For this post, we have a 1946 album presenting songs from Two Sisters from Boston, an M-G-M musical set in the early 20th century in which the sisters were portrayed by Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson. To be more exact, it plunders Liszt and Mendelssohn to concoct noisy cod arias that Melchior attacks with some enthusiasm in his role as an imperious tenor. In the Mendelssohn, he is joined by Nadine Conner, taking the place of Grayson.
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| Nadine Conner |
The film is available in its entirety on YouTube. Of most interest to record fanatics will be a scene that places Melchior at an early acoustic recording session. The recording director keeps having to push the powerful tenor back from the recording horn to avoid overloading the primitive apparatus, while the musicians rush up to the horn so their solos can be heard. This leads to an entirely fanciful scene in which Melchior's dog cocks his head at the sound of "his master's voice" coming from the playback gramophone (see cover above).
The record album also includes Melchior's go at "The House I Live In," which must have surprised Earl Robinson and Abel Meeropol, its writers. The song had become a hit in 1945, following its use in a short film on tolerance starring Frank Sinatra. Melchior's version is coupled with his first attempt at the Serenade from The Student Prince.
RCA's sound is OK. The arias are conducted by Charles Previn; the other songs by Jay Blackton.
The record album also includes Melchior's go at "The House I Live In," which must have surprised Earl Robinson and Abel Meeropol, its writers. The song had become a hit in 1945, following its use in a short film on tolerance starring Frank Sinatra. Melchior's version is coupled with his first attempt at the Serenade from The Student Prince.
RCA's sound is OK. The arias are conducted by Charles Previn; the other songs by Jay Blackton.
(Note: May 2024): this set has now been remastered in ambient stereo. Also, I've added two of co-star Jimmy Durante's songs from the film, "G'wan Home, Your Mudder's Callin'" and "There Are Two Sides to Ev'ry Girl," from a commercial recording on the Majestic label. More information about these songs can be found on my other blog; needless to say, they were not based on Mendelssohn or Liszt.)
I'm not indifferent, I promise; Melchior is in my top five tenors of the 20th century for sure, and STILL (with all the rote respect he may get) isn't sufficiently recognized for the degree of vocal mastery and expressivity he commanded.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll download this and hear it, with pleasure; it's interesting to know about and to have. Of course the real heart of his achievement lies elsewhere, but this has its place in the picture too.
Somehow, in all that, I neglected to give my genuine thanks for providing this. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteJAC - By the way, listen to the film version of the Liszt "aria" on YouTube. Melchior is amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Cute movie still they used for the cover ...
ReplyDeleteThanks again Buster for the most interesting upload.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to listening to it.
Thankfully Melchior was not a sniffy egalitarian tenor - he was a man of the people - he has my respect.
Cheers,
Douglas (UK)
Douglas - I certainly approve of someone who likes all kinds of music!
ReplyDeleteThank you Buster.
ReplyDeleteRichard
I appreciate you posting these. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAll - You are welcome!
ReplyDeleteSo, when they shot that bit for the film with the dog, were they cribbing from RCA or did RCA crib it from them? Hmmm, looks like the original painting dates to 1898, so I guess the film was the copycat.
ReplyDeleteErnie - At that point, Nipper was a well known icon, so they were just presenting a fanciful "story" about how "his master's voice" came about.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Buster!
ReplyDeleteI got round to listening this today = I think I saw the film one sunday afternoon on the TV in my childhood - even though it is a tad corny he puts his best into it, after all the tunes are good and he lifts the whole thing into something quite moving
ReplyDeleteJols
I'm far from indifferent, just late to the party.
ReplyDeleteBad luck for me the rapidshare link is expired.
Jim - I'll reupload it for you, assuming I can find the files. Give me a day or so - I'll want to revisit the sound quality.
DeleteRemastered version (Apple lossless):
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/file/aU1G1QqZ#0gqS6Bm6hDryQns-stGoEwRW9WrjrgYOgm_ULnuJxXY
Thank you, Buster!!!
DeleteI can't help but wonder if this was MGM's attempt to cash in on Universal's highly successful 1945 classical music / opera pastiche THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
ReplyDeleteThe Oscar-nominated score adaptation concocted grand operas based on public domain classical themes (due to wartime copyright restrictions on existing operas).
To this day I cannot listen to Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony without expecting to hear a full chorus in there somewhere.
Jim - Interesting theory, one that I suspect is correct!
Delete