The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak state.

This 1914 recording predates the founding of Czechoslovakia but would go on to be come the Czech National Anthem. The soprano, Ema Destinnova, had her career cut short by the First World War, having been put under house arrest because of links to the Czech patriotic resistance.

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F53LVyBHwVg[/youtubehd]

Thanks for the post! Ema Destinnova, or Emmy Destinn as she was known in the USA and elsewhere, was one of my favorite opera singers of the time. She and Caruso originated Puccini's "La fanciulla del West" ("The Girl of the Golden West") at the Metropolitan Opera in 1910 in the NYC.

Thanks Dan. If you are a fan, you need to come visit. You can still tour the chateau where she once lived and you can see the facade of the building in Prague in which she had an apartment. The apartment is still a private residence but there's a bust of Destin mounted in the front of the building.

Oh and she's featured on the 2000 crown bank note, (about $90).

Seeing this thread sent me on a quest to find my favorite photo of Destinn, depicting her with a feline friend that stretches out atop a piano. What I found was something surprising: an account of her apparently intense interest in the occult, something of which I was not aware. Interesting reading here:

http://magicbohemia.com/2017/04/07/ema- ... ivination/

Oh, and it includes the image:



Lovely record, by the way, and nice Victor V!

...and this turned up explaining the photo: http://circuszooanimals.blogspot.com/20 ... bride.html

Thanks for searching out the articles DRH. The first one especially gives a pretty good summary of her life as well as photos of her residences in Prague and her chateau near Stráž nad Nežárkou.

I too was surprised by the occult connection. Had not heard about that before. I've also read elsewhere that her public relationship with Dinh Gilly, the French North African baritone was considered quite scandalous especially in North America. They apparently were not at all secretive about it and I believe he was already married too.

Thanks guys for the very interesting information. This is what breaths life into the voices on the cylinders

Bruce