American Soprano Bessie Abott ~ Three 2M Edison Cylinders (1905-1906)

PLEASE NOTE: The following is from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project ~ University of California, Santa Barbara Library:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu




American Soprano Bessie Abott (1878-1919) / Martha: Qui sola, vergin rosa (Flotow) / Rigoletto: Aria di Gilda (Verdi) / Faust: Air des bijoux (Gounod) / Recorded: 1905-1906 / CREDIT: The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project ~ University of California, Santa Barbara Library) --

Bessie Abott (1878 - February 9, 1919): American opera singer, one of twin daughters, Bessie and Jessie, born in Heuvelton, New York as Bessie Pickens to John Pickens Jr and his wife, Frances Josephine Button. She was a descendant of General Andrew Pickens. She used her mother's maiden name, Abbott, and later dropped off a letter in her name after she saw a misprinted theater program in Paris. She started as a vaudeville act with her twin sister Jessie Pickens at Pickens Hall, which was built by her grandfather, John Pickens, Sr. The act was known as the Abbott Sisters. Bessie sang with Caruso in San Francisco's Grand Opera House during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. She married Thomas Waldo Story in 1912 and retired from her career. She was widowed in 1915. She died in 1919, at the age of 40, "after an illness of several years." (wikipedia)

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• Soprano
• Bessie
• Abott
• Opera
• Flotow
• Verdi
• Gounod
• 2M
• Edison
• Cylinder
• CurzonRoad

[SuperLuckydream]

One more new name for me. Thanks, dear Doug. She sounded lovely.

[MrGer2295]

What a Beautiful VOICE ! for some years BESSIE ABOTT was one of America's leading young opera singers, and who also won a fame abroad.

Molto Bello!!! Thank you for sharing!

[mayatatyana1]

Thank you, Doug. Lovely performance. Maya

[Bivolari]

Interesting. She seems to have a variable technique. Sometimes there, sometimes not. It is definitely the old style production but without Melba and Eame's security of emission and pitch.