January 25, 1923
MUSICAL COURIER
34
GREATEST DRAMATIC

SCORES PHENO
REENGAGED EOR THE EIG
WITH CHICAGO Cl
AS RACHEL IN “LA JUIVE״
“I NEVER HEARD HER WHEN SHE WAS AS GLORIOUS AS SHE WAS LAST NIGHT.״ Edwa “THIS GREAT DRAMATIC SOPRANO BIDS THE COLORATURAS LOOK TO THEIR L “RAISA SANG MAGNIFICENTLY. THE TONE WAS ALWAYS RICH IN QUALITY, WIT
GLORIOUS.” Chicago Evening Post, January 2, 1923.
“THIS IS MUSIC AFTER HER OWN STYLE, DISPLAYING HER GORGEOUS, CLARIONL
POWER AND RANGE.” Chicago Evening American, January 2, 1923.
“NEVER IN HER CAREER DID ROSA RAISA DISPLAY HER REMARKABLE VOCAL G ABILITY NOR HER PERSONAL BEAUTY TO SUCH ADVANTAGE AS SHE DID IN THI THERE WAS MUCH OF IT, BOTH FLORID AND DRAMATIC—WITH GREAT WARMTH
ARTISTIC EMINENCE.” Chicago Daily News, January 2, 1923.
“ROSA RAISA IS CALLED GLORIOUS AS RACHEL.” Chicago Tribune, January 1, 1923.
“RAISA AN IDOL OF CHICAGOANS.” Chicago Journal, January 2, 1923. “RAISA WINS NEW HON “FORCE OF DESTINY PROVIDES ADMIRABLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR RAISA.” Herald e “AS DONNA LEONORA SHE DID SINGING THAT CAN SAFELY BE CALLED GREAT
more precise articulat, Tetrazzini.
In other ways has Mr Sunday and again last queenly beauty, moving a lesson in graceful, el as Mine. Nordica might never can tell about th another that became a s Examiner, Sunday, Jan
Chicago Tribune In all the times that testimony to the merit heard her when she w last night. Her Rache nifieent singing, superb broken line of vocal caught the attention at end. For a performan second choice.
Chicago Evening P Mine. Raisa sang ma always rich in quality, ing and with an opuleri was glorious.
Chicago Journal, Raisa’s singing of the ner, with many exhibit’ strained use of the half she is not excelled, or t score was written for si" and Miss Raisa, having no-stop soprano, added t performance which broug almost completely up to
gladly in the service of Mme. Campanini or the maestro.
The time has come for me to confess that I was quite wrong, the maestro quite right. I hope that lie, who was my good friend; who even gave up a rehearsal once that I might borrow some of his men for a concert of the American Symphony Orchestra—let those who knew him answer whether this was a test of Campanini’s friendship; he valued a rehearsal only less than he prized his sense of hearing—I hope that he can somehow know of this belated retraction.
Mme. Raisa forced it upon me last Sunday night by her singing of the music allotted to the part of Rachel in Halevy’s “The Jewess,” which 1 protest is the greatest example of the dramatic soprano’s art that I have heard since Mme. Nordica was in her prime, twenty-five years ago. It was great in its vocal aspects. It was no less great in its spiritual impulse.
As I have said before in these' columns, great voices seem to have one quality in common, namely, a tremendous vitality of tone. One finds it in the voice of Mme. Homer. Chaliapin has it. So has Charles Marshall. Mme. Raisa has it always. If she sings, as she does sometimes in “The Jewess,” an impalpable pianissimo, the merest whisper of tone, it is yet a vital tone, that carries to the remotest cornar of the theater.
On this foundation of tonal vitality she is able to impose whatever color the dramatic situation demands. Thus her voice, repressed and restrained in the final scenes of this fine old melodrama, expresses terror; or it is the very voice of scorn; or it is ennobled with dignity. By voice alone she can compass all the emotional requirements of the part. Again she was obliged to compete with the clarinet, carrying a bravura scale throughout the splendid range of her voice. No coloratura soprano living could have done it with
Rosa Raisa Is Making the Campanils’ Dreams Come True
Raisa, a young Polish singer whom Mme. Eva Tetrazzini Campanini had taken under her care and was preparing for opera. Mme. Campanini confided to me that she hoped this young woman would take her place as a dramatic soprano, the place which she relinquished when she married Campanini. The maestro went farther and ventured a prophecy.
“Miss Raisa will one day be the greatest of dramatic sopranos. I know voices, and hers is a great one. You will hear,” he said.
Later that season, or perhaps it was the next year, I heard Miss Raisa. I have forgotten the role, but it was a not too arduous selection from the Italian repertory. Also she sang in some of the Campanini Sunday concerts. I confess I thought the maestro quite wrong; that hers was no great voice; only a loud one and crude. I am afraid I wrote things to that effect.
Being a teacher myself, I assumed that the Cam-paninis had been carried away by one of those enthusiasms that occasionally warp judgment. I learned that they were backing their judgment, however, by supporting the young singer and teaching her at the same time. I learned, or heard or assumed that Miss Raisa returned their kindness with a devotion that , was unique in the world of opera and a loyalty that was unswerving; that no task was too humble for her to perform it
Pupil Repaid for Her Loyalty to the Maestro and His Wife by Gaining Great Vitality of Tone
By Glenn Dillakd Gunn.
In commenting on the performance of “Aida,” which opened the present season of opera, the writer advised those good souls who lament the passing of the “great” singers of another generation to hear Mme. Rosa Raisa and renew their youth. Now, as the season draws to a close, I wish again to call attention to this artist, who unquestionably has demonstrated her right to he listed with those mighty ones of the past, the memory of whose art still provides standards by which to measure all that is offered us today.
I recall my first meeting with Mme. Raisa. It took place in Mr. Campanini’s apartment in the Congress Hotel twelve years ago. I noticed a tall young girl, hardly grown beyond the awkward stage, who passed in and out of the room performing _ some casual task connected with the Cam-paninis’ housekeeping arrangements. For the great maestro had a delicate stomach and would eat no food not prepared under the supervision of his wife.
The young woman was introduced to me as Rosa
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