Lirico-spinto soprano Marcella Pobbe's career centered mainly in Italy, where she was much admired. Born in 1921, she made her operatic debut at Spoleto in 1949 as Marguerite in FAUST.
She made her Rome debut in Gluck's IPHIGENIE EN TAURIDE in 1954, and her La Scala debut in 1955 as Bathsheba in Darius Milhaud's DAVID. At the Caracalla Festival, she sang Mathilde in WILLIAM TELL and Elsa in LOHENGRIN. In addition to singing at major theatres throughout Italy, Ms. Pobbe was also heard at Monte Carlo, Zurich, Vienna, London, Barcelona, and Philadelphia. In 1958, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing Marguerite in FAUST and Mimi in BOHEME.
Marcella Pobbe's varied repertoire included Agathe in FREISCHUTZ, Eva in MEISTERSINGER, Mozart's Contessa Almaviva, Micaela, Desdemona, Tosca, Maddalena di Coigny, and Francesca da Rimini. She appeared often on Italian radio and television.
Ms. Pobbe passed away at Rome in 2013.
Marcella Pobbe sings Adriana Lecouvreur's entrance aria here.
Marcella Pobbe - LOHENGRIN aria - in Italian
Marcellla Pobbe & Mario del Monaco - CARMEN ~ duet - in Italian
Marcella Pobbe - Libera me Domine ~ Verdi REQUIEM - Turin 1960
Dezső Ernster (above, as Boris Godunov) was a Hungarian basso of Jewish origin; he was the son of a cantor. Born in 1898, he studied voice in Budapest and Vienna. His operatic debut came at Plauen, Germany, as the Landgraf in Wagner's Tannhäuser during the 1924-1925 season.
Ernster joined the Berlin State Opera and the Kroll Opera in 1928. He participated in the premieres of Hindemith’s NEUES VON TAGE and Milhaud’s CHRISTOPHE COLOMBE. From 1931 to 1940 he appeared at Düsseldorf, the Bayreuth Festival, the Vienna State Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, at Graz, Salzburg, at the Hungarian State Opera House, as well as in Egypt and at the Lyric Theater of Chicago.
In 1944, Ernster was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. After his release, he fled to Switzerland, where he performed at Basel.
He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as King Marke in TRISTAN UND ISOLDE in 1946. He continued to appear regularly at the Met until 1963, chalking up 175 performances with the Company, singing Mozart's Osmin, Verdi's Sparafucile and Ramfis, the Old Hebrew in SAMSON ET DALILA, Baron Ochs, and the Wagnerian roles of Pogner, Henry the Fowler, the Landgraf Hermann, Fafner, Titurel, and Hagen.
During this time period, Ernster was also appearing at Covent Garden, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and L'Opéra, Paris.
In 1963 he returned to Europe and settled in Switzerland. He made his operatic farewell in 1966 as Sarastro. Among his other frequent roles were the Commendatore), Daland, Hunding, Philip II, Rocco, and Don Alfonso in COSI FAN TUTTE.
Dezső Ernster died at Zurich in 1981.
Dezső Ernster as King Henry ~ LOHENGRIN
Above: Mimi Aarden as Preziosilla in FORZA DEL DESTINO with Scipio Colombo as Don Carlo
I first heard the voice of Dutch mezzo-soprano Mimi Aarden back in the 1970s when I was exchanging tapes with Gerda de Keyser. Ms. Aarden's singing impressed me greatly.
The mezzo-soprano was born in 1924 and studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory. She made her professional debut with the Dutch National opera in 1949. She appeared at Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Vienna, and London, as well as at Belgian centers: Antwerp, Ghent, and Brussels. Her repertoire included Azucena, Eboli, Amneris, Ulrica, Stravinsky's Baba the Turk and Jocasta, and Britten's Lucretia. In 1965, in Amsterdam, Ms. Aarden appeared as the Princesse de Bouillon in Cilea's ADRIANA LECOUVREUR opposite Magda Olivero.
Mimi Aarden also appeared in concert and recital, making her farewell appearances in 1970. She passed away in 2013, at the age of 89.
Mimi Aarden as Hérodiade ~ Venge moi... ne me refusez pas!
Australian tenor Ken Neate (above, as Edgardo in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR) was born in New South Wales in 1914. He studied voice at Sydney with Lionel Cecil, and served for a while in the New South Wales Police Force; he became known as "The Singing Policeman".
The tenor sang his first operatic role as Pinkerton in Brisbane in 1937, and then sang the title-role in a concert performance of LOHENGRIN with the Melbourne Symphony. In 1939, his compatriot John Brownlee heard Neate and suggested that he study with his own teacher, Emilio de Gorgoza, and with Elisabeth Schumann. In 1941, Neate toured New Zealand, and also studied repertory with Lotte. In 1941, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, and during his stint there he sang concerts under the baton of Sir Thomas Beecham at Montreal.
He debuted at Covent Garden in 1957, singing Don Jose, Tamino, the Italian Tenor, Faust, and Alfredo Germont there. In 1959, Mr. Neate sang Edgardo in the Franco Zeffirelli production of LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR that brought instant fame to Joan Sutherland.
The BBC televised him in three Puccini operas: BOHEME, TOSCA, and MADAMA BUTTERFLY, and he sang broadcasts of FANCIULLA DEL WEST, TURANDOT, and Catalani's LORELEY for Italian Radio (RAI):
Ken Neate - Nel verde maggio ~ LORELEY
Moving into helden-tenor territory, which he coached with Max Lorenz, Ken Neate appeared at the Bayreuth Festival in 1963 as Loge in RHEINGOLD; his other Wagner roles were Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Siegmund, Loge, Walther von Stoltzing, and Erik in FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER. He became known for his work as a dramatic tenor at opera houses in England, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Australia.
Neate appeared with New York City Opera in 1961, and during the 1966-1967 season, he sang Tristan opposite Birgit Nilsson is a production that opened in Stockholm and traveled to the 1967 Expo.
Following a singing career that lasted 38 years, Mr. Neate spent ten years as lecturer in Voice and Opera Studies at the Richard Strauss Conservatorium in Munich; he passed away in that city in 1997.
Ken Neate sings "Celeste Aida" here, and Edgardo's poignant Act III aria from LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR here; and a sampling from his Wagnerian repertoire - Siegmund's "Winterstürme" - here.
Soprano Magdaléna Hajóssyová (above, as Fiordiligi) was born in Bratislava in 1946. She became a permanent member of the Prague State Opera in 1972, and also had a long association with the Berlin State Opera.
It was the role of Marguerite in FAUST (above) that put the soprano on the map. She built her repertoire to include numerous roles in Czech opera as well as Mozart's Elettra, Contessa, Vitellia, Fiordiligi, and both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira; Leonore in FIDELIO, Wagner's Eva and Elsa, Strauss's Arabella and Countess Madeleine, and the title role of Dvořák's RUSALKA.
Ms. Hajóssyová appeared in opera productions at the Bolshoi, in Vienna, Munich, Paris and Barcelona, and she has concertized and given recitals at the major music centers of Europe. As her singing career drew to an end, she was named chairman of the Voice Department at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
Magdaléna Hajóssyová - Frauenliebe und Leben ~ Du ring an meinem Finger
The soprano is heard in Mimi's Act I narrative from LA BOHEME here.
~ Oberon