Great Australian Voices - Jenifer Eddy [3CD]

For over three decades, the name of Jenifer Eddy was foremost in the Australian opera scene as the major Artist Manager. Her stable of artists became household names under her guidance and Jenifer Eddy Artists’ Management boasted the crème de la crème operatic celebrities. What was little known was that Jenifer Eddy had experienced the journey of a singer, on an international level, first hand. Her career as a brilliant coloratura and soubrette soprano, had taken her to the major opera houses of the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. Her on-stage colleagues included some of the finest and admired performers of the second half of last century. In 1967, Harold Rosenthal, the long-time editor of Opera, wrote “She is without doubt the best British soubrette of our time”. Indeed, Jenifer’s private collection of off-air broadcast recordings and immaculately preserved printed reviews in her scrapbooks, attest to a singer at the forefront of a career. The ease of her performances, her delivery of text, her poise, pinpoint accuracy of coloratura and the sweet beauty of her voice provides a magic, which is not heard in the present day. She packed into her fifteen years on the operatic stage what reads like twice the amount of performances of any other soprano of this voice type. What seemed to be the perfect career, flying high, came to a sudden halt in 1969 due to a physical condition that remained undiagnosed for almost five years. The correct diagnosis came in 1974, in London, and Jenifer closed the door to her singing career and returned to Melbourne, Australia, in March 1975. A month later she started Jenifer Eddy Artists’ Management (JEAM).  Despite the relative shortness of her performing career, Jenifer Eddy was, without doubt, a major artist in the history of Australian voices.

Track Listing

CD 1
1. This much is known
- The Daughter of the Regiment (Donizetti)
2. My Noble Lords
- Les Huguenots (Meyerbeer)
3. The Soldier, tir’d of war’s alarms
- Artaxerxes (Arne)
4. The Temple Bell
- The Mousmé (Monckton)
5. Ah, Mamma my heart’s on fire
- The Toreodor (Adam)
6. Jogging in a One-Horse Gig
- The Merry Widow (Lehar)
7. Love’s Sentry – Madame Pompadour (Fall)
8. La ci darem la mano
- Don Giovanni (Mozart)
9. Pa, Pa, Pa, Papagena
- Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)
10. Laughing Song
- Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss)
11. Audition Aria – Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss)
12. Die Wiener Herrn verstehen sich
- Arabella (R. Strauss)
13. A passing hour is nothing
- Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss)
14. Bella figlia dell’amore – Rigoletto (Verdi)

CD 2
1. Despina’s recit and aria Act 1
- Cosi dan tutte (Mozart)
2. Despina’s recit and aria Act 2
- Cosi fan tutte (Mozart)
3. Ah! Dearest child – Cendrillon (Massenet)
4. At last … I am to have some delights, after all
- Cendrillon (Massenet)
5. All that glitters and glimmers
- Cendrillon (Massenet)
6. To force one to marry an elderly man
- Don Procipio (Bizet)
7. A charming proposal
- Don Procipio (Bizet)
8. I’m quite at your disposal
- Don Procipio (Bizet)
9. The day is dawning – Don Propicio (Bizet)
10. Dearest Volpino, you’re charming
- The Apothecary (Haydn)
11. Count the tiny grains of powder here
- The Apothecary (Haydn)
12. Henceforth, I renounce you
- The Apothecary (Haydn)
13. One more deep rest on your breast
- The Apothecary (Haydn)

CD 3
1. A Spirit Flower (Campbell-Tipton)
2. O Lovely Night (Landon Ronald)
3. Exsultate Jubilate K165 Mozart) Allegro movement
4. Apparition (Debussy)
5. Le vent dans la plaine
- Ariettes oubliée (Debussy)
6. Il pleut doucement sur la ville
- Ariettes oubliée (Debussy)
7. L’ombre des arbres
- Ariettes oubliée (Debussy)
8. Die Spröde (Wolf)
9. Die Bekehrte (Wolf)
10. Philine (Wolf)
11. Das verlassene Mägdlein (Wolf)
12. Wie lange schon war immer mein Verlangen (Wolf)
13. Erstes liebeslied eines Mädchens (Wolf)
14. In dem schatten meine Locken (Wolf)
15. Waldsonne (Schoenberg)
16. Gedenken (Schoenberg)
17. An den Mond (Schumann)
18. Die blume der Ergebung (Schumann)
19. Die Aufträge (Schumann)
20. Singet nicht in Trauertönen (Schumann)
21. Schneeglöchchen (Schumann)
22. Er ist’s (Schumann)
23. Was will die einsame tränen (Schumann)
24. La belle dame sans merci (Hindemith)
25. On hearing “The Last Rose of Summer” (Hindemith)