# The clearest recording of Ponselle?



## Tuoksu (Sep 3, 2015)

Not counting the Villa Pace recordings from the 1950s, what's the clearest recording of Ponselle's voice that you can think of?

I find this Casta Diva from 1929, for example, a pretty close representation of what she could have sounded like in person:


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tuoksu said:


> Not counting the Villa Pace recordings from the 1950s, what's the clearest recording of Ponselle's voice that you can think of?
> 
> I find this Casta Diva from 1929, for example, a pretty close representation of what she could have sounded like in person:


I'm afraid I don't like that transfer at all, the orchestra sounds like an electric simulation and there is so much echo I can't figure out what the Ponselle sound is from it.

I've found the clearest transfers of Ponselle's studio recordings to be those released by Naxos (which I think are Ward Marston jobs). The clearest after the Villa Pace recordings would be the ones she made in the thirties which Naxos issued in a 3 CD set with the Villa Pace recordings. That Norma aria is on volume 3 or 4 of the Naxos releases and those would be the clearest from her peak in the twenties. There are also her earlier recordings on a 2 disc set by Pearl, but those are all acoustic and not as good as the electric ones from 1926-29. The 7 Naxos discs were all previously released on Romophone.

I pretty much have a complete collection of Ponselle recordings as far as what is available on CD, except I don't have one of the Carmens.

N.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Nightingale and the Rose and 



 from La Vestale. The first is very clear. The second gives the best representation of the dark amber tone and incredible size of her voice. It gets big and high without going into the part of her voice that blew out the tubes on most recording equipment.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

It was said by those that heard Ponselle that she didn't sound the same in the studio and she herself preferred her live radio recordings from the thirties. Those aren't in clearer sound than her studio recordings, but she does sing with more freedom and seems more spontaneous than the 'rushed' studio takes that had to be fitted onto a shellac disc.

I think the studio recordings that were thought to be best in representing her sound, were that Vestale aria, In grembo a me from L'Africaine and Suicidio. I still like her twenties recordings and the thirties ones whether in the studio or live. In fact I like everything she did on some level.

N.


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

I would vote for this one. It shows off her range, dynamics, enunciation, timbre, etc.,


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

This is an unusually clear radio recording. 




I think some of that distortion is digital clipping because it was transferred at a high level.


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## Tuoksu (Sep 3, 2015)

An interesting interview with Rosa about how her recordings were made. She's very cute when she describes the stoviols :lol:

https://78records.wordpress.com/tag/rosa-ponselle-home-recordings-at-villa-pace/


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