Mario Valle
Although Mario Valle was a reasonably well-known singer at his time, this is quite a mystery.
Valle was a baritone with a very long career, always with itinerant opera companies: Carlo Rosa and Moody Manners in the UK (from 1909
onwards), Bracale and Castellano in Latin America, and primarily the San Carlo Opera Company all over North America, from 1919 to at
least 1949 (in the last years of his career there, he was primarily a stage director, and sang only occasionally). He was Tonio in the
very first operatic film, a 1931 US production of Pagliacci. He died in New York City in 1951 from leukemia.
The start of his career had been at a very young age as a chorister in the Vatican, from where he went to Spain first, and then, see
above, to the UK. His date of birth (at an unknown location, but in Italy in any case) is given as 1892 by
Roberto Marcocci, but that's a mistake: it was
really 1882 (as per information from the Henry Y. Porter collection at Tufts University).
As far as recordings of Valle's voice, they are quite elusive: apart from that Pagliacci film (I have no hint as to whether any copy
is still extant – if anybody happens to own it, please share!), Roberto Marcocci once listed exactly one record by Valle,
Largo al factotum and Votre toast on Rishell Record no. 3115.
Now what has all that to do with our tenor encyclopedia? Well, according to Marcocci, Valle used the name Mario Vail while in the UK;
and he still did so in South America, when appearing with the Castellano Company at the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires in 1915: cf.
the English-language Buenos Ayres Herald of July 2nd, 1915, for a review of "Mario Vail", and the August 3rd edition of the same
newspaper for a (departing) steamship passenger
list that includes a "Mario B. Valle" amongst opera singers such as Tina Poli-Randaccio, Aristide Anceschi and Pietro Gubellini,
all of whom sang also in Santiago de Chile that same year, along with Valle (this time using his civic name).
And Roberto Bauer lists a Berliner Record (no. 52511) with a "Romanza" from Les pêcheurs de perles, made in Milan on
July 5th, 1900, by a certain "Mario Vaite"; Bauer says that Vaite was a baritone, and that he also used the name – Mario Vail.
So "Vaite" and Valle would have to be the same person, which is all the more probable as "Vaite" seems more Latvian than Italian,
which would, on the other hand, be most incongruent with the first name Mario and the recording location Milan... so "Vaite" seems like
a misspelling already before knowing anything about Mario Valle. I suppose this is one of the cases where somebody had a
difficult time deciphering the handwriting of the responsible engineer in the recording logs, and so Valle may have become Vaite. (A
gorgeous example of such a failed attempt at translating handwriting into print is to be found on a Lyrophon record in my possession:
in Amsterdam, Silvano Isalberti recorded an all-but-unknown aria from Tosca, which goes by the semi-Italian, semi-Dutch title
"Eluce van le Helle".)
Back to Mario "Vaite": Kelly knows the matrix number of his Berliner record (785 G), and says the "romanza" is – "Mi par d'udir
ancora"! So did Mario Valle attempt at being a tenor at the tender age of 18? After quite many years of looking for a transcription
of Valle's Rishell disc, Historical Tenors is actually finally able to present those two recordings, and they make it even more
probable that young Valle really made that tenor disc for Berliner - although his top is not too easy, his voice is very light, and
his timbre bright and clear, so as a beginner, he may very well have figured to become a tenor instead of a baritone.
| Mario Valle sings Il barbiere di Siviglia: Largo al factotum |
| Rishell was not exactly the technically most advanced label in the history of sound recording... |
As for Berliner no. 52511, it would still be most desirable to be able to hear that recording so as to finally decide whether
it's really Mario Valle. An Italian collector is willing to pay a princely price for that record; if you have it, and are willing to
sell, please contact Historical Tenors, and you'll be duly connected with
your prospective buyer.
Reference: Orlando Álvarez, Ópera en Chile, 2014
Many thanks to David Hoehl for the super-rare recordings and label scans.
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