American Soprano Rosa Ponselle: Norma (1928-29) 

American Soprano Rosa Ponselle (1897-1981) / Selections from Bellini's Norma / Sediziose voci.... Casta diva / Metropolitan Opera Chorus / Orchestra: G. Setti / Recorded: December 31, 1928 / Ah bello a me ritorna / Orchestra: G. Setti / Recorded: December 31, 1928 / Mira, o Norma / with Marion Telva / Orchestra: G. Setti / Recorded: January 30, 1929 --
ROSA PONSELLE (January 22, 1897, Meriden, Connecticut - May 25, 1981, Villa Pace, near Baltimore, Maryland) Originally Rosa Ponzillo. Her parents were Italians who emigrated to the United States. She sang with her sister, Carmella Ponselle, in American vaudeville under the name the Ponzillo Sisters. The impresario William Thorner heard her by chance and obtained a audition for her at the Metropolitan Opera. There she was helped by Enrico Caruso and the completely unknown singer made her debut with him (1918) as Leonora in La Forza del Destino. Her success was overpowering and at a stroke Rosa Ponselle became world-famous. She was thereafter a principal singer at the Metropolitan and had numerous triumphs there. Her greatest were Rachel in La Juive in 1919 and Giulia in Spontini's La Vestale in 1925, as Norma in 1927, and as the title role in Luisa Miller in 1919. She appeared at Covent Garden, in Chicago, and in San Francisco and had a brilliant career as a concert singer, In 1933 she sang Giulia in La Vestale at the Maggio MusicaleFestival. In 1936 she married the American industrialist Carle A. Jackson and withdrew from musical life. Since then she livedin Baltimore; in 1954 she permitted the publication of later records in which her voice retained all of its beauty. Rosa Ponselle's voice possessed an extraordinary volume and beauty of tonal production because of her secure grasp of the technique of singing, and this in turn permitted her to master the most difficult bel canto roles without any strain. She had the rare gift of coloratura singing with dramatic life. (A Concise Biographical Dictionary of Singers / K.J. Kutsch & Leo Riemens / Translated by Harry Early Jones / Chilton Book Company / 1969)
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