Loraine Wyman: old French and English songs in costume

              1914

Figure

LORAINE WYMAN
Old French and English Songs in Costume



New York Sun, January 26th, 1914
At the Little Theatre, Loraine Wyman, and Ada Sassoli, harpist, gave a joint concert.  Miss Wyman is a daughter of Julie Wyman who was well known in former years as an oratorio singer and a song recital artist.  Her daughter has inherited some of her talent and has something of her own to add.—To the entertainment which she offers the much abused word charming can be applied with precision.  She has a voice, not large, but pretty, and she sings with taste, exquisite refinement and much intelligence.  Her specialty is the interpretation of old French and English songs in costume and with the aid of gesture and facial expression, she accomplishes her task in a most graceful manner.  There ought to be a wide field for the exercise of her talents.  Others about whom much public noise is made are not her equals in nicety of diction, daintiness of conception, perfect adaptation of her means to the end and in personal charm.


New York Tribune, January 26th, 1914
Miss Wyman is an artist as yet unknown to the New York public but one who will probably not remain in that condition long.—Her art is similar to that of Mme.  Yvette Guilbert, of whom she is a pupil and in her group of French songs of XVIth, XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries she displayed marked resemblances to her famous teacher.  Those who heard her sing Il était une bergère or La Menteuse must have recognized an artist who possesses the true gift of comedy and whose interpretations were the more remarkable for their economy of means.—Delightful too, was her diction, a virtue evident later in her group of English songs, which she concluded with the well known Keyes of Heaven—In short, Miss Wyman proved herself an artist whose art no bushel will hide.  She was equally delightful last night in French and English.


New York Times, January 26th, 1914
A note different from that of any other of the day was struck at the Little Theatre in the recital of Loraine Wyman and Ada Sassoli.  Miss Wyman is a disciple of Yvette Guilbert and like her preceptress she is able to impart a great charm to the singing of old music.—The group of French songs was particularly charming.


New York Globe, January 26th, 1914
A delightful recital was given at the Little Theatre last evening by Loraine Wyman and Ada Sassoli.  Miss Wyman makes a specialty of singing French folk songs and old English songs in costume and the wit, the sly humor, the fine and delicate sense of characterization with which she delivers each song render it a drama in miniature—In the French group Miss Wyman prefaced each song with a few explanations which vied in charm with the songs.  But then Miss Wyman's art is something to be heard and seen rather than described.



New York Evening Mail, January 26th, 1914
At the Little Theatre, Loraine Wyman and Ada Sassoli the well known harp player, gave a joint recital that was as charming as it was unique.  Miss Wyman who gives old English and French songs in costume is delightful as entertainer and as young artist.


Boston Herald, February 4th, 1914
Miss Loraine Wyman of New York gave a recital of folk songs yesterday—Miss Loraine studied finally with Mme.  Yvette Guilbert, who has made of late a specialty of folk songs.  With this teacher she has sung with marked success in Paris, London and in cities of this country.  Her voice, a light one, but of fine, agreeable quality and carrying power, has been carefully trained and is expressive.—Her diction is excellent.  She has the great gift of humor.  In her interpretation naive, pathetic or malicious songs, facial expression and significant gestures add to the effect of her well modulated voice.—There is no extravagance in her performance; she does not go too far; she knows when she has made her points and is willing to give her hearers credit for a certain amount of intelligence.  There is a variety in her art, and this art is pronounced and genuine.


Boston Transcript, February 4th, 1914
Miss Wyman comes as a pupil of Yvette Guilbert who has imparted to her her demand for finished workmanship, though she has by no means supplied her with a predigested personality.  Miss Wyman's personality is her own.  Better yet it is subordinate to the personality of each of the songs she sings.—The many problems of delivery, over and above the purely musical problems of the singing, Miss Wyman has solved with fine expertness.—The song, with Miss Wyman, remains as it should the chief means of expression.  To this she brings a voice that is, charming, trained to nuance, responsive to delicate shadings of an expressive or purely decorative sort, and managed with an expert and almost indiscernible breathing.  Thus Miss Wyman, gifted, intelligent, conscientious and sensitive, is able to re-interpret folk songs according to her method, and to bring her singing of them to something very near perfection.  Each of the songs of yesterday afternoon was a masterpiece in its way. The selection was unusual and interesting.  We hear so few such songs in these days, when musicians claim that all the possibilities of the old scales are exhausted.  Singers like Miss Wyman are almost the sole repositories for them.  One feels sure that Miss Wyman appreciates the treasure she has in her keeping and would like nothing better than to have the rest of us appreciate it too.



Boston Globe, February 4th, 1914
Miss Wyman's art is characterized by true charm.  This lies so much in a voice, light but agreeable in quality and effectively used in interpretation, as in combination of song for emotional purposes with a pantomime, which possesses grace, simplicity and expressiveness.  Gestures were spontaneous, yet fashioned in a manner suitable to the intimacy of the hall.—There was appropriate suggestion of moods for Miss Wyman has imagination.  Repose and skill in sustaining a thought unbroken lay beneath all that she did.—She made her dramatic points clearly but did not exaggerate them, nor did she err in putting her impersonations, which are exquisite as miniatures, upon too large a canvas.  The French songs, which Miss Wyman prefaced with a brief analysis of the text in an enchanting manner were instinct with charm.—They never lost their naive character, that childlike simplicity whether in tale of woe or in some pretty conceit—most if not all were of changing lines to recurring  strophes of music.  The variety and vividity of Miss Wyman's treatment of them declared her an artist.



Some of Miss Wyman's Appearances


The White House
Washington


Yale University
New Haven


The Colony Club
New York


The Thursday Evening Club
New York


The Chilton Club
Boston


The Building of Arts
Bar Harbor, Me.


Miss Spence's School
New York


Miss Bennett's School
New York


The Little Theatre
Chicago


The Woman's Club
Evanston, Ill.


The Tuesday Musical Club
Pittsburgh


The Woman's Club
Sewickley, Pa.


The Union Club
Cleveland


The Laurel School
Cleveland


The Cincinnati Country Club
Cincinnati


Miss Smead's School
Toledo


L'Alliance Francaise
Rochester


The Woman's Musical Club
Toronto, Canada


Mendelssohn Club
Albany, N. Y.