ABSTRACT
Spanish soprano, born Lucrecia Borja y Gonzales de Riancho in Valencia. She made her debut as Micaela in Rome in 1908, then appeared in Paris, La Scala, and Buenos Aires. Her Metropolitan Opera debut was in Manon Lescaut; she remained with the company until 1935/1936, (missing the seasons 1916-1920), then retired. Her greatest successes came in the roles of Mimi and Manon Lescaut. She recorded “Mi chiamano Mimi” on Edison Blue Amberol, and made 10 Edison Diamond Discs between 1913 and 1923. There were many outstanding Victor records, including the Rigoletto quartet with John McCormack, Josephine Jacoby, and Reinald Werrenrath (#89080), which sold at the premium price of $4. There were 11 solos and two duets as well in the 1917 Victor catalog, and 15 items in the 1927 catalog. They included the notable “In quelle trine morbide” from Manon Lescaut (#40032) and a 1910 reissue of “Mi chiamano Mimi” (#40036). Bori died in New York. [Richards 1948; Richards 1973.]
Born in Edinburgh, Borwick obtained a B.S. degree in physics from Edinburgh University. He later served in the Royal Air Force as a signals officer, mostly in India and Sri Lanka, before joining the British Broadcasting Corporation as a program engineer in 1947. He balanced and supervised the recording and broadcasting of music programs of all types, and later taught at the BBC Engineering Training School, writing the BBC’s internal instruction manual Programme Operations Handbook. After leaving the BBC he became a frequent broadcaster on audio/recording and has written or edited a number of books including Microphones: Technology and Technique (1990), Sound Recording Practice (4th ed., 1994), and Loudspeaker and Headphone Handbook (3rded., 2001).
