RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Edison

Discussions on Records, Recording, & Artists
User avatar
Valecnik
Victor VI
Posts: 3828
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:28 pm
Personal Text: Edison Records - Close your eyes and see if the artist does not actually seem to be before you.
Location: Česká Republika
Contact:

RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Edison

Post by Valecnik »

For those of you with a taste for opera. :D

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3em_wogRaE[/youtubehd]

melvind
Victor IV
Posts: 1313
Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2009 12:23 am

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by melvind »

Thanks. Great videos done with an obviously good quality camera.

I have this record. It has an unusually long introduction that isn't normally part of this piece. They must have wanted to make the rather short piece a bit longer for the Diamond Disc.

User avatar
Valecnik
Victor VI
Posts: 3828
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:28 pm
Personal Text: Edison Records - Close your eyes and see if the artist does not actually seem to be before you.
Location: Česká Republika
Contact:

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by Valecnik »

melvind wrote:Thanks. Great videos done with an obviously good quality camera.

I have this record. It has an unusually long introduction that isn't normally part of this piece. They must have wanted to make the rather short piece a bit longer for the Diamond Disc.

Thanks Dan, I think you are right. Even then they only used about 3 minutes of the potential 4:45 or so available on a side.

User avatar
marcapra
Victor V
Posts: 2180
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:29 am
Personal Text: Man who ride on tiger find it very difficult to dismount! Charlie Chan
Location: Temecula, CA

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by marcapra »

Bruce, That's a beautiful A-250 in a beautiful home too and a great record! Thanks!

Viva-voce
Victor III
Posts: 758
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:49 am
Location: British Columbia, Canada

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by Viva-voce »

Valecnik wrote:
melvind wrote:Thanks. Great videos done with an obviously good quality camera.

I have this record. It has an unusually long introduction that isn't normally part of this piece. They must have wanted to make the rather short piece a bit longer for the Diamond Disc.

Thanks Dan, I think you are right. Even then they only used about 3 minutes of the potential 4:45 or so available on a side.
There was enough room to include "questa o quella" on the same side lol

Steven

Victrolacollector
Victor V
Posts: 2693
Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:23 pm
Location: NW Indiana VV-IV;

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by Victrolacollector »

Thanks for sharing such a beautiful opera selection. We often hear it performed by Caruso, However Edison had some great artists that recorded opera, Bonci being one of them.

User avatar
gramophone-georg
Victor VI
Posts: 3984
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 11:55 pm
Personal Text: Northwest Of Normal
Location: Eugene/ Springfield Oregon USA

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by gramophone-georg »

Bonci did it for Columbia, too, likely some years earlier:
Attachments
Bonci Rigoletto.jpg
"He who dies with the most shellac wins"- some nutty record geek

I got PTSD from Peter F's avatar

Viva-voce
Victor III
Posts: 758
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:49 am
Location: British Columbia, Canada

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by Viva-voce »

And even earlier, in 1905, he recorded it for Fonotipia.

User avatar
gramophone-georg
Victor VI
Posts: 3984
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 11:55 pm
Personal Text: Northwest Of Normal
Location: Eugene/ Springfield Oregon USA

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by gramophone-georg »

Viva-voce wrote:And even earlier, in 1905, he recorded it for Fonotipia.
Same matrix as Columbia, or different?
"He who dies with the most shellac wins"- some nutty record geek

I got PTSD from Peter F's avatar

Viva-voce
Victor III
Posts: 758
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:49 am
Location: British Columbia, Canada

Re: RIGOLETTO, La Donna è Mobile, Alessandro Bonci on Ediso

Post by Viva-voce »

gramophone-georg wrote:
Viva-voce wrote:And even earlier, in 1905, he recorded it for Fonotipia.
Same matrix as Columbia, or different?
Different matrix--the Columbia above is pressed from a 10-inch matrix recorded in New York in January 1913, although the photo is of a Latin-American pressing. The Fonotipias are 10 ¾ inches in diameter, recorded in Milan. Actually, there are two Fono versions that I am aware of. The first was recorded in 1905 with piano accompaniment and released under catalogue number 39081. The second version is from 1908 with orchestra, catalogue number 92220.

Comparisons between the two Fono versions are interesting. In the 1905 version, Bonci ends the aria as written--no cadenza, no concluding high note, but still a lovely lyrical performance with impressive control of "diminuendi." In the 1908 recording, he adds a cadenza and high note, neither of which really come off very well, and the unfortunate band accompaniment doesn't help matters any lol.

Obviously he must have been influenced by Caruso's recordings of the aria. Caruso, in his first version from 1903 on Zonophone, also ends the aria minus cadenza and high note, but in the 1904 and 1908 versions, the aria ends as we know with his famous cadenza. And in my opinion, NO ONE I have ever heard has equalled Caruso's fluency, élan, strength, flexibility, and accuracy in singing that marvelous cadenza. He tosses it off with ridiculous ease!

Steven
Last edited by Viva-voce on Mon May 07, 2018 4:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post Reply