Opera star Risë Stevens has appeared here twice in cross-over repertoire - once in a selection of love songs, the other in a collection of Victor Herbert operetta arias. Today she makes her operatic debut in her most noted role, Carmen, from Bizet's famous work of the same name.These 1945-46 Columbia excerpts were Stevens' first recording of Carmen. After switching to RCA Victor in 1951, that company quickly had her in the studios with Jan Peerce, Licia Albanese, Robert Merrill and Fritz Reiner for a complete recording, one that seldom if ever has been out of the catalog. There also have been bootleg issues of a Met performance with Mario Del Monaco and Dimitri Mitropoulos. But to my knowledge the Columbia material has not been reissued since a 1973 Odyssey budget pressing.
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| Georges Sébastian |
Beside Stevens, all the other cast members did crossover work, which was far more common back then - probably because operatic performers were more prominent in the public eye. Stevens, as one of the most famous American opera stars of the time, had many commercial endorsements (see, for example, the cigarette ad below). I also recently came across a two-page magazine ad she did for the long-vanished Henry J automobile, and have included other ads in my previous uploads of her work.
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| 1948 ad |
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| The first two LP covers |
The sound has come up very well, although Columbia's LP transfer, perhaps rushed to meet the deadline for the new format's release, was none too good, being pitched flat and with a peculiar frequency response, which I have done my best to rectify.
I transferred this record as the result of a request on another site, but thought some of you might enjoy it. By the way, the Victor Herbert set mentioned in the first paragraph has been newly remastered and is entirely charming, as is the love songs album.
20 comments:
Link (Apple lossless):
https://mega.nz/#!GB1nBCqT!MTVB_rYfEin_se_7a6XfGUF8kxQPu-B5_BLU9ql22Y8
I always wondered about those tombstone covers. So they were just issued as a stop-gap version until Steinweiss could get around to designing all-new covers for the entire catalog? I know you rarely see them in good shape because they're paper and not cardboard...
"Beside Stevens, all the other cast members did crossover work, which was far more common back then - probably because operatic performers were more prominent in the public eye."
That's one reason, certainly. Another is that the popular style (the smooth stage and film hits heard on radio and recordings) wasn't miles away from classical singing, as it would be now.
A very valuable contribution, Buster. Thank you!
Ernie,
Yes, they were designed for the sake of quick production. The color plate of the front cover (which appeared in red, green, blue and other colors) could be run off in huge quantities. Then it could be surprinted with the black plate for individual issues. The back cover was one-color only, which was to be the norm for several years to come.
Some of the classical LPs did appear with card stock covers, but actually most of them are found in cardboard, including this one.
The ionic column motif was designed to be "classical" for the ML series, but came off as funerial instead. Columbia replaced the style later on for new issues and older issues that remained in the catalog, such as this one. Many of the new issues used the "cartoon" covers, which added a design element to the black plate, such as this example:
http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-transfer-of-knoxville-summer-of-1915.html
Columbia used a music stand cover for its first pop issues, often in the 10-inch format, and often with paper sleeves with envelope tops, such as this Buddy Clark LP:
http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2009/01/popsters-part-17.html
JAC - Yes, very good point and certainly the main reason why.
I love those little Cartoon versions. Some of them also feature small stickers in multiple colors, but those are few and far between in my experience.
Yes, you're right, those were used for a time mostly or even exclusively for classical releases. They generally feature a 2 in. by 2 in. sticker in an upper corner, with the artwork sometimes extracted from the 78 set artwork, if applicable. The covers themselves were generally pebble-grained, printed in black (except for the sticker), with a huge LP logo.
Here's an example:
http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2013/06/brahms-first-concerto-with-serkin-reiner.html
Actually, looks like my example has the printing in dark brown. One color, anyway.
Many thanks Buster for this rare and special post.
I never heard this first recording by Stevens (the one under Reiner is more famous); one more time she is amazing in French repertoire.
Not to say about Jobin, one of our most outstanding tenors and the excellent Sebastian. In my opinion, all Sebastian's recordings should be treasured...
I had that Odyssey LP for awhile but lost it somewhere in multiple moves. I haven't heard it in years or the later Reiner-led recording.
There is another bootleg Met broadcast with Risë Stevens when an over-enthusiastic Giuseppe di Stefano actually broke her arm onstage in the final scene.
I don't want to get into an 83-page comment on this set so let's just to agree to agree that Carmen is almost impossible to perform, even adequately, outside of French-speaking territory, and that Bizet selfishly died before he could adapt his music-and-spoken-dialogue masterpiece to the grand opera stage. Also, a confession, I know French pronunciation extremely well, almost from birth, really too well for the present purposes. I wish I could turn it off, sometimes. Anyhow:
Risë Stevens - It's no wonder that she owned this role at the Met for years. Rich voice, looked the part, French accent about OK for an American. In the fifties, the Met staging transported the bull ring in the fourth ring to a ball room, which gave her an opportunity to tear down a curtain, supposedly with Don José's knife. The Met actually sent out a filmstrip to schools and I saw it music appreciation class. NOT a good idea. See above broken arm.
Raoul Jobin - Impeccable French. Not the most suave performer in the Flower Song but has the big, even menacing voice required elsewhere. He also participated in the ancient Cluytens recording of the Opéra Comique version which remains, to this day, the only adequate version, IMHO. Has EMI, now Warner, stopped issuing lousy transfers and managed a good one? I'll believe it when I hear it.
Robert Weede - He fell between the cracks in his best years, with so many great baritones in action. He has all the notes, his French is much better than Tibbett's or Leonard Warren's, and even a little better than Merrill's, though still obviously American.
Nadine Conner - Nadine Conner - a "useful" singer in her day but completely at sea here.
Georges Sébastian - Moves things forward and certainly knows the idiom. Not as subtle as Reiner but far better than Karajan, to name one elephantine practitioner.
The Met also added a ballet (with music filched from "The Fair Maid of Perth," which I am happy enough to hear under Reiner's baton but, why?
Charlot - Any commentary from you, centuri and our other knowledgeable readers is more than welcome! Your notes are amusing and apt.
I'll have to see if I have that Cluytens album. I know I have the LP set of his Pearl Fishers, but possibly not Carmen.
Many thanks, Buster, for this excellent post.
About a year after Columbia issued this recording on 78’s, RCA came out with a Carmen Highlights album to compete.
The RCA cast included Gladys Swarthout as Carmen and was conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. It was an early RCA LP release (LM-1007) which was still listed as available in an October 1955 RCA catalog that I still have in my possession.
Any chance that you might have a copy of this RCA recording?
Thanks again for all your excellent posts.
Byrd - I had it for many years, but haven't seen it for quite a while. I seldom get rid of records, but I recall that one as being noisy. I'll check, though.
Sorry, but I can't find the Swarthout. Nor did I locate the Cluytens Carmen.
I meant to type the fourth act, of course, not the fourth ring.
There is an EMI Carmen with Cluytens conducting. There are Rise Stevens live Met performance with Del Monaco and Tucker. A Swarthout performance was issued by Naxos.
RCA Camden had an album of Excerpts with Ponselle. Sort these facts as you see useful.
The Cluytens Carmen was reissued on CD by EMI. Should be reasonably easy to obtain as a resale item. Sad to hear you no longer have the Swarthout LP, 78s or 45s. Preiser reissued some of the Swarthout cuts on a CD, and they included the Flower song and final duet on a Vinay CD compilation. I havent been able to identify the Merrill or Albanese compilation CD that contains the tracks from this recording yet as nobody prints the BACKs of these CDs where the conductors would be listed (at least sometimes). The pieces still missing would of course be the Act 1 choruses (Chorus Of Dragoons; March; Chorus Of Cigarette Girls), possibly the choral parts around the Toreador song and the Act 4 opening chorus which featured the Robert Shaw Chorale.
Rootie = Yeah, I was surprised myself that I didn't have the Swarthout LP. I never get rid of anything!
I dont know why everyone refers to that generic cover as a Tombstone, it is clearly a Doric column top.
Rootie - Yes it is, but it is flat like a tombstone.
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