Rosa Ponselle - Psyché / 1954 - cleaned by Maldoror 

Sí, paso por tiempos difíciles, pero Rosa me está consolando!.

I knew Rosa in the last several years of her life. She was very humble. You had to ease in to conversations with her to get her to talk about herself, She was a very warm and gracious lady. She knew who she was . One of the last things she said before she died was My life has been a Force of Destiny. So many great singers visited her at her home to pay homage. I remember Pavarotti kept calling her to say that he wanted to come see her. She was a great idol of his. Rosa would always say she was busy even though she was not, So one day he called her and said Rosa if you do not let me come I will come anyway and stand outside your door and sing and sing until you let me in> Rosa thought this was so funny and told him to come.. He came and he was was greated by Rosa at the top of the stairs just ourside her bedroom facing the foyer and sang I love You truely, Truely Lucian I love you, He was so excited . He came in and called his father in NYC and told him . You will never guess where I am .I am in Rosa Ponselles home and she is right here in front of me. Rosa got on the phone and spoke to lucianos father in Italian. He stayed until midnight listening to her Traviata and crying because it was so beautiful., Rosa also went obver to the piano and aked Pavarotti to sing, he was very hesitant, Rosa aked Luciano. What is wrong > Why wont you sing. Pavarotti respnded . You are Rosa Ponselle and I am scared

@@Giovannifabuloso What a glorious comment and how wonderful that you knew her. My father heard her in Norma in London and, despite generally preferring the German repertoire and wonderful sopranos such as Lotte Lehmann and Frieda Leider, was nevertheless hugely impressed. I still treasure the 78s he bought at the time/ Alas I never heard her or met her but she sent me a lovely signed photograph as Carmen. More recently I met the fine mezzo Sheila Nadler who Ponselle heard in a competition and subsequently invited to have coaching and sing with her. Just as you she liked her enormously. Thank you so much for sharing your precious memories.

Unfortunately, there is no Ponselle book on technique and her centenary biography, though it contains fascinating interviews with the soprano, tells very little about her technique. It isn't even clear who actually taught her to sing, if anyone, or whether she was mostly self taught. She did have a piano teacher who may have taught her the rudiments of vocal technique when she was young. She also had a long-time mentor and coach, Romano Romani, throughout her career who may have taught her a lot. She also coached various roles with historical figures like Carre (Carmen) and Bellincioni (Traviata), so her art was influenced by some of the best singers and coaches of the day. However, there is an interview with her which focuses on her technique in Jerome Hines book, *Great Singers on Great Singing*. I didn't find this interview particularly revealing, but it did focus on details of voice production, so perhaps it would be interesting and useful for you. After her retirement, she taught a number of famous singers, so her technical advice may be traced through some of them.

@@roykersey2287 Thank you very much .