FOR SALE: Prewar Classical/ Opera Rarities/ Oddities No 1

[Viva-voce]

It’s a fine performance, and the sound surprisingly spacious for early acoustic.[/quote]

Yes it really is. What a huge undertaking this was in those early years!

[Wolfe]

Interesting selection. As you probably know items 5 and 6 derive from the complete recording of the opera made in Milan in June 1907 by the Gramophone & Typewriter Company.

This 1907 Pagliacci the first complete opera ever recorded isn't it ? On 11 sides. Or at least it's the the first by the Gramophone Co.

The Pagliacci is on 21 sides, a mixture of 10” and 12” discs, some issued with black labels, and the sides with
Paoli, the tenor, on the red labels of the international celebrity. I’ve so far managed to collect 14 sides, in a variety of issues - original G&T, continental two-sided G&T, later HMV, two-sided black label Victor. Most later pressings don’t acknowledge that they’re part of a set on the labels. Some of it was still in the catalogue in the 1920s.

It’s a fine performance, and the sound surprisingly spacious for early acoustic.

21 sides (typo on my part.) I have a CD of this Pagliacci that I haven't listened to in a very long time. I'm going to play it again shortly. Did Victor ever issue it complete in the U.S.A. ? Victor sort of flirted with the idea of issuing opera sets that were pressed from Gramophone Co. masters around this time, but they didn't do much in the end.

[Viva-voce]

According to Marston's liner notes, Victor omitted six sides from the set.

Steven

[Wolfe]

OK, thanks. I don't own a copy of the Marston CD.

[Viva-voce]

Pleasure.
One of the sides Victor did not use was Paoli's recording of Vesti la giubba. They figured people would prefer Caruso's version instead!