Louise Kirkby Lunn

Louise Kirkby Lunn The Times considered her greatest achievement at Covent Garden was in Aida:

At Covent Garden her other roles included Pallas in Saint-Saëns's Hélène, Hérodiade in Massenet's Hérodiade (staged in this production under the title Salome), La Haine in Gluck's Armide, Olga in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.

From 1902 Kirkby Lunn appeared frequently in the US. She made her début at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Ortrud in December of that year, and appeared with the company there more than fifty times over the next six years. Kirkby Lunn's only operatic appearances in continental Europe were guest performances in 1906 at the Hungarian Royal Opera House, Budapest, playing Orfeo, Dalila and Carmen. Her last appearances in an international opera season were eight performances in Aida with Destinn at Covent Garden in 1919. In 1919–22 she appeared there with the British National Opera Company; her final performances were as Kundry.

Concerts Alongside her operatic appearances Kirkby Lunn maintained a concert and recital career. In March 1904 she was a principal soloist in the Elgar Festival concerts given at Covent Garden, appearing on the first night with John Coates and David Ffrangcon-Davies in The Dream of Gerontius, and on the second with them and with Agnes Nicholls, Kennerley Rumford and Andrew Black in The Apostles. .She made several further appearances for the society between 1913 and 1916.

Kirkby Lunn toured Australasia In 1912–13 and she appeared at the major British festivals and London recital venues; Potter singles out the Bechstein Hall (from 1917 the Wigmore Hall), which was under the management of her husband. She gave recitals there from 1902 to 1925. Her last major London appearance was at the Albert Hall in a Royal Choral Society performance of Handel's Messiah in April 1927, conducted by Malcolm Sargent.

Death After a five-month illness, Kirkby Lunn died of cancer at her home in St John's Wood, London, on 17 February 1930, aged 56.

Recordings In 1912 Kirkby Lunn recorded two duets with John McCormack, from operas by Wolf-Ferrari. These duets have been remastered and reissued on CD, as have some of her other, solo, 78-rpm discs. Her main body of her recordings were made for the Gramophone Company between 1909 and 1916 but there were also Pathé records cut earlier, including duets that feature Ben Davies. Among the operatic excerpts in her recorded output is music by Wagner, Verdi, Ponchielli, Gluck and Mozart. The acoustic recording process of the day was not always kind to Kirkby-Lunn's voice although it is better caught in some pieces such as the Gounod "Entreat me not to leave thee", or the Arthur Thomas "A Summer night". '"Che faro?" from Orfeo was committed to disc in about 1915. The partnership with Destinn is preserved on record, in a 1911-recorded "Ebben qual nuovo fremito" from Aida, and a 1911 "L'amo come il fulgor", from Ponchielli's La Gioconda. In 1917 Edward German's Kipling setting "Have you news of my boy Jack?" gave Kirkby Lunn "a wartime hit on disc".

A large number of records reflect that her voice is superb quality from top to bottom, but it is often lack of real drama or engagement with the characters.

Notes, references and sources