Victor records (May 1914)

VICTOR RECORDS SliDlKf I ~ HEMPEL, FRIEDA, Soprano One of the most important recent engagements by the Victor was that of Frieda Hempel, the young colorature soprano of the Royal Opera House, Berlin. This young singer (she is not yet thirty), is a native ol Leipsic, and as a child showed such musical talent that she was sent to the Leipsic Conservatory, where her unusual voice and great ambition caused her to make rapid progress. In 1906 she sang at Bayreuth as one ol the Rhine maidens and in 1907 made a few appiearances in London, but her formal debut was in the autumn of 1907 at the Royal Opera House in Berlin. Mme. Hempel's success was immediate, Berlin opera-goers being delighted at the novelty ol a colorature singer who {assessed not only a lovely voice but youth and beauty well. The public applauded her and the reviewers praised her. She rapidly became the chief coloratura singer of the opera ; her rcpuation spread through Germany, Belgium and Holland ; and she was in constant demand for concerts, where the purity of her voice and her command of the art of song were even more telling than in the opera house. She was ambitious and industrious and she steadily widened her repiertory until it included the coloratura parts in the old Italian operas and in Mozart's lighter pieces. A year ago she distinguished herself as the Queen of the Night — a most difficult part to sing — in the revival of Mozart’s Magic Flute under Dr. Muck. The Victor, with its customary promptness, anticipated Mme. Hempel’s American appearance with several fine records of her voice — including the great air from Huguenots, in which opera she has recently been heard at the Metropolitan, and the lovely number from the first act of Ernani, which displays admirably the quality and flexibility of this new soprano’s voice. RECORDS BY FRIEDA HEMPEL HEUPEL .75 Ernani — Ernani involami (Emani, Fly With Me) Act 1 In Ilatian Verdi 88383 12 3.00 Huguenots — O, beau pays t (Fair Land of Touraine I) In French Meyerbeer 88382 12 3.00 La Villanelle (The Swallows) In French Eva Dell’ Acc|ua 88410 12 3.00 Marriage of Figaro — Deh vieni non tardar (Come, My Heart’s Delight) I In Italian Mozart 884S0 12 3.00 Paria Valse (Oh. Speak) In Italian Ardih 88463 12 3.00 Variations on an Air from " Daughter of the Regiment” Flute obbligato 88404 12 3.00 HEMUS, PERCY, Baritone Danny Deevcr (Kipling-Damrosch) and Pauperis Drive — 7/emus 35285 12 1.25 Day by Day the Manna Fell and In Thee, Oh Spirit — Percy Hemus 17428 10 .75 Face to Face (Johnson) ^d How Firm a Foundation — Trinity Choir \667 4 10 .75 In Thee. Oh Spirit. True and Tender and Day by Day — Hemus 17428 10 .75 Pauper’s Drive (Noel-Homer) and Danny Deeoer //emus 35285 12 t .25 Raven. The — Parts I and 11 Edgar Allan Poe 35316 12 1 .25 Ring Out, Wild Bells (Tennyson-Gounod) and Christmas Light — Peerless Qt 35335 12 1.25 Yield Not to Temptation and Hearer My Qod to Thee — H''Af/ncy firo/Aers Q/ 16451 i 10 HERBERT’S ORCHESTRA (Personally directed by Victor Herbert) This famous director was born in Dublin in 1859, and at the age of seven, was sent to Stuttgart as a student of the ’cello. After some yeaus’ study and a tour of Europe, he accepted the position of solo ’cellist at the Metropolitan Opera in 1 886. The Metropolitan Orchestra soon became too small for so talented a musician, and after having been bandmaster of the TwentySecond Regiment Band, and Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Herbert organized in 1904 the Victor Herbert Orchestra, which has had a most successful career. All this time Mr. Herbert continued to compose operas, writing more than twenty-five, including his first grand opera, Natoma, produced at the Metropolitan two years ago, and his latest production, Madeleine, brought out in January, 1914. Victor Herbert is beyond doubt the most brilliant and magnetic leader among Americans in his profession, being as much at home in music of the classic masters as in his own graceful and appealing opera strains. As he is a past master at giving the pieople what they want, his programs are never dull, but contain much popular music of merit, and those of the classic compositions which are known and appreciated by the average audience.