Re: Cantor G. Sirota, the Tenor.

[Eric Goldberg <ericgoldie...>]

This was gotten from the 78 list, as were
the comments in the other posting.
Eric

>To: ericgoldie (at) mhv(dot)net
>Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 09:29:21 -0500
>Subject: Re: Cantor G. Sirota, the Tenor.
>X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 8-9,12-16,42-43,51-55
>From: hbyrnes (at) juno(dot)com (Harold G Byrnes)
>
>Eric: I am sending this to you rather than to the 78 list because of its
>length. Yes, indeed, Sirota was the Cantor of the Grand Synagogue in
>Warsaw at the time most of his recordings were made. He recorded for a
>number of labels, including G&T, and the Victor recording mentioned was
>pressed on Victor from a G&T master. I don't know if you, or the person
>who requested the information is interested, but I am sending along a bio
>of Sirota I have prepared for my next CD-Rom issue called Wandering
>Stars. It will contain about 600 complete selections by singers of Jewish
>Heritage, including many famous cantors.
>
>Since the CD-Rom will have only limited distribution, I wonder if the
>list with the Jewish "slant"would be interested in hearing about it. If
>so, please have any interested parties contact me at: hbyrnes (at) juno(dot)com
>
>
>Sirota bio follows:
>
>Gerson Sirota was born in 1874 in Odessa and first sang in synagogues
>there. However, in 1900 he was named Chief Cantor of Vilna, a position
>later to be held by a number of other famous cantors, including Mordechai
>Hershman. It was here that Sirota reached great prominence, performing
>frequently before the Russian nobility. In 1908, Sirota was called as
>Chief Cantor of the Great Synagogue in Warsaw. With a widespread
>reputation on an international scale, primarily because of the wide
>distribution of his recordings which he had begun in 1903, he began a
>series of concert tours to America. He first arrived there in 1912 and
>toured cross country, appearing in most of the major synagogues as well
>as concert halls. Sirota's international concert tours continued on an
>undiminished scale during the inter war period. He returned to the United
>States again in 1922 and on a number of other occasions, culminating in a
>1938 tour. So frequent were Sirota's excursions abroad that the synagogue
>officials in Warsaw decided to replace him. When he returned after
>officiating in New York on the High Holidays of 1927, he found that a
>successor had been found for his position, the young Moshe Kusevitsky.
>Sirota had no trouble finding another position in Warsaw, and in 1934 he
>was honored by Warsaw Jewry for his thirty years of service to the
>community at a special concert held at Warsaw's Hippodrome Theater.
>Tragically, Sirota was not spared the fate dealt to the Jews with the
>advent of Nazism. Returning to Warsaw after a trip abroad in 1938, he was
>trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto. His four sons and four daughters and their
>families are believed to have died during the shelling of the city.
>Sirota is believed to have perished on the concluding day of Passover,
>1943.
>
>There is little question that Sirota possessed one of the greatest voices
>of his time. A true dramatic tenor, with both great range and
>flexibility, as well as a beautiful quality, Sirota may well have become
>an outstanding operatic singer, but for religious reasons he chose to
>remain a cantor. Early in his recording career, he made several operatic
>recordings under the name Sirotini so as not to divulge his true
>identity, but later excursions into opera were all sung under his real
>name.
>
>
>Harold Byrnes (hbyrnes (at) juno(dot)com) No Attachments
>                           (hbyrnes (at) mindspring(dot)com) For Attachments
>