John McCormack

The McCormack Odeon transfers may be accessed either by date or by composer and title.

Second, perhaps, only to Caruso for tenor fame in his time was the Irish tenor, John McCormack, born in Athlone on 14 June 14 1884. He began his vocal studies with Vincent O'Brien in Dublin; in 1902 he won a singing competition there. About 1904 he sang at the World Exposition in St. Louis. After further study with Vincenzo Sabatini in Milan, he made his operatic debut under the name Giovanni Foli in Savona as the hero in L'Amico Fritz. In 1906 he gave successful concerts in London and in 1907 he sang for the first time at Covent Garden, making his debut as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. He continued his triumphs by singing there annually until 1914. In 1909 he appeared as guest at the Teatro San Carlo, but without particular success. In 1910 he sang at the Teatro Reggio in Parma opposite Luisa Tetrazzini in La Fille de Regiment. In 1910 he was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang for six seasons.

At this point it might be well to point out that McCormack wasn't really cut out to be an opera singer. The voice was relatively light, and he lacked the temperament and acting ability to be an impressive figure on the operatic stage. Although a casual glance through his career would seem to indicate that early in his career he was heavily into opera, a deeper study shows that this really wasn't true. As an example, the six seasons quoted at the Met consisted of only ten appearances in four roles. Toward the end of his career he appeared rarely on the operatic stage, namely in 1921 and 1923 when he sang in Monte Carlo.

In 1912 he began long concert tours and thereafter was celebrated in the concert halls of the entire world. In 1938 he gave his farewell concert in London, and lived thereafter in Ireland. McCormack died in Dublin on September 16, 1945.

A FEW NOTES ON THE McCORMACK RECORDINGS

McCormack's earliest records were made in 1904 when he was only 20 years old, and show a voice with great potential but little finesse. The Odeons on this disk were made between 1906 and 1909, and show the results of the training in Italy with Sabatini. Although not yet the McCormack voice we all know and love from his later recordings, they do reflect McCormack at the beginning of his career as a recitalist and his early success in opera. It is rare that one has the opportunity to hear a voice documented from its earliest stage to the very end of a career, but we have that opportunity with John McCormack. Since there have been so many reissues of his recordings, we have limited ourselves to his Odeons, the least available in a definitive edition. In addition, it is quite certain that many of the Odeon reissues that have appeared have been recorded at the wrong speed. Great care was taken to ensure that the recordings on this disk are as close to the originals as we can obtain.

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