SIGNED TODD DUNCAN Negro Baritone KURT WEILL Lost in the Stars Decca DAU 738

$

30

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A series of great Personality Records, with Shakespearean Actors, Presidents and Kings and great performances:

TODD DUNCAN, the first PORGY of the 1935 Production of GEORGE GERSHWINS PORGY AND BESS was the leading African American Stage and Concert Baritone of the 1930s.

SIGNED ON THE FIRST SLEEVE

ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM

Lost in the Stars
Recorded 1949
Decca Records / DAU-738 / United States

A
Frank Roane and Chorus - The Hills of Ixopo
B1
Todd Duncan and Chorus - A Bird of Passage
B2
Todd Duncan and Chorus - Reprise: Thousands of Miles
C
Todd Duncan and Chorus - Thousands of Miles
D
Herbert Coleman and Chorus - Big Mole / Chapel Scene
E1
Todd Duncan, Frank Roane and Chorus - Train to Johannesburg
E2
Todd Duncan, Frank Roane and Chorus - Reprise: Thousands of Miles / The Search
F
Todd Duncan and Chorus - Little Grey House
G
Inez Matthews - Stay Well
H
Inez Matthews, Sheila Guyse - Who'll Buy? / Trouble Man
I
Todd Duncan and Chorus - O Tixo, Tixo, Help Me
J
Lost in the Stars Chorus - Murder in Parkwold / Fear
K
Todd Duncan and Chorus - Lost in the Stars

 

Kurt Weill
music, orchestration
Maxwell Anderson
lyrics
Rouben Mamoulian
musical director
Maurice Levine
conductor
The Lost in the Stars Orchestra
orchestra
The Lost in the Stars Chorus
chorus
Julian Mayfield
performer
Guy Spaull
performer

 

 

Red Label Decca 6x 10" 78 rpm record with original album   and notes

Condition:

EXCELLENT dusty, faint scratches on 1, plays EXCEPTIONALLY QUIET

Album great, covers lightly rubbed, spine has been nicely repaired

Todd Duncan, 1954   Robert Todd Duncan (February 12, 1903 – February 28, 1998) was an American baritone opera singer and actor. Biography Todd Duncan was born in Danville, Kentucky in 1903. He obtained his musical training at Butler University in Indianapolis with a B.A. in music followed by an M.A. from Columbia University Teachers College.
Career In 1933, Duncan debuted in Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana at the Mecca Temple in New York with the Aeolian Opera, a black opera company. Duncan was George Gershwin's personal choice as the first performer of the role of Porgy in Porgy and Bess in 1935 and played the role more than 1,800 times. He led the cast during the Washington run of Porgy and Bess at the National Theatre in 1936, to protest the theatre's policy of segregation. Duncan stated that he "would never play in a theater which barred him from purchasing tickets to certain seats because of his race." Eventually management would give into the demands and allow for the first integrated performance at National Theatre.[1] Duncan was also the first performer for the role of Stephen Kumalo in Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars. In 1938, Duncan appeared on the London stage at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in C.B.Cochran's musical production The Sun Never Sets. The cast included fellow American Adelaide Hall, Leslie Banks, Edna Best and Stewart Granger. The musical was adapted by Pat Wallace and Guy Bolton from various stories written by Edgar Wallace[2] and the show included original music by Cole Porter. Costumes were designed by Elizabeth Haffenden.[3] One of the numbers Duncan sang was 'River God'. After the London run closed, Duncan and Adelaide Hall from the original cast toured Britain with the production.[4]
Anne Brown as Bess with Todd Duncan as Porgy in 1942. Duncan taught voice at Howard University in Washington, D.C. for more than fifty years. While teaching at Howard, he continued touring as a soloist with pianists William Duncan Allen and George Malloy.[5] He had a very successful career as a concert singer with over 2,000 performances in 56 countries. He retired from Howard and opened his own voice studio teaching privately and giving periodic recitals. In 1945, he became the first African American to sing with a major opera company, and the first black person to sing in an opera with an otherwise white cast, when he performed the role of Tonio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with the New York City Opera. In the same year he sang the role of Escamillo, the bullfighter, in Bizet's Carmen. In 1955, Duncan was the first to record "Unchained Melody", a popular song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. The recording was made for the soundtrack of the obscure prison film Unchained, in which Duncan also played a minor character. Following Duncan's version, the song went on to become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. In his final interview, Todd Duncan spoke of his love for spirituals: "... spirituals are so deep inside of me, it's difficult for me to find words that are meaningful. Spirituals are a part of whatever I am. When I sing them my being sings them, not my throat.... It is very difficult for me to put into words something that is at the bottom of my very being."[6] In addition to singing, Duncan was also a voice teacher. Among his notable pupils was operatic bass Philip Booth who was a mainstay at the Metropolitan Opera for two decades.[7]
Honors and death In 1978, the Washington Performing Arts Society presented his 75th birthday gala. Duncan was awarded the George Peabody Medal of Music from the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University in 1984. Other awards he received include a medal of honor from Haiti, an NAACP award, the Donaldson Award, the New York Drama Critics' Award for Lost in the Stars, and honorary doctorates from Valparaiso University and Butler University. Duncan was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[8] He died of a heart ailment at his home in Washington, D.C., in 1998.

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