Maria Galvany - G.Verdi - La Traviata - Sempre libera - 1911

[rubyedelman]

Thank you so much for posting this wonderful singing example for today's listeners who have not much to listen. I am happy there are still people who put out these perfect things for us ! thanks.

[abracadabranque]

Etrange mais agile:Pour l'exotisme!

[rubyedelman]

This is to response Greatfan. I was honestly surprised you said Galvany has a bad taste. I wish you could find another singer like her today that has such a bad taste! Maybe our society's taste has gone bad because we don't get to hear real Bel Canto for at least 100 years...you probably never thought of it ha? This is an exceptional singer .

[MastersoftheOpera]

I don't care for old, scratchy, poorly recorded phonograph/victrola records, but this one turned out pretty good. Galvany has a lovely voice and good technique. No soprano today holds the first high note (after "ritrovi") like she did here. This is from 1911, which means it's about to turn 100 years old. The sad part about these old records is that the singers were past their prime and old when they made them

[piasecznik]

@MastersoftheOpera She was 34. I wouldn't consider that 'past her prime', even though soprano's careers back then commonly started at age 14 or so. 

[Greatfan]

I agree with Nilsson in that it is impossible to judge old singers based on old recordings. I am not sure if Miss Galvany' s throat is so high or if the mike takes only her top harmonic, overtones, whatever you name it in English. There is a lieder recital by Leontyne Price in which the recording is so bad that she seems a mousy old fashioned soprano. What I can see here is a great voice with amazing easy notes and also bad taste. How it really sounded live = Cannot say !

[coryisawake]

There was interesting study once done perhaps in the 60s or 70s using a modern-day singer (b.nilsson) recorded live on an old wax wheel as some of these earlier recordings were. It's nearly impossible to recognize her voice!

[AuthenticFeirce]

Is that recodring avaliable.

[coryisawake]

Unfortunately, the video isn't on youtube, and I'm not certain of the audio existing anywhere commercially. The study was done as part of a television show wherein judges and critics had to guess/make remarks about who the singer must have been, etc. They all dogged the quality of the singer & later it was revealed that it had been Nilsson at the height of her career, when she appeared from behind the stage (someone did guess correctly eventually).

[65attila]

If old singers came out clear and strong

eg Caruso/Ruffo and Tetrzainni on the primitibe recordingfs - they are obvioulsy going to sound better on better equipment. My grandad said the Caruso recordings hardly resembled him on stage but to me Caruso on records ounds better than any other tenor.

[hobo1975]

ive listened to early recordings for a long time now, and as a singer with a passionate interest in vocal pedagogy i can say there are a number of ways one can work out good singing from bad,for modern artists and with past recordings.

eveness of tone from top to bottom,vowel quality(purity) and enunciation, range, dynamics,word pronunciation,resonance(should increase with rise in pitch)physical ease.legato.

[jaaaaaayynnee]

There is nothing wrong with intonation

her larynx is very high!!

[Tita398]

Vaya manera de dar los agudos, impresionante, el aria no es para tomarla a broma, porque muchas sopranos que se tienen por maravillosas, no han podido con ella. Increíbles las facultades de esta mujer.

[7inga7]

Don't much care for the way this is done!

[Elisabetta611]

Painful, esp. her high notes....OUCH!

[comey717]

Then whya re you listening. =)

[ryker25]

Sorry but this pales in comparison to Virginia Zeani's recordings.

[comey717]

Not really. :)

[Elisabetta611]

Yes, REALLY!

[comey717]

Nope.(=

[Coloraturissimo]

stupendissima, thanks all people, for giving me more info about Her! BRAVAA!!!

[glawsny]

She's not much to look at,but

I must admit she's damn good!

[fedtrooper]

"behind her" refers to Galvany, not a female 1911 recording engineer. In a book about Olive Fremstad, The Rainbow Bridge, the author has a bit about how recordings were made in the singing into a horn era. You had to grab onto a set of handholds and keep moving backwards and forwards to get the pitch and loudness of each note through the horn onto the disk. Galvany recording must have been a sight to see.

[fedtrooper]

Really wish I could take the wayback machine to the day in '11 when this was recorded and taken a board to the engineer and that cursed Sunday in the park band behind her. I know that was the technology they had back then, but the band was awful.

[DivaHollywoodiana]

oh my God

[RonaldBarone]

@DivaHollywoodiana hahahahaah I was going to say the same thing hahahahaha

[63Attila]

I would love to have heard in s solo concert. Like it or not musically this reflects a time when artists showed what they had. I would like to be part of that era also and through recordingd I can.

[LLehmannfan]

For a singer with the ability for such super-high notes, she has a very strong mid and low register. (Like Erna Sack)

I'm fascinated by such voices.

[artdanks]

Does anyone know if Marisa Galvany was any relation to Maria?

[gmmix]

Maria is no relation whatever to Marisa Galvany, who happens to be one of my all-time favorite sopranos. Marisa is not her real first name, nor is Galvany her real last name. Marisa was from the New Jersey area. Very recently she moved to the Southland to be with her daughter. She's now 71 and still going strong. I saw and heard her at Carnegie Hall three years ago; she was cheered wildly. The audience loved her!

[meltzerboy]

Nina Morgana, mentor and friend of Lily Pons, claims that Galvany (not Melba or Tetrazzini) was the model for coloratura sopranos of her day. Galvany's voice is brilliant, if somewhat unpleasant tonally: her high notes sound like a whistling tea-kettle to my ears. She loves to show off her rapid staccati and high register. But she made some restrained duets with Titta Ruffo, which are more tastefully performed.

[forallyouknow]

"Galvany's voice is brilliant, if somewhat unpleasant tonally: her high notes sound like a whistling tea-kettle to my ears. She loves to show off her rapid staccati and high register." That pretty much sums up everything I wanted to say. And I feel nothing from this interpretation.

[AulicExclusiva]

Not to mention the fact that she seems to be making the phrasing up as she goes along.

In this particular record, besides the idiotic variants, her intonation is all over the place.

[freespiritQC]

This is such exciting singing!

God, no way you would have fallen asleep with her on stage. The italian is bad though but hey, nothing's perfect. And for the sharp and flat notes, I don't hear them much...

[axel24601]

WOW...Sopranoes like that are already not born...

[agnellodei]

Amazing!!!

[tanynzh]

she's too keen to show off that she missed the characterization...her high notes are comparable to Mado Robin though...

[leylagerbil]

I like it

[Iareto]

Flat in many spots, but she was definitely a technically sound singer.

[tanynzh]

are you sure?? i think she's

sharp, especially in the last Eb.

[Iareto]

When I say technically sound I mean as far as runs go. And yes I'm sure that she's quite flat in places tanynzh, but she's still a good singer.

[mdancer01]

L'incantatrice recordign is so beautifull whata voice she is like abird in spring one of the most beautifull voices of the 20 century

[maldoror26]

More an instrument than a voice - beautifil - thank's!

[gvjps123]

I've heard her Queen of the Night. It's great singing though the ornamentations are bit crazy ( but ofcourse that was the style of the time). It is interesting to listen to her singing more lyrical music ( listen to her in the duets from La Sonnumbula). She sounds very beautiful and it shows the listener a different artistic side.

[tanynzh]

maybe you can upload her Queen of the Night to youtube.

[senesino83]

sounds original... a shame that the Italian pronunciation is not very good :(

[Dymension]

Huh?

[senesino83]

The voice and the ornamentations are fantastic, I love it, that's why I say it sounds "original" (as in, not like anything else)...

[Parsifal1982]

you should listen to her Queen of the Night Aria, compared to that, this is quite normal...;)

[tanynzh]

is she that bad!! her high notes are quite effortless..

[comey717]

i know the queen of the night aria she does is bit diferent very unsual

[gvjps123]

Her oramentations are bizarre and overdone though they do show off her technical facility.