Voice that set opera on fire
QUESTION Is it true that a Wagnerian soprano once sang so loudly that the fire brigade was called?
This apocryphal tale is associated with the powerfully voiced Austrian soprano Gertrude Grob-Prandl.
she was born in Vienna on November 11, 1917, within six months of two other great sopranos, Astrid Varnay and Birgit Nilsson. however, she outshone her contemporaries with the range of her voice, which critics described as enormous, prodigious and heroic.
she made her name taking on opera’s big roles and her mastery of Puccini’s Turandot endeared her to italian audiences, who adored her big sound and fiery top notes.
On seeing her Turandot, the soprano irmgard seefried famously claimed ‘the walls shook’. This led to various legends, including the one about the fire brigade.
sadly, a 1951 recording of Grob-Prandl performing at La scala suffers from its terrible recording. One reviewer said it ‘appears to have been recorded through a heavy sock’.
however, the same reviewer said GrobPrandl’s voice was ‘enormous, but clear, brightly focused, and free of the horrid wobble that affects the singing of many of her rivals and successors’.
Charles Briggs, Peacehaven, E. Sussex.
QUESTION Is the whistling on the TSB TV advert natural or electronically generated?
The whistling is entirely natural and is performed by David Morris, World Champion Whistler 2003.
i met David several years ago when he was a guest conductor for a brass band i had booked to entertain Chorltoncum-hardy Golf Club members at a Christmas function. During the intermission, David gave an impromptu concert of his own with an incredible display of whistling, including Flight Of The Bumblebee. he has made several CDs.
Dave Boyle, Stockport. The TsB advert music was created by composer Anne Dudley and is performed by the world’s top whistler, David Morris, with sound design by Factory. it’s called henry’s Theme.
Abigail Whittaker, senior media relations manager TSB, London EC1.
QUESTION If the jet engine was invented and developed in Britain, how did Germany manage to get the Me 262 jet fighter up and running first?
iT DiDN’T: the British Gloster Meteor entered service in July 1944, in time to help shoot down the V1 ‘doodlebugs’, which piston engine fighters had difficulty catching. The Me 262 did not enter service until later in 1944.
however, the Meteor could have been ready years sooner. The delay was caused by the way the two inventors of the jet engine were treated.
in October 1929, RAF Pilot Officer Frank Whittle wrote a report on his proposal for a jet engine. his commanding officer was impressed and Whittle was told to report to the Directorate of engine Development in London.
Then it all started to go wrong. in 1919, a report had been written by a Dr stern that concluded jet engines for aircraft were impractical. No one questioned the extremely conservative assumptions he made and his report became accepted fact.
Whittle’s ideas were further dismissed by A. A. Griffith, who was working on his own design and criticised Whittle’s for being simple and impractical.
Whittle rechecked his calculations and, encouraged by a friend, applied for a patent on January 16, 1930. Patents deemed to be of national importance for the defence of the country are kept secret, but it was not considered so by the authorities, and was published in full in Britain, Germany, France and sweden.
Whittle tried to interest companies in developing his jet engine, but no one was interested. When his patent came up for renewal in 1935, Whittle could not afford the £5 renewal fee, so it lapsed. A short while later, he managed to get £2,000 from a firm of investment bankers to start a company called Power Jets. in 1936, the firm provided another £525.
Bizarrely, a little old lady who ran a corner shop near Whittle’s parents’ home provided another £200.
With these tiny sums, Whittle built his inaugural working jet engine, which was run for the first time in April 1937. Progress continued on a shoestring hampered by officials and manufacturers.
in contrast, Germany’s hans von Ohain patented his idea for a jet engine in November 1935. he was put in contact with aircraft manufacturer heinkel, which was searching for new methods of propelling aircraft at high speeds, and within six months, 17 engineers were working on the project. The first engine ran in september 1937.
heinkel did not tell the German Air Ministry about this project until November 1939, but the authorities were not interested. Britain did not have a monopoly on short-sighted officials.
The first flight of a jet-propelled aircraft, the heinkel he 178, took place on August 27, 1939. The first flight of a British jet aircraft, the Gloster e.28/39, did not take place until May 15, 1941.
Fortunately for the Allies, the first operational German jet, the twin-engined Me 262, was delayed by a shortage of materials and hitler’s insistence it should be used as a bomber, a role for which it was totally unsuited. Consequently, it did not enter service until mid-to-late 1944.
More than 1,400 had been produced by the end of the war, but only 300 saw service. Many were destroyed on the ground and there was a shortage of fuel, spare parts and pilots. The Meteor and Me 262 never met in combat.
Denis Sharp, Hailsham, E. Sussex.
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