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I recently acquired the record pictured below. The seller had dated it to 1907, but I have been unable to find any details about the singer. Any information would be gratefully received :

This is totally conjecture, and probably a real long shot, but I wonder if "Melle" is a corruption of "Mlle.", and "Broglia" an Italianization of "Brohly" for whatever reason, possibly contractual (?) -- leading me to guess that this might possibly be Suzanne Brohly (1882-1943)...is this the Meyerbeer recording, by any chance?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hobMFCTKIw

Here's her bio: https://forgottenoperasingers.blogspot. ... toire.html

Note that in the bio link, the first listing under "Records for Sale" includes "Ah, mon fils" recorded in August, 1908, and the fourth listing is a recording of the Verdi you have, dated July 2, 1909, which puts both recordings in roughly the proper time frame -- and the Verdi title is listed, oddly, in French rather than Italian, as on your disc. All of which proves nothing, except that both Brohly and "Broglia" recorded both selections around the same time -- and suggests at least that both singers might be the same person.

Many thanks for this. Your theory spurred me on to further research, and this is what I found :

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D9Q ... gs&f=false

Both Broglia's and Brohly's names appear in relation to "Le Prophete", and my Odeon recording is listed as Broglia's. Unfortunately only a few brief extracts from the book could be viewed on line, and they proved impossible to download and print. It is entirely possible that this was one singer recording as Broglia for Odeon and Brohly for HMV. Fascinating!

Here is the selection from the book...