Mary Lewis - A Lost Soprano refound
rich...@gmail.com
historical music, published a while back a two disc set of a singer
whose life would have made a Baby Doe musical look tame, and who is
virtually forgotten now, although she created a role in Hugh the
Drover, married (briefly) Michael Bohnen, was begged by Lehar to sing
his operettas - she preferred opera, but eventually relented for just
the right amnount of money - and was a major star in films and on the
popular stage, although she also sang programs in song of of Strauss
and Wolf, among others, in 1943 at The Town Hall. She recorded in
almost every language, from the standard operatic languages to English
(sic), Latin, and Hebrew/Yiddish (quite good). She had a hardscrabblle
upbringing in the South, was reckless as a person, and yet she always
seemed to have fallen uphill - at the height of the Depression, fat
and out of work, she married a wealthy Dutch shipping magnate, having
travelled in her life from Hot Springs to the Waldorf Astoria -
although she died in her early 40s of cancer, possibly induced by
radium poisoning from a 1922 series of stage performances illuminated
by a radium painted dress.
The voice is itself remarkable. She was apparently criticized at the
time for having a rather intense top voice, and it is completely
possible by the standards of the 20s that the sound was too much
weighted towards the top for tastes at the time, but what comes across
in these transfers is a sound that most sopranos would kill for, a
kind of smaller-voiced Leonie brilliance, and there's not a hole in
the entire voice. It is as gleaming and golden sound as one can
imagine, and every word, in every language, is pristine. She phrases
naturally, and I have not found more than a handful of discs on two
cds which aren't worth (and demanding of) repeated and enjoyable
relistening. This is (slightly) technically imperfect but thrilling
singing/acting of an exceptional performer
The wonderful notes by Alice Fitch Zeman (from which I have abstracted
this information) say, "It is time to elevate Mary Lewis to the ranks
of important American singers," and if anything, it may be overtime.
There is virtually nothing on You Tube (yet) except her recording of
Dixie, which is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDL61du_jD8
It's not a particularly good recording, and not representative of much
about her repertoire except her ability to pour herself into almost
anything (there are wonderful Thais excerpts and even, get this, a
scene from Faccio's Hamleto!!). The music is wonderful (but then, so
is Giovenezza, no?) but obviously the charm of the words has faded,
lol, although this was a hugely popular piece before WWII, and
Toscanini played an arrangement of it on one of his transcontinental
tours).
Much better, spring for the whole 2 cd set. You will completely thank
me, and I will deserve it.