Soprano Rosa PONSELLE : La Vestale (1926)

American soprano Rosa Ponselle (1897-1981) / Tu che invoco / O nume tutelar / La Vestale (Spontini) / Orchestra: Rosario Bourdon / Recorded: May 18, 1926 -- ROSA PONSELLE (January 22, 1897, Meriden, Connecticut - May 25, 1981, Villa Pace, near Baltimore, Maryland) Originally Rosa Ponzillo. Her parents were Italians who emigrated to the United States. She sang with her sister, Carmella Ponselle, in American vaudeville under the name the Ponzillo Sisters. The impresario William Thorner heard her by chance and obtained a audition for her at the Metropolitan Opera. There she was helped by Enrico Caruso and the completely unknown singer made her debut with him (1918) as Leonora in La Forza del Destino. Her success was overpowering and at a stroke Rosa Ponselle became world-famous. She was thereafter a principal singer at the Metropolitan and had numerous triumphs there. Her greatest were Rachel in La Juive in 1919 and Giulia in Spontini’s La Vestale in 1925, as Norma in 1927, and as the title role i