Louise Kirkby Lunn
Encyclopedia
Louise Kirkby Lunn was an English contralto
. Sometimes classified as a mezzo-soprano
, she was a leading English-born singer of the first two decades of the 20th century, earning praise for her performances in concert, oratorio
and opera.
, at All Saints Church. She sang there in the choir under Dr J. H. Greenwood, the church's organist, and later appeared at concerts in the city. In 1890, she obtained a place at the Royal College of Music
in London and studied for three years with Albert Vissetti, also training for opera. Winning a scholarship in her second year, she took the role of Margaret in Schumann
's Genoveva
in a College production at Drury Lane
in December 1893, and then as the Marquise de Montcontour in Delibes
' Le roi l'a dit
at the Prince of Wales Theatre
a year later. She also studied for some time with Jacques Bouhy
in Paris.
gave her a five-year contract almost upon first hearing. In 1896 she appeared as Nora in Stanford
's Shamus O'Brien at the Theatre Comique, again under Wood, with Joseph O'Mara, Maggie Davies, W.H. Stevens and Denis O'Sullivan, a production which ran for 100 nights from 2 March.
This was followed by a number of small roles at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden. However, the Covent Garden contract expired with Harris's death in June 1896, whereupon she joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company
, performing as principal mezzo-soprano in London and on tour in the provinces in Carmen
, Mignon
, Lohengrin
, Rigoletto
and other works. In 1898, at Queen's Hall
in London, she sang as a Rhinemaiden in excerpts from Das Rheingold
with Lillian Blauvelt
and Helen Jaxon, with David Bispham
appearing as Alberich. She remained with the Carl Rosa until 1899, the year in which she married W. J. Pearson.
She was particularly active in the 1900–1901 Queen's Hall season with Wood, appearing with Blauvelt, Lloyd Chandos and Daniel Price, and the Wolverhampton Festival Choral Society, in Beethoven's last symphony on 16 March, and in Gilbert and Sullivan
excerpts (with Lloyd Chandos and Florence Schmidt). In the midst of a series of Wagner concerts with Marie Brema
, Philip Brozel, David Ffrangcon-Davies and Olga Wood, on 22 November 1901 (the first anniversary of the death of Arthur Sullivan
), she sang in a special performance of Sullivan's cantata
The Golden Legend, with Blauvelt, John Coates
and Ffrangcon-Davies.
, and for several of those years also in the United States, especially at the Metropolitan Opera
in the seasons of 1902–03, 1906–08 and 1912–14.
She was particularly successful in Wagnerian opera parts, especially as Fricka, Brangane, Ortrud and Erda, and in 1904 gave the first English-language performance of the role of Kundry (Parsifal
) in America, at Boston. Her American 1902 debut, however, had been as Amneris in Aïda
, a role in which she formed a long and famous partnership with the Czech dramatic soprano
Emmy Destinn
as Aïda. (This partnership is preserved on record, not only in a 1911-recorded 'Ebben qual nuovo fremito' from Verdi's work, but also in a 1911 'L'amo come il fulgor', from Ponchielli's La Gioconda
.) Both in England and America, she was also a famous Dalila in the opera by Saint-Saëns. She sang, too, in the Covent Garden premieres of Massenet's Helene and Hérodiade, Gluck's Armide and Tchaikowsky's Eugene Onegin. Gluck's Orfeo, which she first delivered in 1905, was considered one of her best parts, and her showpiece aria
, 'Che faro?', was committed to disc.
, with Kirkby Lunn in the cast, in February 1901. In March 1904, Kirkby Lunn was a principal soloist in the Elgar Festival concerts given at Covent Garden, appearing on the first night with John Coates and Ffrangcon-Davies in Gerontius, and on the second with them and with Agnes Nicholls
, Kennerly Rumford (the spouse of Kikby Lunn's contralto rival Clara Butt
) and Andrew Black in The Apostles. In this way she effectively replaced Marie Brema, the original choice for the Gerontius angel. Two years later she performed it with the same colleagues (but for Henry Wood) in Leeds. She sang it under Hans Richter
at Birmingham
in 1909 with John Coates and Frederic Austin
; The Athenaeum remarked, 'each, in turn, brought to it an accession of glory.' Wood greatly admired her, and employed her frequently, choosing her for a Sheffield
Festival presentation of a suite from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Christmas Eve, with Francis Hurford, in 1908.
In 1909, Kirkby Lunn performed the Sea Pictures songs under Elgar's baton at the Royal Philharmonic Society
concerts. On that occasion she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Society, when the Hon Secretary, composer and pianist Francesco Berger, referred to her 'rare combination of personal artistic achievement added to a richly endowed nature.' She made two further appearances before the society before the war, on the opening nights (November) of the 1913 and 1914 seasons. At the former she sang the scena from Wagner's Rienzi
, 'Gerechter Gott!', for Willem Mengelberg
, and on the second occasion the Ballade La Fiancee du Timbalier by Saint-Saëns
, for Thomas Beecham
. She performed the Brahms Alto Rhapsody at Queen's Hall
under Henri Verbrugghen
in the Festival of April 1915, and she also sang in the Festival of British Music there the following month. In November 1916, she reappeared with the RPO to sing Mozart's 'Non piu di fiori' from La clemenza di Tito
. As was the case with 'Che faro?' from Orfeo, she made a gramophone record
of the Clemenza item.
Before the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Kirkby Lunn had been in great demand for oratorio appearances on the European Continent, and she sang frequently as far afield as Budapest. New York also heard her during this period. In 1912, she had made a tour of Australia with William Murdoch
, the celebrated pianist who had made his London debut two years earlier.
. These duets have been re-mastered and re-issued on CD, as have some of her other, solo, 78-rpm discs. Her main body of her recordings were made for the Gramophone Company
between 1909 and 1916 but there were also Pathe
records cut earlier, including duets that feature Ben Davies
, another tenor. Among the operatic excerpts on her recorded output are music by Wagner and, as we have seen, Verdi, Ponchielli, Gluck, Mozart and Wolf-Ferrari. The acoustic recording process of the day was not particularly kind to Kirkby-Lunn's "warm rich notes of true contralto quality" (as critic Herman Klein
spoke of her voice), although in some pieces such as the Gounod 'Entreat me not to leave thee', or the Arthur Goring Thomas
'A Summer night', her famed control of the broad compass, and the poise and grandeur of her delivery, are apparent.
In 1919–22, Kirkby Lunn reappeared at Covent Garden, choosing her celebrated part of Kundry for her last appearances there with the British National Opera Company
. After this she remained before the public for several years more in concert and recital. (At much the same time, Marie Brema was making her reappearances in Orfeo.)
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
. Sometimes classified as a mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
, she was a leading English-born singer of the first two decades of the 20th century, earning praise for her performances in concert, oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
and opera.
Training
Kirkby Lunn had her early vocal training in her native city of ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, at All Saints Church. She sang there in the choir under Dr J. H. Greenwood, the church's organist, and later appeared at concerts in the city. In 1890, she obtained a place at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
in London and studied for three years with Albert Vissetti, also training for opera. Winning a scholarship in her second year, she took the role of Margaret in Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's Genoveva
Genoveva
Genoveva is an opera in four acts by Robert Schumann in the genre of German Romanticism with a libretto by Robert Reinick and the composer. The only opera Schumann ever wrote, it received its first performance on 25 June 1850 at the Stadttheater in Leipzig, with the composer conducting...
in a College production at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
in December 1893, and then as the Marquise de Montcontour in Delibes
Léo Delibes
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
' Le roi l'a dit
Le roi l'a dit
Le roi l'a dit is an opéra comique in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet. It is a lively comedy, remarkably requiring 14 singers – six men and eight women...
at the Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...
a year later. She also studied for some time with Jacques Bouhy
Jacques Bouhy
Jacques-Joseph-André Bouhy a Belgian baritone, most famous for being the first to sing the Toreador Song in the role of Escamillo in Carmen....
in Paris.
Early career
In 1895, she appeared in the first season of Promenade concerts for Henry J. Wood. Augustus HarrisAugustus Harris
Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris , was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist.-Early life:Harris was born in Paris, France, the son of Augustus Glossop Harris , who was also a dramatist, and his wife, née Maria Ann Bone, a theatrical costumier...
gave her a five-year contract almost upon first hearing. In 1896 she appeared as Nora in Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
's Shamus O'Brien at the Theatre Comique, again under Wood, with Joseph O'Mara, Maggie Davies, W.H. Stevens and Denis O'Sullivan, a production which ran for 100 nights from 2 March.
This was followed by a number of small roles at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden. However, the Covent Garden contract expired with Harris's death in June 1896, whereupon she joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
, performing as principal mezzo-soprano in London and on tour in the provinces in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Mignon
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
, Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
and other works. In 1898, at Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
in London, she sang as a Rhinemaiden in excerpts from Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
with Lillian Blauvelt
Lillian Blauvelt
Lillian Blauvelt was a popular opera singer in New York City, USA in the first decade of the 20th century. Her voice was a lyric soprano with...
and Helen Jaxon, with David Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
appearing as Alberich. She remained with the Carl Rosa until 1899, the year in which she married W. J. Pearson.
She was particularly active in the 1900–1901 Queen's Hall season with Wood, appearing with Blauvelt, Lloyd Chandos and Daniel Price, and the Wolverhampton Festival Choral Society, in Beethoven's last symphony on 16 March, and in Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
excerpts (with Lloyd Chandos and Florence Schmidt). In the midst of a series of Wagner concerts with Marie Brema
Marie Brema
Marie Brema was an English dramatic mezzo-soprano singer in concert, operatic and oratorio work in the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th centuries...
, Philip Brozel, David Ffrangcon-Davies and Olga Wood, on 22 November 1901 (the first anniversary of the death of Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
), she sang in a special performance of Sullivan's cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
The Golden Legend, with Blauvelt, John Coates
John Coates (tenor)
John Coates was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Purcell to contemporary works, and embraced the major heldentenor roles in Richard Wagner's operas...
and Ffrangcon-Davies.
Operatic career
From 1901–14, Louise Kirkby Lunn appeared regularly at the Covent GardenRoyal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, and for several of those years also in the United States, especially at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in the seasons of 1902–03, 1906–08 and 1912–14.
She was particularly successful in Wagnerian opera parts, especially as Fricka, Brangane, Ortrud and Erda, and in 1904 gave the first English-language performance of the role of Kundry (Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
) in America, at Boston. Her American 1902 debut, however, had been as Amneris in Aïda
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, a role in which she formed a long and famous partnership with the Czech dramatic soprano
Dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound. Usually this voice has a lower tessitura than...
Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn was a Czech operatic soprano with a strong and soaring lyric-dramatic voice. She had a career both in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera.- Biography :...
as Aïda. (This partnership is preserved on record, not only in a 1911-recorded 'Ebben qual nuovo fremito' from Verdi's work, but also in a 1911 'L'amo come il fulgor', from Ponchielli's La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
.) Both in England and America, she was also a famous Dalila in the opera by Saint-Saëns. She sang, too, in the Covent Garden premieres of Massenet's Helene and Hérodiade, Gluck's Armide and Tchaikowsky's Eugene Onegin. Gluck's Orfeo, which she first delivered in 1905, was considered one of her best parts, and her showpiece aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
, 'Che faro?', was committed to disc.
Oratorio & concert work
Henry Wood first conducted the Prelude and Angel's farewell from The Dream of GerontiusThe Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
, with Kirkby Lunn in the cast, in February 1901. In March 1904, Kirkby Lunn was a principal soloist in the Elgar Festival concerts given at Covent Garden, appearing on the first night with John Coates and Ffrangcon-Davies in Gerontius, and on the second with them and with Agnes Nicholls
Agnes Nicholls
Agnes Nicholls was one of the greatest English sopranos of the 20th century, both in the concert hall and on the operatic stage....
, Kennerly Rumford (the spouse of Kikby Lunn's contralto rival Clara Butt
Clara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE , sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.-Early life and career:Clara Butt was born in Southwick,...
) and Andrew Black in The Apostles. In this way she effectively replaced Marie Brema, the original choice for the Gerontius angel. Two years later she performed it with the same colleagues (but for Henry Wood) in Leeds. She sang it under Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
at Birmingham
Birmingham Triennial Music Festival
The Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, in Birmingham, England, founded in 1784, was the longest-running classical music festival of its kind. Its last performance was in 1912.-History:...
in 1909 with John Coates and Frederic Austin
Frederic Austin
Frederic Austin was an English baritone singer, a musical teacher and composer in the period 1905–30. He is best remembered for his restoration and production of The Beggar's Opera by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch, and its sequel, Polly, in 1920–23...
; The Athenaeum remarked, 'each, in turn, brought to it an accession of glory.' Wood greatly admired her, and employed her frequently, choosing her for a Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
Festival presentation of a suite from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Christmas Eve, with Francis Hurford, in 1908.
In 1909, Kirkby Lunn performed the Sea Pictures songs under Elgar's baton at the Royal Philharmonic Society
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
concerts. On that occasion she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Society, when the Hon Secretary, composer and pianist Francesco Berger, referred to her 'rare combination of personal artistic achievement added to a richly endowed nature.' She made two further appearances before the society before the war, on the opening nights (November) of the 1913 and 1914 seasons. At the former she sang the scena from Wagner's Rienzi
Rienzi
Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name . The title is commonly shortened to Rienzi...
, 'Gerechter Gott!', for Willem Mengelberg
Willem Mengelberg
Joseph Willem Mengelberg was a Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.- Biography :...
, and on the second occasion the Ballade La Fiancee du Timbalier by Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
, for Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
. She performed the Brahms Alto Rhapsody at Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
under Henri Verbrugghen
Henri Verbrugghen
Henri Verbrugghen was a Belgian musician, who directed orchestras in England, Scotland, Australia and the United States....
in the Festival of April 1915, and she also sang in the Festival of British Music there the following month. In November 1916, she reappeared with the RPO to sing Mozart's 'Non piu di fiori' from La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...
. As was the case with 'Che faro?' from Orfeo, she made a gramophone record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
of the Clemenza item.
Before the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Kirkby Lunn had been in great demand for oratorio appearances on the European Continent, and she sang frequently as far afield as Budapest. New York also heard her during this period. In 1912, she had made a tour of Australia with William Murdoch
William David Murdoch
William David Murdoch was an Australian pianist, composer and author.-Early life and education:Murdoch was born at Sandhurst , the son of Andrew Murdoch, an engineer, and his wife Annie, née Esler. At 11 years of age William began piano lessons and soon won several solo competitions...
, the celebrated pianist who had made his London debut two years earlier.
Recording activities and final performances
In the same year (1912) as her Australian tour, Kirkby Lunn recorded two duets with the famous Covent Garden and Met tenor, John McCormack, from operas composed by Wolf-FerrariWolf-Ferrari
Wolf-Ferrari:* Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, born: Ermanno Wolf , an Italian composer and teacher** List of operas by Wolf-Ferrari* Manno Wolf-Ferrari , an Italian conductor, and a nephew of Ermanno- See also :...
. These duets have been re-mastered and re-issued on CD, as have some of her other, solo, 78-rpm discs. Her main body of her recordings were made for the Gramophone Company
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
between 1909 and 1916 but there were also Pathe
Pathé Records
Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
records cut earlier, including duets that feature Ben Davies
Ben Davies (tenor)
Ben Davies was a Welsh tenor singer, who appeared in opera with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, in operetta and light opera, and on the concert and oratorio platform...
, another tenor. Among the operatic excerpts on her recorded output are music by Wagner and, as we have seen, Verdi, Ponchielli, Gluck, Mozart and Wolf-Ferrari. The acoustic recording process of the day was not particularly kind to Kirkby-Lunn's "warm rich notes of true contralto quality" (as critic Herman Klein
Herman Klein
Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...
spoke of her voice), although in some pieces such as the Gounod 'Entreat me not to leave thee', or the Arthur Goring Thomas
Arthur Goring Thomas
Arthur Goring Thomas was an English composer. He was the youngest son of Freeman Thomas and Amelia, daughter of Colonel Thomas Frederick.He was born at Ratton Park, Sussex, and educated at Haileybury College...
'A Summer night', her famed control of the broad compass, and the poise and grandeur of her delivery, are apparent.
In 1919–22, Kirkby Lunn reappeared at Covent Garden, choosing her celebrated part of Kundry for her last appearances there with the British National Opera Company
British National Opera Company
The British National Opera Company presented opera in English in London and on tour in the British provinces between 1922 and 1929. It was founded in December 1921 by singers and instrumentalists from Sir Thomas Beecham's Beecham Opera Company , which was disbanded when financial problems over...
. After this she remained before the public for several years more in concert and recital. (At much the same time, Marie Brema was making her reappearances in Orfeo.)
Other
- Although she could speak four different languages and sing fluently in them, she had always retained her distinctive Manchester regional accent in conversation.
- Her name has sometimes been transcribed as Louise Kirkby-Lunn.
Sources
- J R Bennett, Voices of the Past: Vol I, A Catalogue of Vocal recordings from the English Catalogue of the Gramophone Company (1955).
- J.R. Bennett, Voices of the Past: Vol II, A Catalogue of Vocal recordings from the Italian Catalogues of the Gramophone Company (Oakwood Press, 1965).
- G. Davidson, Opera Biographies (Werner Laurie, London 1955).
- Arthur Eaglefield HullArthur Eaglefield HullArthur Eaglefield Hull was an English music critic, writer, composer and organist.Hull was initially a music student of Tobias Matthay and graduated with a Doctorate of Music from Oxford University...
, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924). - R. Elkin, Royal Philharmonic – The Annals of the Royal Philharmonic Society (London 1946).
- H. Klein, Thirty Years of Musical Life in London 1870–1900 (Century Co, New York 1903).
- M. Lee-Browne, Nothing so charming as Musick! The Life and Times of Frederic Austin (Thames 1999).
- H. Rosenthal and J Warrack, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (OUP, London 1974 reprint).
- M. Scott, The Record of SingingThe Record of SingingThe Record of Singing is a compilation of classical-music singing from the first half of the 20th century, the era of the 78-rpm record.It was issued on LP by EMI, successor to the British company His Master's Voice — perhaps the leading organization in the early history of audio recording.The...
to 1914 (Duckworth 1977). - H. Wood, My Life of Music (Gollancz, London 1938).
- P.M. Young, Letters of Edward Elgar (Geoffrey Bles, London 1956).