Marcella Sembrich (soprano) - The Nightingale (Alabiev) (1907)

Описание: Marcella Sembrich sings 'The Nightingale,' recorded in New York on 9 October 1907.

From Wikipedia: Prakseda Marcelina Kochańska (February 15, 1858 – January 11, 1935), known professionally as Marcella Sembrich, was a Polish coloratura soprano. She is known for her extensive range of two and a half octaves, precise intonation, charm, portamento, vocal fluidity, and impressive coloratura. Her voice was regarded as flute-like, sweet, pure, light, and brilliant. She had an important international singing career, chiefly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House, in London.

Sembrich was born at Wisniewczyk...now part of Ukraine. The young Sembrich first studied violin and piano with her father... An elderly man nicknamed Dziadek Lanowitch, took a liking to her and at age ten sent her to the Lemberg Conservatory in what was then Lwow, Poland.

While at the Lemberg Conservatory she studied piano with her future husband Wilhelm Stengel and violin with Sigismond Bruckmann. When she was sixteen years old Stengel took her to perform for Franz Liszt in Weimar. Liszt encouraged her to develop her voice... This led Sembrich to pursue musical studies in Vienna and Milan. In the Autumn of 1875 she began her studies at the Vienna Conservatory, studying voice with Joseph Hellmesberger Sr., piano with Julius Epstein, and voice with Viktor Rokitansky. After a year it was decided to give up study of the violin and piano and fully devote the young student to voice lessons. She arrived in Milan in September 1876 to study with one of the most renowned vocal teachers on the continent, namely Giovanni Battista Lamperti, son of the eminent teacher Francesco Lamperti, with whom she would later study in 1885.

After less than a year of study with the younger of the two Lampertis, Sembrich made her debut in opera at Athens as Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani on June 3, 1877...

That year she also she married her piano teacher, Wilhelm Stengel. When in Athens, she first appeared under the name 'Marcella Bosio,' because she felt that her last name was too hard for audiences to pronounce. Not long after she opted to adopt her mother's maiden name, Sembrich, instead.

While her success was solid, she still had much to learn [and] she continued her vocal studies, this time with Marie Seebach and Richard Lewey in Vienna.

After a long and frustrating search for an opera engagement, she was hired as a guest at the Dresden Royal Opera House in September 1878, debuting as Lucia. Her success was immediate and she was dubbed the 'Polish Patti.' She was immediately made a member of the company and remained in Dresden battling opera house politics, until 1880. She broke her contract at Dresden and sang a number of concerts to raise money to go to London. She had an auspicious audition with the impresario Ernest Gye at Covent Garden and signed a contract there for five seasons. In June 1880 she created a sensation in her debut at Covent Garden as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. She became a great favourite...

In 1883, Sembrich went to the United States to sing in the newly founded Metropolitan Opera company. She made her Met debut as Lucia in the company premiere of Lucia di Lammermoor on October 24, 1883. Sembrich sang more debut roles than any other singer in the company's history... In 1888 Sembrich relocated to Berlin. For next three decades, Sembrich travelled across the United States and Europe singing in major cities including Dresden, London, Madrid, Paris, St. Petersburg, New York...

Sembrich returned to the Met in 1898. In total, she sang more than 450 Met performances in her 11 seasons there, and remained associated with the company until 1909, when the silver jubilee of her Met debut was celebrated with a farewell gala.

She gave recitals until 1917. Sembrich would often end her recitals with piano or violin performances...[She began teaching] after she retired. Her students included Alma Gluck, Hulda Lashanska [and] Dusolina Giannini...

Sembrich died on January 11, 1935 at her home, 151 Central Park West in Manhattan, New York City.


I transferred this recording from Victor 88103.