Conchita
Supervia (mezzo-soprano) was born in Barcelona, Spain, in
1895. She made her debut at the very early age of 14 with a
touring company: by 1911 she had made sufficient impression
to be chosen to sing Octavian in the Rome premiere of Der
Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss). Within the next few years
she established herself as a firm favourite in Chicago, at
La Scala and in Spain, particularly in Rossini's La
Cenerentola and Il Barbiere di Siviglia and in
the role most associated with her, Bizet's Carmen.
She appeared at Covent Garden in the mid 1930s and settled
in London. Tragically, she died after childbirth at the
height of her career, in 1936.
Her Latin personality came through clearly in her
singing, which was exciting and always musical: a definitive
Carmen and excellent in her repertoire of Spanish songs,
many of which she recorded.
'IL
ÉTAIT UN ROI DE THULÉ' (Faust) (Gounod)
Historic Masters HMB11 - modern vinyl pressing of unissued
Odeon, recorded 1932
Her personality shines through in this very clear
electrical recording, which has a low surface noise being a
vinyl pressing, and has also been digitally noise reduced. It has been transferred at 78rpm as
indicated on the label: however there is a possible mystery
here. Another collector has suggested to me that this is
running fast, and was in fact recorded at 75rpm - which by
1932 would have been a very non-standard speed. There is a
quality to the voice which tends to support this suggestion:
however after I and another experienced transfer engineer
have listened to it we have decided that 78rpm is
correct.
If you would like to download
this recording you can do so from this page.
CDs of Supervia have been issued on Preiser
89023.
I have not heard these transfers and list them here
simply for information. I can't guarantee they are still
available.
Conchita
Supervia (mezzo-soprano) was born in Barcelona, Spain, in
1895. She made her debut at the very early age of 14 with a
touring company: by 1911 she had made sufficient impression
to be chosen to sing Octavian in the Rome premiere of Der
Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss). Within the next few years
she established herself as a firm favourite in Chicago, at
La Scala and in Spain, particularly in Rossini's La
Cenerentola and Il Barbiere di Siviglia and in
the role most associated with her, Bizet's Carmen.
She appeared at Covent Garden in the mid 1930s and settled
in London. Tragically, she died after childbirth at the
height of her career, in 1936.
