Description

ALICE VERLET (BELGIUM, 1873 – PARIS, FRANCE, 14 FEBRUARY, 1934)

She was a Belgian-born operatic coloratura soprano active primarily in France. She sang principal roles at the operas in Lyon, Nice, and Monte Carlo; at His Majesty’s Theater in London; at La Monnaie in Brussels; and at the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique. In the United States, although not entirely absent from the operatic stage, she was known primarily as a concert singer and was a featured singer on Edison records. Alice Verlet was born in 1873 as Alice Verheyden in the Flemish-speaking region of Belgium, where her father was an official. She commenced musical study at age 8 with lessons in piano and harmony; vocal training did not follow until age 16, when she studied under Mme. Moriani, then a respected voice teacher in Brussels. Within four years, in 1893, Verlet made her professional debut at Leuven, immediately after which she sang for the Belgian Queen and members of the nobility in Brussels. Verlet made her debut at the Opéra-Comique in 1894. as Philine in Thomas’s Mignon On July 16, 1895, she appeared in England, participating in a concert at the Masonic Hall in Birmingham presented by Mme. Moriani to showcase her pupils. Two other participants, now long forgotten, had already made debuts in London, but with some prescience Mme. Moriani emphasized to the press that the Opéra-Comique had recently engaged Verlet as prima donna. From that point forward, Verlet enjoyed a successful career, particularly in Francophone Europe. Her debut at the Monnaie in Brussels took place on September 7, 1901 in Verdi’s Rigoletto; she remained a member of that company for the balance of the season and later would make periodic appearances there. Her debut at the Paris Opéra, as Blondine in a French-language production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, came in 1903. She sang her first Rigoletto in that house on April 11, 1904; Adelina Patti, who was in attendance, conspicuously displayed enthusiasm for Verlet’s singing and offered congratulations to Verlet’s teacher, Mme. Moriani. In 1905 and 1906, Verlet played the Naiad in the first modern revival of Gluck’s Armide in Paris. Other cast members included Lucienne Bréval, Agustarello Affré, Dinh Gilly, and Geneviève Vix. Two years later, she was at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique for a run of Lakmé with David Devriès and Félix Vieuille. Verlet assembled a company and undertook a tour of England in 1910. Other members included contralto Edna Thornton and pianist Mark Hambourg; the accompanist was Cyril Towsey of Wellington, New Zealand, who had carved out a career performing in such ad hoc groups. In July, Verlet returned to Birmingham, the scene of her English artistic “coming out” 15 years before, as a participant in daily concerts for the city’s centenary fetes, although perhaps upstaged by a massive air show, not unmarred by fatal crashes of the then-novel machines. She was again in distinguished artistic company, organized and directed by Dan Godfrey: other participants included singers Nellie Melba, Agnes Nicholls, and Harry Plunket Greene; pianists Wilhelm Backhaus, Myra Hess, and Benno Moiseiwitsch; and violinist Mischa Elman. Verlet made her London debut one month earlier as a participant in the Thomas Beecham Opera Comique Season at His Majesty’s Theater. As in her Paris Opera debut, the opera was Die Entführung aus dem Serail, but now Verlet played Constanze opposite Maggie Teyte as Blonde and Robert Radford as Osmin, all under Beecham’s baton. Shortly after completing her first season at the Opéra-Comique, Verlet sang at the residence of the American Ambassador to Belgium. The result was an invitation to make her first visit to the United States, which led to her US debut in August 1896. Among her early US engagements was at the sold-out May 10, 1897 inaugural concert of the Fanny Mendelssohn Society, a women’s choral group founded and directed by J. Alfred Pennington, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Interspersed with selections for the chorus and for harpist Maude Morgan, Verlet sang two songs, “The Kiss” by Helmund and “Les Filles de Cadiz” by Léo Delibes; two operatic excerpts, the Spinning Song from Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and the Shadow Song from Meyerbeer’s Dinorah; and, together with all the other artists assembled, including accompanist Charlotte Blackman, Horatio Parker’s part song for women’s chorus, composed only five years earlier, “The Fisher.” Verlet’s interpolation of a high concluding note in the Meyerbeer earned her a standing ovation and encore. At the time of the Scranton performance, Verlet counted 25 operas in her repertoire; could sing fluently in French, Italian, and German; and planned to make her New York debut at Carnegie Hall on the following November 1 in a Damrosch concert. Some twenty-five years later, ending a concert tour on March 17, 1922, Verlet would revisit that hall to present a program including European operatic arias “from Mozart to Massenet” and songs by US composers including Henry Hadley and Thurlow Lieurance. Accompanying her were pianist J. Warren Erb and a young Spanish-born classical violinist from Cuba named Xavier Cugat, who soon would shift genres and go on to fame as the “rhumba king”, the first leader of a successful Latin dance band in the United States. Although primarily a concert singer in the United States, Verlet did perform some opera. In 1915 the Chicago Opera engaged her as Philene in several performances of Thomas’s Mignon. Also in the cast were Conchita Supervia, Charles Dalmorès, and Marcel Journet. She also performed with the Boston Opera. The sort of elaborate ornamentation in which she excelled having fallen out of fashion, Verlet retired from performing in 1920. Thereafter, she taught voice until her death in Paris in 1934.

TRACKLIST

1. Ballo in maschera (Verdi) Saper vorreste Unpubl., 4066 Edison, New York 1915
2. Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini) Una voce poco fà 82109 3862 Edison, New York 1915
3. Bohème (Puccini) O soave fanciulla (w. Zenatello) 83057 4836-B Edison, New York 1916
4. Bonnie, sweet Bessie (Gilbert) 83039 5729 Edison, New York 1917-08
5. Carmena (Wilson) 82561 6587 Edison, New York 1919-01
6. Carnival of Venice, pt 1 pt 2 (Benedict) 83070, 83070, 3826-C, 3855-A Edison, New York 1915
7. Comin’ thro’ the rye (trad) 83039 5795 Edison, New York 1917-09
8. Contes d’Hoffmann (Offenbach) Barcarolle (w. Matzenauer) 83032 3709-B Edison, New York 1915-04-15
9. Ernani (Verdi) Ernani, involami BA 28245 4709-B Edison, New York 1916
10. Faust (Gounod) Air des bijoux (1915-02) 82086 3585-A Edison, New York 1915
11. Hamlet (Thomas) Doute de la lumière (w. Langevin) 82265 4727-B Edison, New York 1916
12. Il Re Pastore (Mozart) L’amerò sarò costante 82217 4853-B Edison, New York 1916
13. La Brabançonne (-) BA 28266 4670-C Edison, New York 1916
14. La Serenata (Tosti) 82312 3548-A Edison, New York 1915
15. La vièrge à la crèche (Perilhou) 80750 4297-C Edison, New York 1915
16. Last rose of summer (Moore) 4066 Unpubl., Edison New York 1915
17. Le Crucifix (Faure) (w. Langevin) BA 28257 4712-B Edison, New York 1916
18. Les filles de Cadiz (Delibes) BA 28264 4861-C Edison, New York 1916
19. Lo hear the gentle lark (Bishop) 3714 Unpubl., Edison New York 1915
20. Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) Chi mi frena (w. Ciccolini, Middleton, Scott, Alcock & Baroni) 82266 5787-A Edison, New York 1917-09-14
21. Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) Se tradirmi (w. Middleton) 82312 4789-B Edison, New York 1916
22. Manon (Massenet) Obeissons quand leur voix appelle 82253 5067-C Edison, New York 1916-10
23. Mattinata (Tosti) Unpubl., 4751 Edison New York 1916
24. Mignon (Thomas) Je suis Titania 82108 4245-B Edison, New York 1915
25. Mireille (Gounod) O légère hirondelle (Arietta) 80750 3559-C Edison, New York 1915
26. Noces de Jeannette (Massé) Air du rossignol 82100 3868 Edison, New York 1915
27. Nymphes et Sylvains (Bemberg) BA 28229 4282-C Edison, New York 1915
28. Parla (Arditi) (6386 is 1918-09-30) 82561 6387 Edison, New York 1918
29. Pur dicesti (Lotti) 83060 4821-C Edison, New York 1916
30. Rigoletto (Verdi) Bella figlia dell’amore (w. Alcock, Ciccolini & Middleton) PA 29006 5629-C Edison, New York 1917-06-18
31. Rigoletto (Verdi) Caro nome 82080 3501-B Edison, New York 1915
32. Roméo et Juliette (Gounod) Ange adorable (w. Errolle) 82211 5961-C Edison, New York 1917
33. Stabat Mater (Rossini) Quis est homo (w. Matzenauer) PA 29036 3689-C Edison, New York 1915-04-15
34. Thaïs (Massenet) Duo de l’Oasis (w. Middleton) 82238 8110 Edison, New York 1921
35. Thaïs (Massenet) Scène du miroir 82238 8062 Edison, New York 1921
36. Thaïs (Massenet) Te souvient-il (w. Middleton) 82573 4783-B Edison, New York 1916
37. Traviata (Verdi) Ah, fors’è lui 82336 4018-A Edison, New York 1915-08
38. Traviata (Verdi) Parigi o cara (w. Ciccolini) 82537 3882-C Edison, New York 1915-06-16
39. Voci di primavera (Strauss) BA 28205 3576-B Edison, New York 1915