Tristan und Isolde Metropolitan Opera April 1938

Flagstad and Melchior on stage in Act 2

Flagstad backstage with Melchior and Branzell

Flagstad and Melchior were probably the biggest stars the Met had on its roster of singers in 1937-8, and they were worked very hard as a result. They opened and closed the season in Tristan because the Met could virtually guarantee a full house. Melchior sang 36 Wagnerian performances during the season (November-April), Flagstad 39, her other Met role, Leonore in Fidelio, did not feature in this season. Tristan was performed 12 times and broadcast twice (January and April). Flagstad appeared in all, Melchior in 11 (Carl Hartmann took the role of Tristan on a single occasion). What is particularly remarkable about this broadcast is that it took place the day after the Parsifal broadcast I recently posted. Parsifal was a rare Friday broadcast, and in fact marked Good Friday in 1938 in recognition of the setting of the opera. The following day the last performance of the season saw large parts of Parsifal's cast appear again in the regular Saturday matinee broadcast of Tristan. Only Huehn and Branzell were 'fresh'.

Swedish mezzo Karin Branzell (1891-1974) completed the trio of Scandinavians performing Tristan at the Met. Brangäne was one of her signature roles, and she sang it 74 times at the Met between 1924 and 1944 and was heard on five broadcasts.

American baritone Julius Huehn (1904-1971) appeared more than two hundred times at the Met between 1935 and 1946. He was a noted Telramund and Wotan, and sang Kurwenal 56 times between 1936 and 1944.

The sound is not bad for an aircheck, with only the odd drop out. 

Metropolitan Opera House
April 16, 1938 Matinee Broadcast


TRISTAN UND ISOLDE

Tristan.................Lauritz Melchior
Isolde..................Kirsten Flagstad
Kurwenal................Julius Huehn
Brangäne................Karin Branzell
King Marke..............Emanuel List
Melot...................Arnold Gabor
Sailor's Voice..........Karl Laufkötter
Shepherd................Karl Laufkötter
Steersman...............Louis D'Angelo

Conductor...............Artur Bodanzky

https://rapidshare.com/files/563746006/1938TristanApril.zip

La Boheme Metropolitan Opera 1938

Grace Moore

 This broadcast of La Boheme gives us an early chance to hear American soprano Grace Moore (1898-1947) in one of her most famous roles. Moore was an early example of a cross-over artist, making her name on Broadway working with Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin before making her Met debut as Mimi in 1928. During the 1930s she made several Hollywood films including Louise, a version of Charpentier's opera which was another of her signature roles. Moore died in a plane crash in Denmark at the age of just 48. 

This is the only surviving Met broadcast to feature Scottish soprano Muriel Dickson (1903-1990). Dickson appeared just 29 times at the Met between 1936 and 1940, and apart from Musetta appeared most often as Marenka in The Bartered Bride. Dickson had made her name as the principal soprano for the D'Oyly Carte and can be heard in several studio recordings of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas made in the early 1930s. After retiring from the stage she joined the faculty of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. 

The sound, as with all these airchecks, is variable, but perhaps a little more bearable than some others from this season.



 

Muriel Dickson

Metropolitan Opera House
January 15, 1938 Matinee Broadcast


LA BOHÈME

Mimì....................Grace Moore
Rodolfo.................Bruno Landi
Musetta.................Muriel Dickson
Marcello................Carlo Tagliabue
Schaunard...............George Cehanovsky
Colline.................Ezio Pinza
Benoit..................Louis D'Angelo
Alcindoro...............Louis D'Angelo
Parpignol...............Max Altglass
Sergeant................Carlo Coscia

Conductor...............Gennaro Papi

https://rapidshare.com/files/2976156882/1938Boheme.zip

Hansel and Gretel Metropolitan Opera December 1937

Irene Jessner

Queena Mario

Hansel and Gretel was the regular Christmas broadcast between 1931 and 1938. It inaugurated the matinee broadcasts from the Met on Christmas Day 1931 and was heard on either Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Boxing Day for the next seven seasons. Apart from a solitary January performance in 1947 it would not return to the broadcast schedule until 1967.

The broadcast gives us a chance to hear soprano Queena Mario (1896-1951) as Gretel. Mario was particularly noted for her Michaela in Carmen, Marguerite in Faust, and Antonia in Hoffmann. Partnering her is Viennese soprano Irene Jessner (1901-1994). Jessner sang the lighter Wagnerian roles at the Met (Elsa, Elisabeth, Eva) and regularly made cameos as a Valkyrie. Here we get the chance to hear her early on in her Met career (she made her debut in 1936), in a role that she rarely sang.

The sound is very noisy at times, as is typical with airchecks from this season. A much better sounding recording of this opera from April 1937 (with largely the same cast) exists in the New York Public Library deriving from the original transcription discs.

Metropolitan Opera House
December 24, 1937 Matinee Broadcast


HÄNSEL UND GRETEL
Humperdinck-Wette

Hänsel..................Irene Jessner
Gretel..................Queena Mario
Gertrud.................Doris Doe
Peter...................Arnold Gabor
Witch...................Dorothee Manski
Sandman.................Lucielle Browning
Dew Fairy...............Charlotte Symons

Conductor...............Karl Riedel

https://rapidshare.com/files/3399608747/1937HanselDec1.mp3
https://rapidshare.com/files/2136263492/1937HanselDec2.mp3

Parsifal Metropolitan Opera 1938

After a summer break I am resuming with some performances from the 1937-8 and 1938-9 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera. Unlike the 1936-7, 1939-40, and 1940-41 seasons no transcription discs exist for these two years. They were either removed from the archives ('borrowed') or destroyed. This means that recordings we have from these two years are often fragmentary and in poor quality sound since they derive from airchecks. Having said that, they often capture unique performances. One good example is the first complete Met broadcast of Parsifal in 1938, indeed it would not be broadcast again until 1952. It captures the only complete recording of Melchior and Flagstad in this opera and is therefore of great historic interest. The sound is problematic, with gaps for disc changes every 5 or 7 minutes, and might be classed as hard work. If you can listen through the noise there is certainly a great performance to be heard. There are rumours of a better sounding copy, without gaps, in existence, but it has yet to be issued.
 

Flagstad in full cry in Act 2

Flagstad's costume which she can be seen wearing in the other photo

Metropolitan Opera House
April 15, 1938 Matinee Broadcast


PARSIFAL

Parsifal................Lauritz Melchior
Kundry..................Kirsten Flagstad
Amfortas................Friedrich Schorr
Gurnemanz...............Emanuel List
Klingsor................Arnold Gabor
Titurel.................Norman Cordon
Voice...................Doris Doe
First Esquire...........Natalie Bodanya
Second Esquire..........Helen Olheim
Third Esquire...........Giordano Paltrinieri
Fourth Esquire..........Karl Laufkötter
First Knight............George Cehanovsky
Second Knight...........Louis D'Angelo
Flower Maidens: Susanne Fisher, Irra Petina, Helen Olheim,
Hilda Burke, Thelma Votipka, Doris Doe

The Flower Maidens
Group I: Susanne Fisher, Irra Petina, Helen Olheim
Group II: Hilda Burke, Thelma Votipka, Doris Doe

Conductor...............Artur Bodanzky, Acts I, III
Conductor...............Erich Leinsdorf, Act II

https://rapidshare.com/files/3077872396/1938Parsifal.zip