#Marie Michailowa

[opera-ghosts]

"Ave Maria" (Gounod) Marie Michailowa 1905

"Ave Maria" sung in Russian by Marie Michailowa (Michailova), soprano. Maria Gamovetskaya (Hamowetzkaya), violin obbligato; Franz Hampe, pianoforte accompaniment. Recorded in St. Petersburg. 1905.

Marie Michailowa (Michailova) 1864-1943 was born Maria Van Puterin in Kharkov. She began her vocal studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and continued them abroad in Paris and Milan. Michailova made her debut at the Maryinsky Theater in 1892 and was a featured performer with that company for more than two decades. In the early years of the 1900s, she toured Russia extensively and performed in Japan in 1907. Michailova had a fear of traveling over water that limited her ability to appear outside continental Europe. At one point, Oscar Hammerstein was so taken with her voice that he attempted to engage Michailova for his Manhattan Opera Company, but she would not travel to New York. Maria Michailova was one of the most productive singers among recording pioneers. Beginning her career in 1901 with Gramophone and Typewriter, through 1914 Michailova made the astounding total of some 350 records for labels as diverse as Lyrophon, Columbia, Pathé, and HMV. About a half-dozen of these were released in the United States on Victor and were long-standing mainstays of their vocal catalog. Michailova made her farewell appearance in Leningrad in 1921.Recorded 350 records between 1901-1914.

This is an early recording that was limited by technology of the time and yet is still able to project the beautiful soprano voice! There are many "Ave Maria" early recordings but this version and the Rosa Ponselle (1926) seem to rise above. The recording technique of the time had the singer singing into a horn type funnel that would capture the sound waves and energy thus the singer was to project their voice in a consistent fashion. The loud projections could not be controlled very well. There is also hiss on this recording as you can hear. Reducing the hiss often times removes subtlety and nuances from the recording. In this case some of the transients of the voice or the resonance of the violin.