Jeanne Gordon: contralto Metropolitan Opera Co.

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MAURICE GOLDBERG


JEANNE GORDON

Contralto Metropolitan Opera Co.



EXCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT:  NATIONAL CONCERTS, Inc. SAMUEL GENEEN, Pres. 1451 BROADWAY NEW YORK, N. Y.





JEANNE GORDON



N
O MORE sensational rise to fame in the artistic world has been recorded in recent years than that of 
JEANNE GORDON
, the contralto of the Metropolitan Opera Company, who has achieved phenomenal favor at every appearance with that organization.




Miss Gordon came to New York with no preconceived notions about the footlights or the glamour of 
Grand Opera.
  An eminent critic heard her sing at the studio of a noted pianist and composer.  He advised her to study for opera.  This idea came as a complete surprise and, without any realization of her possibilities, Miss Gordon began the study thus outlined and soon had a repertoire of several roles.  She accepted an offer from one of the traveling opera companies for the invaluable experience it would give her.  On this tour she was very successful and received a remarkable list of press notices.  She had scarcely reached New York before she received an offer from Mr. Gatti Casazzi, who immediately tendered her a contract with the Metropolitan Opera Company.  Her debut was as Azucena, the gypsy mother, in 
Il Trovatore,
 a magnificent portrayal of the role, of which the dean of American critics, H. E. Krehbiel, wrote:  
Her triumph was instantaneous.  Her voice is one of the most remarkable organs the Metropolitan has heard in many years, a voice of extraordinary range, uniformity of timbre, of ample power, warm, rich, and firm in texture.
  That tribute marked the beginning of Miss Gordon's growing triumph in New York, where she has achieved phenomenal favor at her every appearance with the Metropolitan.  Personal beauty and a fine understanding of the art of acting have contributed much to that success.




The concert season just passed, marked another sensational achievement in Miss Gordon's career.  The demand for


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appearances far exceeded the limited time it was possible for her to give to concerts, owing to her long Metropolitan season, and with every engagement it was Miss Gordon's enviable record to sing to capacity houses.


The Press



NEW YORK TRIBUNE — H. E. Krehbiel


Miss Gordon sang Azucena in `Il Trovatore' last night, and her triumph was instantaneous.  Her voice is one of the most remarkable organs the Metropolitan has heard in many years, a voice of extraordinary range and uniformity of timbre, of ample power, warm, rich, and firm in texture.




DALLAS, TEXAS




Not since Tetrazzini sang in 1912 has an artist so completely captured an audience as did Jeanne Gordon.  Back in 1905 Louise Homer established locally a high musical standard.  Gordon not only met this high Homeric test, but glorified the contralto voice forever in the minds of those who heard her.—


DALLAS JOURNAL.




NEW ORLEANS — Mary M. Conway


High strung, vitally temperamental and very beautiful, Jeanne Gordon could not fail to please a New Orleans audience.  From the very first number, the dramatic aria from the Masked Ball, through the scornful group of songs that follow to the magnificent climax she attained in `La Mort de Jeanne d'Arc,' there was not a moment of lax attention possible.




BOSTON — Philip Hale


Miss Gordon, who has sung at the Metropolitan this season in operas by Wagner, Verdi, and Lalo, has a commanding figure well suited to heroic heroines.  Her voice has true dramatic quality, resonant and as commanding as her stature, but it is also flexible, lending itself easily to florid passages.  She sings intelligently, not foolishly relying merely on volume and force.




DETROIT — Ralph Holmes


Miss Gordon is essentially a dramatic artist.  Commanding in appearance, intense in her physical response to the music, vibrant of voice in the climaxes, she is successor to those other American singing actresses, Farrar and Garden.  As far as the singing goes, she is now the superior of either.




TORONTO — H. W. Jakeway


Now we know why Jeanne Gordon was able to begin at the top in opera—to step into the Metropolitan in New York as a star singer, without experience, and to sing big roles in operas she had never seen.  She is a delightfully legitimate singer and her appeal is through the medium of real art in vocalism and genuine beauty of voice.  She is a new sort of contralto.  One might call her a lyric contralto.  Her voice is not the usual heavy organ with mannish chest tones.  She impresses one more as a soprano who can run down into low tones, but always a pure, very clear quality.




PHILADELPHIA


In last night's performance the greatest success may be attributed to Jeanne Gordon, the young American contralto, who made a statuesquely beautiful Princess Eboli, a success won not alone because to her fell the great aria, `O Don Fatale,' but due also to her full, rich, vibrant tones, and the splendid delivery of this number, which, though it earned her a real ovation, was not all that she did well worthy of applause.


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JEANNE GORDON
 MAKES RECORDS EXCLUSIVELY FOR COLUMBIA



10-INCH, $1.00




79373 {Holy Night, Peaceful Night.  (Silent Night, Hallowed Night.)


78977 {Madrigal of May from 
The Jest.
  (Nitke)


80186 {Mignon—Connais tu le pays.  (Thomas)




12-INCH, $1.50




49858 {Carmen; Habanera (Love Is a Wood Bird Wild).  (Bizet)


49752 {Samson and Delilah.  Mon coeur s'ouvre `a ta voix.  (Saint Saens)


49747 {Un Ballo in Maschera—Re dell' abisso.  (Verdi)


49740 {Samson and Delilah.  Amour viens aider ma faiblesse.




12-INCH, $2.50




49782 {Rigoletto—Quartette.  Bella figlia dell' amore.  (Verdi) Barrientos, Gordon, Hackett and Stracciari




Once you have played a Columbia Record on your phonograph, or heard a Columbia Record played anywhere, you will never again be satisfied with a tone any less round and rich and natural.  Hear 
one
 Columbia Record and we have told our story.




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 NEW YORK CITY




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Printed Sept. 19, 1922