Cyrena Van Gordon: prima donna mezzo contralto of the Chicago Opera Company

              1924

Figure


PHOTO BY LEWIS-SMITH


CYRENA VAN GORDON
Prima Donna Mezzo Contralto of the CHICAGO OPERA COMPANY
MANAGEMENT
HARRISON AND HARSHBARGER
KIMBALL BLDG., CHICAGO



CYRENA VAN GORDON
Excerpts from Press Notices
RECITALS

WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM
Mrs. John Lamar Meek, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Van Gordon received ovation appearing with Nashville Symphony this afternoon.  Storm of applause followed her aria.

Congratulate Kosmos Club on securing this wonderful artist for concert, Monday Night.

CHARLES MITCHELL, Pres. Nashville Symphony Orch.



CHATTANOOGA NEWS.—HEAD LINE: CYRENA VAN GORDON CAPTIVATES CHATTANOOGA.
The Kosmos Club brought to the Auditorium last evening Miss Van Gordon, who won for herself instant popularity through selections which both astounded and pleased her auditors, who displayed more enthusiasm and interest in her than in any other artist who has been heard here.


OMAHA TRIBUNE:
—Miss Van Gordon's voice covers a wide range and shows an evenness of quality to its extremes, which is most satisfying and most unusual in a Mezzo.


NEW YORK TIMES:
—Miss Van Gordon's voice has rich tone, marked by velvety softness that only youth can give and her interpretation is of the intelligence that comes from careful training.


NEW YORK JOURNAL:
—Miss Van Gordon opened her program with three old English songs successfully, and then sang a group of French songs well.  They needed not a little of technical ability and some show of the lighter sentiment, and Miss Van Gordon unbent graciously and gave them both.  In all her songs she was given to an admirable legato flow of tone.


GRAND RAPIDS HERALD:
—HEAD LINE, CYRENA VAN GORDON WINS OVATION AT LAST CONCERT OF SYMPHONY.  Miss Van Gordon's concert was perhaps the most enjoyable of the entire series.  Her Junoesque beauty, her queenly graciousness, and above all, her wonderful golden voice won for her an ovation from the audience.


ANN ARBOR TIMES HERALD:
—Cyrena Van Gordon gave a concert last night which well deserved its place as climax of the concert season.  After she had finished singing, again and again, twelve times, they called her back, for a full five minutes and longer.  They paid tribute to a very great artist.


CINCINNATI TIMES STAR:
—Cyrena Van Gordon, already held in high esteem here, amplified Cincinnati's admiration of her art by her interpretation of an evening of song, revealing the versatility of her superb voice.


DAVENPORT DEMOCRAT:
—Cyrena Van Gordon sang with authority and gorgeous tone, which has made her an outstanding figure among concert and operatic mezzos, and with vigor and emotional fire which touch an audience.  It was admirable artistry, which the singer revealed, and she has the tranquillity requisite to the smooth finish of the half-voice phrases.


ST. LOUIS TIMES:
—Cyrena Van Gordon's voice, in its lower range, is as the amber gleams of dusky pools, warm, limpid, and of caressing beauty.  In its upper tones, clear and crystaline, full and ringing.


PORTLAND NEWS:
—Cyrena Van Gordon's voice is large, flexible, beautiful in quality and true to pitch.  Her program was beautifully chosen, containing both old and new favorites.  She sang the Valkyrie with such intense dramatic effect, and in such wonderful voice, that the audience refused to leave, until she had accepted a dozen curtain calls.



NEW YORK TELEGRAPH:
—Miss Van Gordon sang with great charm.  There are many things to recommend in this young singer, youth, beauty, and freshness of tone and style.


SPOKANE REVIEW:
—Miss Van Gordon knows how to draw melting sounds of great beauty from a voice whose lower register has the true contralto ring.  She has a delicious pianissimo, a soft, velvety mellow murmur, particularly in the middle tones.  She was most generous with her encores.


NEW ORLEANS ITEM:
—Cyrena Van Gordon possesses a Mezzo contralto voice of beautiful quality.  It is full toned, resonant, and always employed with taste.  This, together with her magnetic personality, and admirable stage presence, makes her a very satisfying artist.  Her success was indisputable.



AS BRUNNHILDE IN THE VALKYRIE

CHICAGO TRIBUNE:
—Miss Van Gordon's singing of the role was immense.  She carried herself magnificently and no painting could have equaled her pose, standing by her horse.  Her pianissimo was warm and translucent as Galli-Curci's ever was.


CHICAGO EVENING AMERICAN:
—HEAD LINE, WAGNER'S VALKYRIE PROVES TRIUMPH FOR VAN GORDON.  Cyrena Van Gordon's Brunnhilde—to what can we compare it?  One can find counterpart in that of her deceased compatriot, Lillian Nordica.  Vocally, Miss Van Gordon was a goddess—entirely a goddess.  She was indeed a star of the first magnitude.


CHICAGO DAILY NEWS:
—Cyrena Van Gordon, still a very young singer, gave to the impersonation of Brunnhilde a remarkably complete and distinguished delineation.


CHICAGO HERALD EXAMINER:
—The Opera gave Van Gordon her great moment.  She electrified her audience.  Her tones were never more noble, or heard to better advantage.


CHICAGO EVENING POST:
—Cyrena Van Gordon achieved great personal success.  She sang with a grasp of the music, a richness of tone quality and authority.  She has taken her place with the great interpreters of the role.


CHICAGO EVENING JOURNAL:
—Cyrena Van Gordon as Brunnhilde is a striking person to look at.  And with a voice that matches her beauty, her Brunnhilde is, up to date, her very finest performance.  It, too, had the personality that made it incredible.  It was beautifully sung and splendidly acted.


CHICAGO JOURNAL OF COMMERCE:
—HEAD LINE, VAN GORDON GAINS AMBITION OF LIFE.  OPERA LOVERS PROCLAIM HER WORK IN THE VALKYRIE A TRIUMPH FOR ART WORLD.

A wonderful performance, a great triumph for a young American artist.  By what she accomplished last evening, Miss Van Gordon takes her place among the foremost singers of the day.  She is filling the late Campanini's prediction, You will one day be one of the greatest mezzo-contraltos of the age.



AZUCENA IN IL TROVATORE

CHICAGO HERALD EXAMINER:
—HEAD LINE, AMERICAN SINGER SCORES TRIUMPH.  The outstanding figure of last night's performance was not Leonora, although Raisa sang the part with gorgeous voice, nor was it Manrico, the Tenor role.  It was the oft neglected part of the old Gypsy woman sung by Cyrena Van Gordon.  With her Junoesque stature and rich vocalization, she dominated the scenes.  She has developed into a super-excellent contralto.


CHICAGO EVENING AMERICAN:
—Cyrena Van Gordon sang Azucena as though this role had been created for her voice, especially, and this is no faint praise.  Azucena music has always been a stumbling block to most contraltos, but Miss Van Gordon's voice is of such superb range, that she fears no high A naturals or B flats.  Everything she did was superlatively good.


PITTSBURGH DISPATCH:
—Azucena was impersonated, nay reincarnated by Cyrena Van Gordon, who treated us to the greatest singing we have heard from any contralto, we have heard, since Schumann-Heink.





CYRENA VAN GORDON
MAKES RECORDS EXCLUSIVELY for COLUMBIA
10-Inch Records, $1.00


A-3308
{LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT (Lowry)



{I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR (Dykes)


A-3398
{ROCK OF AGES (Hastings)



{SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER (Lowry)


A-3561
{I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY (Fischer)



{ONE SWEETLY SOLEMN THOUGHT (Ambrose)


A-3617
{MY LADDIE (Lang)



{IRISH LOVE SONG (Thayer)





12-Inch Record, $1.50


A-6221
{ORFEO ED EURIDICE—Che faro senza, Euridice (Gluck)



{AIDA—L'abborita rivale (Verdi)



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.



COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH COMPANY
NEW YORK CITY

Columbia


Figure


DEALERS EVERYWHERE



Printed March, 1924, in U.S.A.