Marjorie Lawrence Sings for the Boys World War II

MARJORIE LAWRENCE SINGS FOR THE BOYS World War II Please click on Show more below for details US Columbia Masterworks 78rpm album M-579: Waltzing Matilda Traditional Annie Laurie Scott The Lords Prayer Malotte Danny Boy Weatherly The Chocolate Soldier: My Hero O. Strauss Maori FarewellAuld Lang Syne Kalhau with Male Quartet and Orchestra conducted by Sylvan Shulman. The soprano volunteered to sing for the USO and the Allied troops overseas during WW II. It was her practice to open each of those programs with The Lords Prayer. This album recorded in 1945 was issued under the title listed above as well as Marjorie Lawrence Sings for Fighting Men. The transfers were made from 12 78rpm discs. No filtration was used to remove surface noise. Marjorie Lawrence 1907-1979 possessed a dramatic soprano voice with deep contralto richness. After having won a prestigious vocal contest in her native Australia in 1928 she went to Paris where she studied with Cécile Gilly and made her operatic debut in Monte Carlo as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser in 1932. Wagner continued to be her debut composer during the next year when she sang her first role at the Opéra Paris as Ortrud in Lohengrin. And again for her debut at the Metropolitan Opera late in 1935 as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre. In 1940 she and Kirsten Flagstad alternated and appeared together as Brünnilde and Sieglinde. In 1941 Lawrence was stricken with poliomyelitis during a rehearsal of Die Walküre in Mexico City. With great courage she underwent difficult medical treatment and subsequently retrained her muscles and vocal apparatus. She sang on a nationwide radio broadcast late in 1942 in the United States. Seated she appeared at the Metropolitan as Venus in Tannhäuser in 1944 and later as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde. She made her first standing appearance at a concert performance of Strausss Elektra with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1947. Her 1945 autobiography Interrupted Melody served for years as a chronicle of her life and career. It was made into a film of the same title in 1954. In 2012 an excellent biography of Lawrence Wotans Daughter by Richard Davis was published in Australia.,

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