American Coloratura Soprano Ellen Beach Yaw ~ Air du Rossignol (1907)

By request from "transformingArt" / American coloratura soprano Ellen Beach Yaw (1869-1947) / Air du Rossignol / Les Noces de Jeanette (Masse) / Recorded: September 24, 1907 --

At first the secretary of a New York lawyer, Ellen Beach Yaw studied singing with Mme. Bjorksten in New York and then with Mathilde Marchesi in Paris. In 1894 she made her concert debut in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1895 made a tour of Germany and Switzerland. In 1896 she sang at Carnegie Hall in New York and in 1899 at the Savoy Theatre in London in the world premiere of The Rose of Persia. Her operatic debut was made in 1905 at the Teatro Costanzi as Lucia di Lamermoor. She sang the same role at the Metropolitan Opera in 1908 with Alessandro Bonci as her partner. In spite of the encouraging success on the opera stage, she then dedicated herself entirely to concerts and until 1928 she undertook long tours in the United States and Europe. She resided in Covina, California, and gave concerts in the Lark Ellen Bowl, which she had erected. This artist, who was known under the name of "Lark Ellen", founded the Lark Ellen School for Boys in Los Angeles. Her records demonstrate a peculiar phenomenon in which her voice -- schooled in the Marchesi method for coloratura soprano -- could perform trills, not only in major and minor seconds, but also in fourths and fifths. (Source: The Kutsch & Riemens Concise Biographical Dictionary of Singers - Chilton Book Company - 1969)

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• American
• Coloratura
• Soprano
• Lark
• Ellen
• Beach
• Yaw
• Acoustic
• 78
• rpm
• CurzonRoad

[alechorseman]

Doug, thanks you for posting!!! Meltzerboy, 5 titles recorded Yaw in 1899 shown Truesound Transfers CD TT-1911. (fragments from Manon Lescaut, Die Zauberflote, L'Etoile du Nord, Les Noces de Jeanette, and *O dolce incanto*).

[CurzonRoad]

Hello alechorseman: And thanks also from here for the data! All Best. Doug --

[transformingArt]

Thanks for posting this!

[CurzonRoad]

Welcome, welcome...

Cheers, etc.

Doug --

[SoCalStudio]

Thank you for posting this! I am doing a history of the West Los Angeles VA and Ellen Yaw performed there in 1907--actually a few times but a very memorable time in 1907. It is such a pleasure to hear what they heard. Thank you!

[gmmix]

Yaw has always interested me from the time I learned she appeared in my home town of Reading, PA in 1906 in the first concert sponsored by Geo. D. Haage--a friend of mine many years ago--who conducted a concert series locally for nearly a half century.

[mayatatyana1]

Doug, such a lovely voice. Beautiful photo. Thank you. Maya

[Kievest]

Fascinating from an historical perspective, enjoyed Yaw's

performance from l:56 to the

final spine-tingling trill! To my

ears, she experienced many

problems in pitch (could be the

technology of the time) but did

display moments of technical

virtuosity, finesse and pure beauty!

Wonderful photos and video, Doug!

Thank you!

[AulicExclusiva]

Well, she certainly had a trill. This is quite a charming performance, the last squeak notwithstanding.

[meltzerboy]

I take it that's Auber's Manon Lescaut, probably the Laughing Song (l'eclat de rire).

[meltzerboy]

Thank you for the information. It would be very interesting to hear these. I believe Selma Kurz was also one of the very first opera singers to record: do you know when her first recordings were made; about 1898-1900 or so?