Eleonora de Cisneros sings “Ben Bolt” on Edison Amberol 28017, issued in 1912.
Oh, don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?
Sweet Alice whose hair was so brown?
Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile
And trembled with fear at your frown?
In the old church yard in the valley, Ben Bolt,
In a corner obscure and alone,
They have fitted a slab of granite so gray
And sweet Alice lies under the stone.
And don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt,
And the master so kind and so true?
And the little nook by the clear running brook,
Where we gathered the flowers as they grew?
On the masters grave grows the grass, Ben Bolt,
And the running little brook is now dry,
And of all the friends who were schoolmates then,
There remain, Ben, but you and I.
Oh don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?
Sweet Alice with hair so brown?
She wept with delight when you gave her a
smile and she trembled with fear at your frown.
"Ben Bolt" was originally a poem written by Thomas Dunn English and published in 1843.
Composer and musician Nelson Kneass added music in 1848, changing some words.
Kneass died in 1868 while on tour with a theatrical troupe in Chillicothe, Missouri. He was buried in Edgewood cemetery (the song is about a loved one named Alice being buried, so it seems right to mention where Kneass is buried--I would love to visit that burial site and hum the tune).
"Ben Bolt" became one of the most popular songs of the 19th century, and it was recorded by many singers into the 1920s.
But the song gradually became forgetten. It is a song that was once very famous, but it hasn't been very famous in the last century.
Wait, the song is mentioned in literature. "Ben Bolt" is the song that high-C Homer, a character in Damon Runyon's short story "Barbecue," was singing on amateur night at the Colonial Theater when he got hit in the throat by a turnip thrown by someone in the audience, dashing his hopes to be a singer and consigning him to a life as a third-rate peddler of phony tips on horse races.
Eleonora de Cisneros possessed a contralto voice of great expressiveness. She was born Eleanora Broadfoot on November 1, 1878, in New York.
She died on February 3, 1934, in New York.
When young, she studied with Mme. Murio-Celli in New York. During her studies she was discovered by Jean De Reszke, who brought her to the attention of the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut in 1900 as Rossweisse in Die Walkure.
In 1901 she married the Cuban count Francesco de Cisneros, and from that time on she used that last name.
In 1901 she went to Europe for further study with Jean De Reszke and Victor Maurel in Paris and with Trabadello and Lombadri in Milan.
In 1902 she appeared in Turin and had a starring career for the next twelve years at the largest Italian theaters. She sang at La Scala in 1906 in the world premiere of La Figlia di Jorio, and in 1908 in the first performance of Elektra and Queen of Spades.
From 1906 to 1911 she was the principal contralto at the Manhattan Opera. She then sang with the Philadelphia-Chicago Company and until 1916 with the Chicago Opera.
In 1914 she sang Brangane in Tristan und Isolde at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. In 1915 she toured Cuba, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1925 she appeared occasionally at La Scala as Herodias in Salome and lived until 1929 in Paris. Thereafter she became a singing teacher in New York.
“Ben Bolt” (sad 19th cent. song) Oh, don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt? Eleonora de Cisneros
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