Uploaded January 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Dutch soprano Jeanne JOMELLI (1879-1932)
The Hermann Klein Phono-Vocal Method: Solfeggi
(Exercise No. 14)
Recorded: 1909
Portrait: The Oregon Sunday Journal (Portland, Oregon), Sunday Morning, October 17, 1909 (page 6)
**********************************
THE GRAMOPHONE & THE SINGER Hermann KLEIN
The Story of my "Phono-Vocal" Adventure (extracts)
(Amadeus Press 1990)
"Up to this time it had still been Mme. Nordica's intention to sing the soprano records herself. But fate willed that it should be otherwise. Her repeated attempts to do her voice and herself justice under the old primitive conditions still necessarily in vogue at the Columbia atelier (as at any other, for that matter) were proving more or less a failure. One or two turned out well -- for example the Suicidio from La Gioconda; but with the majority she had been so dissatisfied that she openly confessed to me that she was growing too disheartened to continue."
"Sopranos were plentiful as blackberries in the United States; but the right one for the job proved extremely difficult to find. Find her at last I did, however in the person of a clever Dutch artist, Mme. Jeanne Jomelli, who had recently come to America and made a hit as Giuletta in Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House. Mme. Jomelli had a pure soprano voice of singularly clear, steady, musical quality, and she was an accomplished vocalist. She came to me to study English diction and generally to extend repertoire"
**********************************
Jeanne Jomelli (May 18, 1879 – August 29, 1932): Dutch soprano opera singer, concert singer, and music educator. Jomelli made her American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1906. In 1909 an aria, "The Call of Râdha" by Harriet Ware, with lyrics by Sarojini Naidu, was dedicated to Jomelli. Jomelli herself set a Heinrich Heine poem, "Oft I wept while dreaming", to music in 1912. "Mme. Jomelli had a pure soprano voice of singularly clear, steady, musical quality, and she was an accomplished vocalist," recalled Herman Klein, who worked with her on improving her English diction. She was in Belgium at the start of World War I and lost nineteen trunks of costumes and other possessions in the rush to leave ahead of German advances. Instead she toured western Canadian cities with composer Hallett Gilberté during the war, giving benefit concerts for wounded veterans. In 1917, she gave a concert in Los Angeles singing songs by Charles Wakefield Cadman, with Cadman himself accompanying her on piano. For the 1917/1918 academic year, Jomelli was engaged to teach at Cornish School of Music in Seattle, Washington.[However, she needed surgery for tonsillitis in September 1917, which brought long-term health complications, and she taught while seated thereafter. Jomelli moved to Oakland, California, in 1918, and taught voice at the University of California in Berkeley. She stayed in the San Francisco Bay area for most of her remaining years, though she also spent significant time teaching in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Punahou School. Jeanne Jomelli was first married in 1901, to a French tapestry maker, Nicolas Hernance. They divorced amicably in 1913. Her second husband was her manager, W. Orrin Backus. She died in August 1932, aged 53 years, in San Francisco, California. Very soon after Jomelli's death, Orrin Backus remarried; when his new wife left him, in fear of his violent threats, he died in November 1932 by suicide.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Jomelli
**********************************
Herman Klein (born Hermann Klein; 23 July 1856 – 10 March 1934) was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein. His second wife was the writer Kathleen Clarice Louise Cornwell, and one of their children was the writer Denise Robins. For thirteen years, Klein was a vocal teacher at the Guildhall School of Music in London, becoming a lifelong proponent of the methods of Manuel Garcia and helping to edit Garcia's book on the subject. In 1876 he took up musical journalism, writing for The Sunday Times from 1881–1901, among other publications. He also contributed prolifically to The Musical Times. From 1901 to 1909, Klein lived and taught singing in New York City, where he wrote for The New York Herald. He was one of the first critics to take notice of the gramophone and was appointed "musical adviser" to Columbia Records in 1906 in New York. He returned to England in 1909. Klein wrote over half a dozen books about music and singers, as well as English translations of operas and art songs. He was a noted authority on Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1924 he began writing for The Gramophone and was in charge of operatic reviews, as well as contributing a monthly article on singing, from then until his death.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Klein
**********************************
Dutch soprano Jeanne JOMELLI (1879-1932)
The Hermann Klein Phono-Vocal Method: Solfeggi
(Exercise No. 14)
Recorded: 1909
Portrait: The Oregon Sunday Journal (Portland, Oregon), Sunday Morning, October 17, 1909 (page 6)
**********************************
THE GRAMOPHONE & THE SINGER Hermann KLEIN
The Story of my "Phono-Vocal" Adventure (extracts)
(Amadeus Press 1990)
"Up to this time it had still been Mme. Nordica's intention to sing the soprano records herself. But fate willed that it should be otherwise. Her repeated attempts to do her voice and herself justice under the old primitive conditions still necessarily in vogue at the Columbia atelier (as at any other, for that matter) were proving more or less a failure. One or two turned out well -- for example the Suicidio from La Gioconda; but with the majority she had been so dissatisfied that she openly confessed to me that she was growing too disheartened to continue."
"Sopranos were plentiful as blackberries in the United States; but the right one for the job proved extremely difficult to find. Find her at last I did, however in the person of a clever Dutch artist, Mme. Jeanne Jomelli, who had recently come to America and made a hit as Giuletta in Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House. Mme. Jomelli had a pure soprano voice of singularly clear, steady, musical quality, and she was an accomplished vocalist. She came to me to study English diction and generally to extend repertoire"
**********************************
Jeanne Jomelli (May 18, 1879 – August 29, 1932): Dutch soprano opera singer, concert singer, and music educator. Jomelli made her American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1906. In 1909 an aria, "The Call of Râdha" by Harriet Ware, with lyrics by Sarojini Naidu, was dedicated to Jomelli. Jomelli herself set a Heinrich Heine poem, "Oft I wept while dreaming", to music in 1912. "Mme. Jomelli had a pure soprano voice of singularly clear, steady, musical quality, and she was an accomplished vocalist," recalled Herman Klein, who worked with her on improving her English diction. She was in Belgium at the start of World War I and lost nineteen trunks of costumes and other possessions in the rush to leave ahead of German advances. Instead she toured western Canadian cities with composer Hallett Gilberté during the war, giving benefit concerts for wounded veterans. In 1917, she gave a concert in Los Angeles singing songs by Charles Wakefield Cadman, with Cadman himself accompanying her on piano. For the 1917/1918 academic year, Jomelli was engaged to teach at Cornish School of Music in Seattle, Washington.[However, she needed surgery for tonsillitis in September 1917, which brought long-term health complications, and she taught while seated thereafter. Jomelli moved to Oakland, California, in 1918, and taught voice at the University of California in Berkeley. She stayed in the San Francisco Bay area for most of her remaining years, though she also spent significant time teaching in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Punahou School. Jeanne Jomelli was first married in 1901, to a French tapestry maker, Nicolas Hernance. They divorced amicably in 1913. Her second husband was her manager, W. Orrin Backus. She died in August 1932, aged 53 years, in San Francisco, California. Very soon after Jomelli's death, Orrin Backus remarried; when his new wife left him, in fear of his violent threats, he died in November 1932 by suicide.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Jomelli
**********************************
Herman Klein (born Hermann Klein; 23 July 1856 – 10 March 1934) was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein. His second wife was the writer Kathleen Clarice Louise Cornwell, and one of their children was the writer Denise Robins. For thirteen years, Klein was a vocal teacher at the Guildhall School of Music in London, becoming a lifelong proponent of the methods of Manuel Garcia and helping to edit Garcia's book on the subject. In 1876 he took up musical journalism, writing for The Sunday Times from 1881–1901, among other publications. He also contributed prolifically to The Musical Times. From 1901 to 1909, Klein lived and taught singing in New York City, where he wrote for The New York Herald. He was one of the first critics to take notice of the gramophone and was appointed "musical adviser" to Columbia Records in 1906 in New York. He returned to England in 1909. Klein wrote over half a dozen books about music and singers, as well as English translations of operas and art songs. He was a noted authority on Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1924 he began writing for The Gramophone and was in charge of operatic reviews, as well as contributing a monthly article on singing, from then until his death.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Klein
**********************************
