RUBY HELDER sings "Then You'll Remember Me" from Balfe's opera, The Bohemian Girl—in 1913. The disc is Columbia # 501. This recording falls in the realm of "an operatic PARTY RECORD." Ruby Helder first stepped before the recording horn for the Pathe Company in 1908 to cut cylinder masters. When heard by the management of Pathe and then the general public, most didn't believe this was the work of a 17-year-old GIRL, who stood under 5 feet tall at the time--as she sounds like a MAN. While some references state that Helder was an "International Opera Star," to the best of my knowledge, she never appeared in an opera. She sang arias in her concerts, which consisted largely of ballads and drawing-room songs of the period. Like many British singers a century ago, the opera she sang was always in English. In addition to the BOHEMIAN GIRL aria presented here, the only other operatic Helder records are two discs of the principal TENOR arias from Martha and Faust. Ruby Helder (1890-1938) progressed from "Girl Tenor" when she first made four Pathe cylinders in 1908 to "The Lady Tenor," when she was around 31. She recorded for Pathe, HMV, Edison Bell, and Columbia. That said, there were only 21 titles ever made---between 1908 and June 1921. She was born as Emma Jane Holder on March 3, 1890, at 7 Brooklyn Terrace in the Easton district of Bristol, UK. Her father Thomas, a dairyman at the time, later became landlord of the nearby Glasshouse Pub, where little Emma would sing to <b>...</b>
gmmix
Balfe
Bohemian
Girl
Pathe
tenor
vaudeville
Sousa
Caruso
