HOME-MADE TREASURES
What's a diva to do when she is ignored by the classical music recording industry? Produce her own recording, of course! A true diva realizes she must leave some tangible document of her ephemeral art as a legacy to future generations -- Philips and EMI be damned!
These so-called "vanity records" run the gamut from excellent to mediocre to much worse -- from small-town amateur church sopranos who enshrined in vinyl a squawky lieder recital for The Women's League of Duluth, to fairly talented semi-professional provincial singers with careers that never quite took off who convinced their wealthy husbands to buy them some studio time, to singers who absolutely should have had a major recording contract. And then there are singers like Florence Morrison and Mari Lyn who took the genre to unprecedented heights.
Private records are rare because they were pressed in very small quantities and only distributed within a small geographic area. And often they get tossed without a second thought by family and local folks due to a lack of interest in classical music. But what genuine treasures they are to some of us!
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click covers to go into galleries
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