Information on Italian Fonotipia - Columbia Records?

[pg1876]

Recently found a number of these Societa Italiana di Fonotipia - Milano records that are also marked Columbia Phonograph Co.

I have been able to find general information on Fonotipia records, but none with this particular label.

If you have any knowledge of these, please let me know! Thanks

[epigramophone]

In an attempt to compete with Victor's Red Seal operatic records, Columbia acquired the rights to issue Fonotipia's operatic recordings in the USA.
The first records were released in 1908 and the last in 1910, after which Columbia recorded operatic repertoire themselves in the USA.

Some sources, including Roland Gelatt in "The Fabulous Phonograph", suggest that the commercial failure of the Columbia/Fonotipia records was due to the inability of the machines of the time to reproduce Fonotipia's characteristic vibrant and forward sound quality to it's full potential.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Some sources, including Roland Gelatt in "The Fabulous Phonograph", suggest that the commercial failure of the Columbia/Fonotipia records was due to the inability of the machines of the time to reproduce Fonotipia's characteristic vibrant and forward sound quality to it's full potential.

Interesting point, but how was it substantiated? I've never thought that the average European gramophone would sound much better than its corresponding American counterpart, and truly high-class gramophones like EMG/Experts were the exception rather than the rule: I doubt that the small number of EMG/Experts sold in Britain could account for the success of Fonotipia records elsewhere...

[epigramophone]

Roland Gelatt goes on to speculate that Americans in 1910 preferred Victor's smoother and more rounded tone to Fonotipia's vibrant immediacy of sound.
Our EMG and Expert external horn machines did not appear until almost 20 years later.

[CarlosV]

More likely than how it sounded, Fonotipia failure was more due to lack of artists known in the US. Victor was the first to utilize publicity to sell its artists as demigods, and most of them belonged to the cast of the US opera houses, especially the Met. Fonotipia recorded many many artists, but most were little known outside Italy, or even outside Milan.

As to sound, Fonotipia records are very uneven, some of them sound great, almost like electric recordings, but some others seem to have been recorded in a bear's cave, with the resident snoring in the back. Victor records have a less variable output sonicwise. As Marco says, the machines at the time could not make such differences discernible, but publicity could do a great job of convincing the buyers, as it does today.

[Wolfe]

More likely than how it sounded, Fonotipia failure was more due to lack of artists known in the US. Victor was the first to utilize publicity to sell its artists as demigods, and most of them belonged to the cast of the US opera houses, especially the Met. Fonotipia recorded many many artists, but most were little known outside Italy, or even outside Milan.

Good point. But some that were on the Fonotipia roster did go on to sign contracts with Columbia or Victor and even perform at the Met. Stracciari, Destinn, De Luca, Barrientos, Bonci...

[CarlosV]

Good point. But some that were on the Fonotipia roster did go on to sign contracts with Columbia or Victor and even perform at the Met. Stracciari, Destinn, De Luca, Barrientos, Bonci...

That's true, and that kind of reinforces the point that all of these became known in the US after they started recording for Victor, and in the case of Maria Barrientos, for Columbia, reaping the fruits of the publicity effectiveness of these labels. I am not aware of any artist that became famous by recording only on Fonotipia.

[Wolfe]

Stracciari and Bonci also recorded for Columbia. U.S. consumers seemed to have liked Stracciari because among those opera singers one encounters on banner label Columbias, I've come across his records very often - but I'm getting off topic.

[epigramophone]

This was not always a one way traffic. Before 1907, many G&T artists defected to Fonotipia, although some later returned to HMV/Victor.

Among the defectors mentioned in "The Golden Age Recorded" by P.G.Hurst are Arkel, Litvinne, Russ, Storchio, Vignas, Zenatello, de Luca, Maurel and Sammarco.