June: Featured Classical Music

Eugenia Mantelli

V1220. Songs by Lotti, Tosti, Braga, Mascagni, Rubinstein, Alvarez & d’Hardelot; Arias from El Barbero de Sevilla (Nieto & Giménez), Barbiere, La Cenerentola, Lucrezia Borgia, La Favorita, Don Giovanni, Les Huguenots, Mignon, Faust, Roméo, Carmen, Il Trovatore & La Gioconda – recorded 1905-07; GUERRINA FABBRI: Arias from I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, Lucrezia Borgia, L’Italiana in Algeri, Le Prophète, Semiramide & Barbiere - recorded 1903; RITA FORNIA: Songs by Chopin, Godard, Chaminade, Meyer-Helmund, Becker, Lassen & Hildach; Arias from Faust & Roméo; w.Riccardo Martin & Antonio Scotti: Madama Butterfly – Lo so che alle sue pene – recorded 1910-12; MARIANNE BRANDT: Frühlingsnacht (Schumann); Arias from Le Prophète & Lucrezia Borgia – recorded 11 Sept., 1905. 2-Marston 52053. Transfers by H. Ward Marston. Booklet features discographic information, photos & extensive notes by Michael Aspinall. $35.90, the Set.

“Italian mezzo-soprano Eugenia Mantelli (1860–1926) made her debut in 1883 as Urbain in Les Huguenots at the Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon. She made long guest appearance tours in Germany, Italy, and South America with the famous Spanish tenor Julien Gayarré. She appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for six seasons (1894–1900) and sang again at the Met for the 1902–1903 season. She retired to Lisbon. Her repertoire was extraordinarily diverse, singing coloratura-contralto parts to that of Brünnhilde. She recorded for the American Zonophone label and her recordings are among the most sought after in the world."

- Marston Records

Kirsten Flagstad
V1210. w.Wilhelm Furtwängler Cond. Philharmonia Orch.: Vier letzte Lieder (Strauss) (Creator Recording); Götterdämmerung – Immolation Scene; Tristan – Liebestod; Wilhelm Furtwängler Cond. Philharmonia Orch.: Tristan – Prelude; Götterdämmerung – Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey (all Wagner). (England) Testament SBT 1410, Live Performance, 22 May, 1950, Royal Albert Hall, London. Transfers by Roger Beardsley. $19.90

“I hardly imagined that Testament would be able to trump its Wagnerian ace as regards the Keilberth Ring, but here they are a few months later presenting us for the first time the concert in 1950 when Flagstad gave the Première of Strauss’ Four Last Songs, followed by some truly unforgettable Wagner; in my book, it’s the latter that makes the CD so exciting….Did Flagstad, in her numerous recordings of the Liebestod, ever convey so much tragic passion? I think not, and she is in much better voice than in the complete 1952 set. The performance of the Strauss, previously available on the grey market, is now heard in improved sound….a historic document, this is an important issue. The whole disc, carefully remastered, is a treasure.”

- Alan Blyth, GRAMOPHONE, June, 2007

Petre Munteanu
V1204. Arias from Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Der Betrogene Kadi (Gluck), Oberon, Marta, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Werther, Don Pasquale, Faust, Tosca, Turandot, Mefistofele, L’Arlesiana & Una Partita (Zandonai); w.Danco & Amelia Pini: Genoveva – Excerpts (Schumann). (Austria) Preiser 89682, primarily from Broadcasts. $17.90

“The word that best describes [Munteanu’s] singing is ‘delicacy’. The voice is a eggiero in the best sense of that category. It is a light tenor, suffused with an ttractive, flicker vibrato, and capable of melting sweetness of tone. He reminds one of Schipa….This is singing of rare grace and fastidious taste, and always ccomplished with charm and a real ‘face’….To represent this aristocrat of a tenor in your collection is precisely what record collecting is all about.”

- Larry Lustig, THE RECORD COLLECTOR, 2004

Turandot
OP1513. Live Performance, 13 Jan., 1962, Napoli, w.de Fabritiis Cond. Teatro di San Carlo Ensemble; Lucille Udovic, Franco Corelli, Leyla Gencer, Joshua Hecht, Renato Cesari, Mario Carlin, Piero de Palma, etc. (Slovenia) 2-Melodram GM 5.0066. $33.90, the Set.

Vocal Record Collectors' Society – 2006
V1181. Vocal Record Collectors' Society – 2006 (50th Anniversary) Double Issue, incl. Jane Cros (Tannhäuser - Dich, teure Halle); Forrest Lamont (Cavalleria Rusticana - Siciliana); Laura del Lungo (Mignon - Elle est là…Elle est aimée); Alexis Boyer (Le Maître de Chapelle - Pour imiter ton charme séducteur); Bertha Kalich (Sappho - Matouschka olobouschka (Mother dearest) [J. Gordon]); Johannes Sembach Frühlingszeit [Becker]); Ebe Boccolini (La Wally - Ebben, ne andró lontana); Erich Bye (Tannhauser - O du mein holder Abendstern); Lily Dupré (Les Huguenots -Au beau pays de la Touraine); Kapiton Denisovich Zaporozhets (Song of the Flea [Moussorgsky]); Jane Bourguignon (Sapho - O ma lyre immortelle); Lambert Murphy (Boat Song [Ware]; Livine Mertens (Roméo et Juliette - Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle?); Carlo Morelli (Il Trovatore - Il balen); Helen Gahagan Douglas (Tosca - Vissi d’arte [Unpublished Victor (mx T-1020-1)]); Margherita Carosio (I Pastori [Pizzetti]); Elsa Alsen (Tristan und Isolde - Liebestod); Fernando Autori (L’Amore dei Tre Re - Italia, Italia e tutto il mio
ricordo!); Maria de Macchi (Lucrezia Borgia - Come è bello); Regina Pinkert (La Perle du Brésil - Charmant oiseau); Mario Laurenti (Hérodiade -Salomé! demande au prisonnier); Ellison van Hoose (O come with me in the summer night [van der Stucken]); Evgeniya Ivanova Zbruyeva (A broken vase [Arensky]); Jean Vallier (Le rêve passé [Helmer - Krier]); Tina Desana (Ruy Blas - O madre mia dall’intimo [Marchetti]; Fernando Carpi (Mefistofele - Giunto sul passo estremo); Rosina Buckman &; Walter Hyde (O lovely night [Ronald]); Jeanne Korolewicz-Wayda (Lohengrin - Euch Lüften, die mein Klagen); Marie Delna (Le Prophète - Ah! mon fils!); Virgilio Lazzari (Ernani - Infelice! e tuo credevi); Hipolito Lázaro (Maria La Tempranica - Romanza de Miguel [Torroba]); Magda Spiegel (Rienzi – Gerechter Gott! In seiner Blüthe bleicht mein Leben); Charles Soix (Le petit Grégoire [Botrel]); Theo Beets (La Juive - Rachel, quand du Seigneur); Yvonne Brothier (Manon Lescaut - C’est l’histoire amoureuse (L’Éclat de rire) [Auber]); Vera Schwarz (Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung - Die Kraft versagt [Goetz]); Hjördis Schymberg (Si J’étais Roi - Des souverains du rivage); Herbert Witherspoon (By the Short Cut to the Rosses; Black Sheela of the silver eye [both old airs]; Reinald Werrenrath (Special Holiday Greetings Record, Victor “Personal Record” (mx C-28896-3), recorded 15 Nov., 1923). 2-VRCS-2006. Transfers by Seth B. Winner. $39.90, the Set.

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