Conchita Supervia contralto
Second Lionel Powell International Celebrity Concert
Additional Scottish tour dates and repertoire to be confirmed.
Conchita Supervia coloratura contralto
Gualtiero Volterra solo piano
Corinne Hay accompanist
The programme included:
Scarlatti Three Sonatas
Rossini Rondo 'Non più mesta' La cenerentola.
La Regata Veneziana - 3 Canzonette
No1 Anzoleta avanti la regata.
No2 Anzoleta co passa la regata.
No3 Anzoleta dopo la regata.
Chopin Various pieces.
Five English Songs:
Bishop Should he upbraid.
Carpenter When I bring to you coloured toys.
Cyril Scott Lullaby.
Arnold Dolmetsch (arr) So sweet is she.
Cecil Sharp (arr) Oh no, John (encore).
Liszt Tarantella Napoli.
Liebesträum.
Spanish Songs including
Albeniz Granada.
Turina Farruca.
A Dundee Preview
Dundee Courier & Advertiser: Friday, November 20 1931
Prima Donna and Pianist - Dundee Celebrity Concert on Monday
'A notable concert in the Celebrity series in the Caird Hall, Dundee, will take place on Monday evening first, when Mme Conchita Supervia, the Spanish prima donna, and M Volterra, the brilliant young Italian pianist, who delighted everyone last season, will present an attractive programme.
'Mme Supervia, a comparatve newcomer to concert stardom, has created something of a sensation. In addition to possessing a superlative voice of that rare type - a coloratura contralto - she is reported to be one of Spain's loveliest women.
'At her concert in Dundee on Monday evening she will sing three widely differing groups of songs. First she promises two arias by Mozart and Rossini, then a group of English songs, and thirdly a group of Spanish songs.
'Those last mentioned will be sung by Mme Supervia in costume, and should be a high-light of the evening.
'Volterra, whose brilliance and all-round ability as a piano virtuoso commanded great admiration in last season's series, returns in a programme in which Chopin and Liszt are featured prominently.'
A Dundee Review
Dundee Courier & Advertiser: Tuesday, November 24 1931 (p2)
Dundee Concert Triumph - Conchita Supervia's Remarkable Voice
'Had the Caird Hall, Dundee, been qute full instead of fairly full at last night's second concert in the Celebrity series it would have been no more than justice to two magnificent artists. The concert introduced to music lovers in this part of the country a phenomenal singer in Madame Conchita Supervia and brought back a brilliant pianist in Gualtiero Volterra. Rarely have two artists received such an ovation in the Caird Hall as these two received.
'Possibly in days gone by, in the golden era of vocal mastery, there may have been a counterpart of Madame Supervia. But today when voice divisions are more or less definitely marked, it comes as a tremendous surprise and delight to hear such a singer as this.
'Already well known through the medium of the gramophone, this Spanish lady’s voice possesses a definite contralto colour. Yet her range is so great that the soprano register is faultless, still replete with all the alluring quality of contralto warmth. Her technique is so consummate that difficulties for her do not exist, and she achieves the most ravishing of coloratura effects with ease.
'These remarkable qualities were displayed magnificently in the showcase of Rossini’s glittering rondo, Cenerentola. The agility of the scale-singing in this number had to be heard to be believed. Throughout the whole evening – and she sang many songs – Madame Supervia’s voice never showed a trace of losing its glamorous quality, which is her chief attribute in a vocal sense. Complete subordination of technique to every whim enabled her to impart many graces to the singing of more of Rossini’s work – three songs, Regata Veneziana, the last of which was sung with expressive grace.
'That was all the music of a really virtuoso character which Madame Supervia sang, and for the rest she gave a group of English songs and then a group of Spanish songs. Her vivid personality made itself apparent in all four of the English group. They were ‘Should he upbraid’ (Bishop), ‘When I bring to you coloured toys’ (Carpenter), ‘Lullaby’ (Cyril Scott), and ‘So sweet is she’ (arr Arnold Dolmetsch). There was character in each performance, and the diction was a foreigner’s lesson to many a British singer. There was an enchanting humour, too, in ‘Oh, no John’ (arr Cecil Sharp), given as an encore.
'The pièce de résistance of the evening was Madame Supervia’s appearance in Spanish dress to sing a group of Spanish songs. So successful were these that she had to respond to demands for more in the same genre. The ‘Granada’ of Albeniz and the ‘Farruca’ of Turina were exquisitely sung.
'M Volterra gave an object lesson in piano virtuosity. He has the most formidable technicalities of Liszt literally at his finger tips, while in his playing of Chopin there is much elegance. It was from these two composers that he chose the greater part of his programme. One greatly admired the ease with which M Volterra surmounted the monumental difficulties of Liszt’s tarantella ‘Napoli’, and in the famous Liebesträum of the same composer the tone was richly satisfying. Three Sonatas by Scarlatti were played with an exquisite delicacy and with firmly contrasting colours.
'Miss Corinne Hay, the accompanist to Madame Supervia, completed the personnel in an admirable evening of voice and piano at their most brilliant best.'
A Second Opinion
Dundee Evening Telegraph & Post: Tuesday, 24 November 1931 (p3)
Supervia's Fine Artistry - Celebrity Concert in the Caird Hall
'Madame Conchita Supervia, who made her first appearance in Dundee at the Celebrity Concert last night, is a very brilliant mezzo-soprano. She has all the equipment of a great prima donna, the beauty of voice, the perfect control, and the flexibility; but, further than this, she is a real artist, using her head and heart as well as her voice in everything she sings.
'We have known famous vocalists who could amaze us by the lovely quality of their voices and rouse our admiration for their skill in manipulation, but have left us a little cold when it came to interpretation of music. Madame Supervia puts the music first, and never uses music as a medium for mere display. This is true art, and her singing last night aroused a great enthusiasm.
'Her programme served to show how entirely she was at home in many styles - florid aria, popular song, ballad, and operatic air.
'It was a piece of sensuous joy to hear the lovely silky tones of her mezzo-soprano voice, wth its warm caressing quality. It was uniform throughout, and she threw off runs and roulades, leaping over difficult intervals with an ease that defied criticism, and left one full of admiration for the way in which the registers merged one into the other.
'In Rossini's Rondo from Cenerentola she revealed her skill in the old-fashioned prima donna stuff, but with a difference. The coloratura was never coloratura for its own sake, but was made an integral part of the musical scheme and so gained enormously in significance.
'In the series of Spanish songs which she rendered the same high qualities appeared. Each was dramatised without exaggeration and sung with much feeling.
'Madame Supervia included an English group of songs, and here no one could cavil at her command of our language, and the clearness of her diction was a model for all singers. The old song, ''Should he upbraid,'' by Bishop, had a dainty archness, and with it a simplicity of rendering that was irresistibly fine.
'But the gem was Cyril Scott's ''Lullaby.' This is no easy song to sing, but for a finished beauty we shall have to wait many a day before we hear this gem as exquisitely and perfectly sung. Her true artistry came out in refusal to take the octave leap in the last note.
'All of Madame Supervia's songs were accompanied by Miss Corinne Hay, whose sympathy with the singer was in evidence at every point.
'The solo pianist, Gualtiero Volterra, has played in Dundee before. He has a very fluent touch, seldom loses hold of a pure tone, which can be pearly in soft passages and full of body in more strenuous sections.
'His very facility had the defect of its virtue, and he often sacrificed the emotional and intellectual content of the music to sheer speed. He threw off several pieces, especially those by Liszt, at a great rate, and with wonderful accuracy, but in the Chopin group speed was not everything.
'The C sharp minor Scherzo has something in it that Mr Volterra did not bring out. Even in the A flat Waltz the mood was the same throughout. Chopin always has something to say, and Mr Volterra was in too great a hurry to say it.
'Still, the facility of speed was useful in the Study in B minor, and the Revolutionary Study had thought and contrast in its interpretation.
'Mr Volterra played a good deal from Liszt. That composer's arrangement for piano of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in A minor held the attention. No attempt was made to rival the organ except in the final bars, and the themes were not thrust out unduly, as so many pianists do. It was treated as a piano piece, and gained accordngly.
'Three Scarlatti sonatas lacked the crisp, clear neatness of the 18th century atmosphere which enveloped them, but there was no resisting the power and virtuosity of the Liszt Study and the Tarantella that concluded the programme.'
And a Piece of Popular Trivia
Dundee Evening Telegraph & Post: Tuesday, 24 November 1931 (p2)
Tortoises for Luck, says Madame Conchita Supervia
By Our Special Correspondent
'As I passed up the hotel steps on my way to see Madame Supervia a black cat crossed my path.
''''That's lucky,'' I told myself. But after a few minutes' conversation with the Spanish prima donna I was not so sure. She convinced me, almost, that tortoises are the luck-bringers par excellence.
'She is of that happy disposition one associates with consistent good luck. Her association with tortoises began when, a mere seven-years-old, she found a tortoise in the garden of her house in Spain.
'In her native country, it seems, this is an omen of the greatest good fortune, so her discovery was hailed with glee and gratification by her intimate friends, and she was encouraged to keep constant guard over her new found pet.
'On the day of her debut as a singer - she made her beginning early, for when only fifteen she sang the leading role in Carmen - her grandmother presented her with a miniature tortoise ''for luck,'' and this mascot Mme Supervia has to this day. She is never without it, wearing the ornament constanly in the form of a brooch. It has legs and clas of gold and a jewelled shell of silver, set with a big diamond in the centre.
'Even when she lifted the shell to show me the miniature of the donor inside the singer would not remove it for a second from the lapel of her frock.
'Knowing her fondness for the slow-coaches of the animal world, friends continued to make her presents of them, and on her early travels as a vocalist several ribbon-bedecked tortoises went too.. But the strange pets did not thrive in their travel baskets, and had to be left behind.
'Mme Supervia's affection for them has survived, however, and now that she has a country home in Sussex she is able to indulge her fancy and keep several.
'At the time of her marriage last spring one of the most highly prized gifts given her was a pair of tortoises, one bearing the initial of her surname and the other that of her husband. The hope expressed was that as these tortoises had lived happily together for a hundred years or so she and her husband might live as happily and untroubled for a like period.
'In addition to live members of this species, the famous star owns quite a number of others. She is an ardent collector of animal models, and in her possession are many unique reproductions of cats, dogs, and other animals as well as her favourite tortoises.
'Mme Supervia - her name, by the way, is pronounced with the accent on the penultimate syllable; that is on the ''vee'' of ''via'' - is a surprising figure.
'In the first place she is small, particularly for a prima donna, and in the second she is not the brunette one expects a Spaniard to be. Her hair is auburn. Of a dark, becoming tint, it is cut, and in a wavy mass was carelessly secured by a diamond clasp. This and the diamond-studded ''eternity'' wedding ring were the only ornaments she wore.
'Her mouth reveals a curve that suggests a readiness to find laughter and gaiety.
'I found Madame practising in her sitting room at Bruce's Hotel, Carnoustie, the central figure in a charming group. With her were her husband, Mr Ben Rubenstein, a London timber-broker, and her accompanist, Miss Corinne Hay. The glorious voice I had heard on my way to her apartment was modulated to one of the pleasantest speaking voices I have heard as she told me of the disappointment yesterday had been to her.
'She is a keen walker, and she had been able neither to indulge in walking, nor to motor to Braemar as she had intended.
'''I love to get away from the cities and towns,'' she told me; into the country and to the sea, especially the sea. This is wonderful here. So quiet and the air is so clear.''
'I looked out at the rough sea and the driving rain, but so persuasive a personality has this singer that I saw the scene invested with the charm it has for her.
'I asked Mme Supervia if she played any games.
'''Ah, no, I have the good intentions. I mean to play some day. You have to do that in this country. It is the reaction to the cold climate.
'''I think it is lovely in this country the exercise and games women play. In Spain there are no sports for women. Only the ultra-modern girl takes any part in sport. I think we are very lazy in Spain. We like to talk and to laugh, but not to be active enough for sports.
'''I am enthusiastically British. I married a British man and we have our home here.''
'Although it is just a year since she came to this country - her first London performance was in January of this year - Madame Supervia has progressed rapidly with English. Last night she sang a group of English songs in public for the first time.
'''After you have the vowels,'' she told me, ''English is not so difficult. In Spanish we have a lot of consonants, too, so those are quite easy. Of course, it is much easier to sing in Italian.
'The rain seemed less depressing after contact with the warmth of the personality from sunny Spain and - there was that black cat again!'
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