Search - Leo Delibes, Charles Gounod, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart :: The Odeon Recordings, 1928-1929

Well worth a listen

Steven A. Peterson | Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL) | 03/08/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Lily Pons was a premier soprano of her day. This CD features her Odeon recordings of 1928 and 1929, and shows the range of roles that she could sing. I think of her as primarily an exemplar of the coloratura soprano's art, but she goes well beyond this repertoire on this album.



I'll just refer to a few illustrations of her art rather than commenting on each cut on this CD. . . .



From Camille Saint-Saens' "Parasytis," "Le rossignol et la rose." This appears to be an exercise on vocal technique without words. This shows off the lushness of her voice. Some high notes sung at greater volume have some harshness about them, but this might well be a function of the recording technology of the day (I find myself mentioning harshness quite a bit on older recordings). Overall, I think that this is a good display of vocal technique.



From "La Boheme," "Si, mi chiamano Mimi," sung in French. She sings this smoothly and seems to capture the character's spirit nicely. As noted, I think of her as a coloratura soprano, but she sings this quite nicely and suggests a broader range. She moves from lower to higher notes pretty smoothly.



From the same opera, the wonderful duet "O soave fanciulla," with tenor Enrico di Mazzei. This is a terrific piece and--ideally-- the tenor and soprano voices should meld together smoothly. And the singers here do sound good together. The arc of the piece toward the culminating high note is compelling.



From Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro," "Voi che sapete." Again, sung in French (kind of confuses me!). Pons sings this well.



Talk about coloratura fireworks. . . . "Der Holle Rache" from Mozart's "Magic Flute." All those staccato high Fs! There is some harshness evident on high notes (but, again, it might be a result of recording technology). Still, lots of fun! She takes this at the quick pace, hitting the Fs on target. The pace is more presto than normal, but it sure shows off her vocal agility!





So, this gives us a nicely rounded picture of the skills of Lily Pons. For those curious about the successor to Amelita Galli-Curci, this will be a useful reference point.



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