The De Reszke Record

[Wolfe]

You mean the "Forging Scene" fragment which appeared on IRCC L-7066? That was WRONGLY attributed to Jean de Reszke - it is now believed that the tenor voice on that recording actually belonged to Andres Dippel,

I guess so.

I knew there had been some Mapelson cylinders wrongly attributed as De Rezke. Didn't know it was those specifically.

This record also has some L'Africaine fragments in very poor sound, that are supposed to be De Rezke and (Lucienne?) Breval.

[transformingArt]

This record also has some L'Africaine fragments in very poor sound, that are supposed to be De Rezke and (Lucienne?) Breval.

That L'Africaine duet fragments would be the most distressing sounding example of Mapleson Cylinders. Not only they have so much distressing clicks and rumbles and every other sound defects you can ever think of, the voices itself were recorded very, very faintly. Lionel Mapleson himself was obviously disappointed with the result, as he wrote on the paper "snakes" inside the cylinders; "The voices were recorded fainter than a baby's breath." Obviously, this was the time when he only used the "normal size" horn for the recording, and the recording was done rather far from the stage. One thing interesting to remark is that Mapleson used not an Edison recorder, but a BETTINI recorder for making his cylinders, according to his diary entries. I wonder if Bettini recorders had little bit of difficulties of capturing higher frequencies (treble) - as all of the Bettini cylinders I've heard and those Mapleson cylinders had some problems with higher frequencies.

[Wolfe]

I've heard he started making cylinders from the prompter's box in front of the stage, then problems arose from that arrangement and he moved to the catwalk above the stage. Could help explain why some of the cylinders are relatively clear, and others so faint.

He's also supposed to have treated his cylinders callously in later years, wearing them out playing them for friends and such.

[Guest]

[quote="Wolfe"]I've heard he started making cylinders from the prompter's box in front of the stage, then problems arose from that arrangement and he moved to the catwalk above the stage. Could help explain why some of the cylinders are relatively clear, and others so faint.

He's also supposed to have treated his cylinders callously in later years, wearing them out playing them for friends and such.[/quote]

This is backwards. He started out up high but had to relocate to the prompter's box later after a dropped piece of gear came close to hitting someone on stage. If you listen to the whole series you will see that he got better at it as he got more experienced. Too bad he couldn't keep recording up to the WWI era.

Jeff

[Lenoirstreetguy]

In the midst of all this talk of the de Reszke recordings, damned if last night I didn't run across a rather interesting discussion of the records in the September 1936 issue of The Gramophone . P. G, Hurst ran the Collector's Corner section of the magazine. He had numerous correspondents and a letter from a certain C.H. a "lady collector" in Toronto ( And where are her records today? ) weighed in on the de Reszke question. Here's the quote:

C.H. mentions a fascinating but incredible theory regarding the records of about 1905 and 1906 by the mysterious " Romeo Berti" whose identity we have from time to time sought to discover: this theory is nothing less than that the pseudonym is that of Jean [de Reszke] himself! I have never heard one of those records althoughI think I have been assured of the excellence of the singing: but the insuperable case against such a solution is the fact that " Romeo Berti" recorded only for the the minor companies and sold at the lowest prices. C.H. candidly adds that people who have heard both Jean and the record say there without hesitation there is no sort of resemblance.

Not to mention the fact that Berti actually existed. There is picture of him the first ad for the Edison Grand Opera cylinders.
Jim

[estott]

Here is Berti on an Edison cylinder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlaGpHmYI6w

And De Reszke (faintly) on Mapleson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXT8x787 ... re=related
(I love the thunder of ancient applause at the end of the aria)

[hillndalefan]

Concerning the transfers on the Columbia LP set of the Grand Opera series, that was the project done by the late George Blacker, in which he discovered that the recording stylus was damaged, making a wide, shallow groove on all those discs, leading him to make the first truncated stylus to track them. He was quite concerned about the correct speeds as well, and really attempted to transfer them accurately.
When I had a transfer job to do on some RCA home recordings some 30 years ago, it was he who told me that they would play back well with a Pathé stylus. They did. Those RCA discs were pre-grooved, and the cutting stylus only modulated the upper edge of the grooves in that system.

[estott]

When I had a transfer job to do on some RCA home recordings some 30 years ago, it was he who told me that they would play back well with a Pathé stylus. They did. Those RCA discs were pre-grooved, and the cutting stylus only modulated the upper edge of the grooves in that system.

I played one on a Credenza with a Pathé ball and got fair results- some guy in the early 30's, whistling rather badly.

[OrthoSean]

Concerning the transfers on the Columbia LP set of the Grand Opera series, that was the project done by the late George Blacker, in which he discovered that the recording stylus was damaged, making a wide, shallow groove on all those discs, leading him to make the first truncated stylus to track them. He was quite concerned about the correct speeds as well, and really attempted to transfer them accurately.

George was quite a character. This is the same guy that had an apartment crammed with nothing but records. According to a friend who visited George on a regular basis from 60s right up until his death, the floors were covered with broken 78s, COVERED! Can you imagine? I have some issues of Record Research, which was partly his brain child and the auction sections were so crammed full of things for sale you need a magnifying glass to read them.

No doubt that he tried his best to transfer those Grand Opera Columbias properly, either, but some are way off pitch nonetheless. I found myself speeding up and slowing the LPs down by as much as 3% either way to get things into the proper key. You're quite correct about the originals requiring a truncated stylus. The Schumann Heink I have up here plays at 80 RPM on the nose and requires at least a 3.8 mil TE stylus to play satisfactorily. I seem to recall the other one I have played the same way as well.

Sean

[Wolfe]

Blacker's use of filtering was admirable. So often, 78 to LP transfers of that era are buried in crude attempts at noise reduction and compression. Not his. With some speed adjustment, one has the basic materials with that set for a quite decent digital transfer, if one is inclined.