for Old Town Newhall Weekend Winter Wonderland Dec. 5-6 for SCVTV.com • Local Television for Santa Clarita
for Old Town Newhall Weekend Winter Wonderland Dec. 5-6 for SCVTV.com • Local Television for Santa Clarita
Los Angeles Aqueduct-Opening Ceremonies 11-5-1913
San Fernando Valley
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Photograph: Opening ceremonies for the Owens Valley-Los Angeles Aqueduct, November 5, 1913
"Ellen Beach Yaw singing at Aqueduct opening"
Crowd of Los Angelenos estimated at over 40000 watches as soprano concert singer Ellen Beach Yaw sings on flag draped podium in front of William Mulholland and other Los Angeles dignitaries as part of the opening ceremonies for the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Photo taken of podium at the base of the terminus of the Aqueduct in what would be present day Sylmar at the southern end of the Newhall Pass.Information on Ellen Beach Yaw from Boise State University website:
[Born Boston, New York 14 Sep 1869, died Covina, California 9 Sep 1947]
Ellen Beach Yaw was a concert singer of extraordinary range. After studying music in Boston, New York, and Paris, Miss Yaw made her concert debut in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1894. Tours of the southern United States, England, Switzerland, and Germany followed, and on her return to America she gave a concert in Carnegie Hall in 1896.
Known as "Lark Ellen," she could produce remarkably high notes, and was reportedly the only known soprano who could sing and sustain D above the high D. In 1899 she so impressed Sir Arthur Sullivan that he prevailed upon the D'Oyly Cartes to cast her as the Sultana Zubedyah in his comic opera The Rose of Persia, which opened November 29, 1899, at the Savoy Theatre. Sullivan went so far as to write a special cadenza for her song "'Neath My Lattice," a cadenza that only she could sing. Miss Yaw's first few nights were shaky, though the reviews were mixed, and Mrs. Carte began pushing for her replacement. Sullivan at first agreed, but by December 10 wrote in his diary that she was "improving rapidly" and "sang the song really superbly:brilliant." It was too late, however, and the next day he learned to his consternation that Miss Yaw had been dismissed by Mrs. Carte, and replaced by Isabel Jay.
Miss Yaw rarely appeared on the dramatic stage thereafter. Aside from a few grand opera appearances in Rome and Milan, and a single performance of Lucia di Lammermoor at New York's Metropolitan Opera (March 21, 1908), she devoted herself to the more congenial (and remunerative) concert hall. She was also much in demand as a recording artist, her first records being made in May 1899. In order to display her voice, she wrote several songs of her own with titles such as "The Skylark," "The Cuckoo," and "The Firefly."
Madame Yaw resided in West Covina, California, for the last thirty years of her life. She taught singing, gave concerts, and devoted herself to charitable pursuits. She established the "Lark Ellen League" to give concerts in hospitals, homes, and jails; and the "Lark Ellen School for Boys," later taken over by the Lions Club. Miss Yaw is memorialized in West Covina by Lark Ellen Elementary School and Lark Ellen Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in her hometown.
AL1955: 9600 dpi jpeg of 300 dpi jpg from original print
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