DESCRIPTION:
BLANCHE THEBOM Irish-American Ballads by Ernest R. Ball: Mother Machree; Love Me and the World is Mine; Dear Little Boy of Mine; I'll Forget You, with orchestra conducted by Jay Blackton (RCA Victor SP-7 ALBUM OF MEMORIES). Blanche Thebom (1915 -- 2010) debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in Philadelphia as Brangaene in Tristan und Isolde on 28 November 1944. Her House debut was on 14 December 1944 as Fricka in Die Walküre. She sang a wide repertoire there, on its annual tour, and in forty Saturday afternoon broadcasts. Miss Thebom continued with the company until 1967. Her immediately recognizable mezzo-soprano voice was also heard on radio and television, in films, and she concertized regularly. Although her primary recording home was RCA Victor, she appeared also on discs made by EMI and American Columbia. Ernest Roland Ball (1878 -- 1927) was an American singer, accompanist, and composer who was trained at the Cleveland Conservatory. Although not Irish, he specialized in sentimental and Irish-American ballads, the most well-know of which was When Irish Eyes are Smiling. (In the candid photo, Miss Thebom appears with colleagues Claramae Turner and Lauritz Melchior.)