Word: contralto
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Died. Clara Butt, 62, onetime milkmaid who became Great Britain's most popular contralto and a Dame Commander of the British Empire; after a long illness; in Oxford, England. Six feet, three inches tall and equipped with a voice so powerful that neither Albert Hall's organ nor the Coldstream Guards could drown her notes,, she was a favorite with royalty, performing many times before Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George...
...played the accompaniments for all his other pupils. As a soloist at St. Patrick's Cathedral she made enough to go to Europe, where she studied with Lilli Lehmann. She was determined to be a dramatic soprano but when her funds were exhausted she heard of a contralto vacancy at the Cologne Opera, applied for the job, rose rapidly thereafter...
Unable to stand on both feet, Marian Anderson managed to exhibit one of the richest contralto voices that has been heard in the U. S. for many a year. One Viennese critic described her as "a black Lilli Lehmann." That she is not. But she is an exciting, sure-voiced singer who would make any race proud. Her Handel songs instantly revealed a breadth and nobility of style. Her Schubert Ave Maria was not something interpolated to catch popular fancy; it was fervent, even as an organ tone, deeply impressive. Even more moving...
Rose of the Rancho (Paramount). As a vehicle for the cinema debut of Contralto Gladys Swarthout, a revival of David Belasco's famed stage success recommended itself for obvious reasons. Born of U. S. parents and reared in Deep Water, Mo., Miss Swarthout has a Latin appearance well suited to a rigmarole about Spaniards in California and their efforts to hold their ancestral estates against early land-grabbers. Furthermore, the dual roles of Rosita Castro and Don Carlos, masked leader of the Spanish vigilantes, enable her to maintain a tradition which she inaugurated at the Metropolitan Opera...
Item: sad little Willie Howard trying to look down a contralto's bosom while his brother Eugene and a second woman sing Rigoletto...