Rebecca's recordings:
It was the beauty of the music that first attracted me to this repertory, but when I began looking into the women who made it famous, I became increasingly fascinated by their personalities, and the lives they led. They were among the most glamorous stars of their days, on a par with today’s movie and television celebrities.
I do not seek to impersonate them but to interpret them. Their vocal qualities are quite different, from Gertie Millar’s soubrette charm in Moonstruck to Jose Collins’s richer operatic quality in Love Will Find a Way, Gertie Lawrence’s matchless style and Jessie Matthews energy and vivacity. Mary Ellis was a "cross-over" in the truest sense of the word, having started her career at The Metropolitan Opera, singing with Caruso and Chaliapin before she became a serious actress. Evelyn Laye starred in Bitter Sweet on Broadway. Lizbeth Webb could sound like a lyric soprano one minute and a 1950’s pop singer the next. Julie Andrews needs no introduction, being the most internationally famous of all these leading ladies, having become, like Jessie Matthews before her, a great movie star and one of the last true soprano voices in musicals.
I would like to thank Gerald Martin Moore for being the guiding force behind this recording. Without his his knowledge, inspiration and encouragement, this album would have never happened.
I would also like to thank him for his vocal versatility which has given us Noel Coward, American juv lead, George Metaxa, George Guetary, Vaudeville Boy, Hooray Henry voice, four cockney costermongers and my particular favourite, Olive Gilbert.
Rebecca Caine
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