQ4828093

Barcode: 0028948280933

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 8th September 2017

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Artists

Dame Nellie Melba (soprano)

Artists

Dame Nellie Melba (soprano)

About

The farewell performance of Dame Nellie Melba, world-famous prima donna of her day, on the stage of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she had sung hundreds of times over an unprecedented span of 40 years, remains a justly famous occasion, of which recorded extracts have been reissued previously.

What makes the present release unique? Firstly, it presents everything that the experimental electrical recording process captured on that evening of 8 June 1926: excerpts from the roles of Desdemona and Mimi, and speeches by Lord Stanley and Dame Nellie herself, ending in tears. Secondly, the original sources are as reliable and clear as may be found today, supplied by the Historic Singers Charitable Trust. Thirdly, those sources have been newly remastered for the first ti me at the ‘French’ pitch which Melba herself used, rather than the slightly higher concert pitch which is now ubiquitous both in live performances and on record.

The ‘Farewell’ portion of this Eloquence release is complemented by both Melba’s last recording, made six months later, and by the fascinating comparison which may then be made with some of her earliest studio recordings from 1904-10. If nothing else, these arias and songs bear out the astonishment of many listeners, both at the time of Melba’s farewell and ever since, at the remarkable preservation of her voice and of its sovereign qualities of steadiness, purity and beauty. Gramophone’s principal vocal critic at the ti me was Herman Klein, who was apt to compare the recordings of singers with their vocal performance on stage, and often unfavourably. Yet when the first records of the ‘Farewell’ were issued, in October 1931, he was unequivocal: they were ‘a remarkably true and faithful reproduction of the voice and method of the last of the Victorian prima donnas; and as such they are bound for all ti me to command grateful appreciation’.

The presentation of this reissue includes several rarely seen photographs of Melba, and a detailed note by the historian of voices Roger Neill. ‘The youthful purity and freshness of tone revealed in these records is astonishing,’ wrote Opera magazine in February 1955, and Gramophone added in September 1961: ‘The amazing thing is that she could still sing with power authority and almost the quality of her best years, at the age of 65...’

Tracks:
Verdi: Otello (excerpts)
Puccini: La Boheme (excerpts)
Address By Lord Stanley Of Alderley
Dame Nellie Melba’s Farewell Speech
Gounod: Faust (excerpts)
Bemberg: Elaine: L’amour Est Pur Comme La Flamme
Massenet: Don Cesar De Bazan: Sevillana
Puccini: Tosca: Vissi D’arte (Act II)
Lotti: L’infedelt Punita: Pur Dicesti , O Bocca, Bocca Bella
Distance Tests Vocalises On Phrases From Thomas’s Hamlet Mad Scene
Tosti: La Serenata
Goodbye
Ronald: The Sounds Of Earth Grow Faint (No. 4 From ‘Four Impressions’)
Burleigh: Jean
Traditional (arr. Burleigh): Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Also Available

Rachmaninov - Preludes opp. 23 & 32
Rachmaninov - Preludes opp. 23 & 32

£9.56

(Australian Eloquence)

Kirsten Flagstad: Recitals Vol.4
Kirsten Flagstad: Recitals Vol.4

£13.60

(Australian Eloquence)

Error on this page? Let us know here

Need more information on this product? Click here