Carmela ponselle biography of christopher

In the Studio

Rosa Ponselle's recording career began almost immediately after her breakthrough on the opera stage.

With the acoustic recording technology advancing quickly, sound engineers were eager to record the voices of the Metropolitan Opera and even began to broadcast them throughout the country. In her first season, 1918–1919, Ponselle recorded excerpts from Aida, La Forza del Destino, Cavalleria Rusticana, Il Trovatore, I Vespri Siciliani, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Norma, as well as some of her vaudeville arrangements like "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and "Whispering Hope." In 1919, she and Carmela recorded "Comin' through the Rye" and Offenbach's "Barcarolle," which they had so often performed together in the vaudeville circuit.

When Columbia Records released Rosa's "Un bel di vedremo" from Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1919, The New York Telegraph hailed her for having