Lucrezia Bori -  I Know The Song Of The Lark (1922)
Channel: C Porter
Date: 03/11/2020

Picture of Bori is from June of 1914. 

Lucrezia Bori was a Spanish soprano from the early 1910s to the mid 1930s. She had a very distinct vocal timbre that made her stand out from other operatics of the time, as well as she sung operatics in many languages too. Her career, and just her name herself, is very much connected with New York City's Metropolitan Opera House, as she was a dedicated fundraiser and one of it's chairwomen for it's operatic committee, a position she gained after virtually saving the opera house when the depression came. She had an extensive recording career and radio career, singing with the likes of McCormack, Gigli,  De Luca, Schipa, and others, but mostly remained a soloist.

She started out in 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera House, and after a quick success, a trip to France, and a duet with Enrico Caruso, she attracted the attention of Edison Records, who signed her to start recording Diamond Discs that august, as well as cylinders. She would leave in 1914, for Victor Records. Who would put her stuff on the the main label, Gramophone, Victrola, and other subsidiaries of it. Occasionally, she would have a record with McCormack or other artists. In 1915, she had to quit her career because of a surgery involving her vocal chords. It would be nearly 6 years before she would return to the stage and to the cutting rooms of Victor. When she did return in 1921, she didn't do too much until the next year. Allegedly she tried to do some stuff for Edison that year, but there's no evidence behind it. In 1924 though, she would have one and final side on there. As the electrical era started in 1925, she'd record more than she did any other time in the 20s, lasting until '26 and dwindling until stopping after 1928. As the depression came, she focused her career solely on saving the Metropolitan Opera House, which lead her to radio. Not recording to the discs until 1937, making the most she had ever made, before going out of the record industry later that year.

Never had a hit.

The A Side is called Juliet's Waltz Song which you can listen to here: https://youtu.be/5T1kLhv9TQk