The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Wolfe wrote:It's true Victor didn't issue a lot of extended orchestral, but they issued some. Some of which I own.
And some of the opera, like the 30 minutes or so of Gounod's Faust with Caruso et. al.

I think the market for extended operatic sets was bigger in Europe, where Victor had affiliates. In the 'teens they offered a complete recording of Cavaleria Rusticana, but from a European source.

Victor never recorded a complete opera back in the pre-1925 acoustic days, and I don't think U.S. Columbia did, either. Seems that the ones from that time period that do come down to us were all recorded in Europe.

Doing a complete opera resulted in a big pile of records, even if you did only the arias and used cuts. I think the earliest I've heard of is a company in England doing a "complete" La Boheme on 2 minute wax cylinders.

estott wrote:Doing a complete opera resulted in a big pile of records, even if you did only the arias and used cuts. I think the earliest I've heard of is a company in England doing a "complete" La Boheme on 2 minute wax cylinders.

You bet.

There was one thing issued much later in the electrical era (a Wagner opera, maybe from the Ring) that was put out on something like 85 sides.

Wolfe wrote:There was one thing issued much later in the electrical era (a Wagner opera, maybe from the Ring) that was put out on something like 85 sides.

This might have been the "Tristan" recording I once passed on (free, no less) because there were about 10 big fat albums full of 12" 78s for this five-hour extravaganza. I knew that I would never have the patience to get up every 4-5 minutes and change records that many times, even if I wanted to hear "Tristan" all the way through, which I didn't (and don't).

Molded decoration of the blank side goes back a very long way. Here is the reverse of an early G&T 7 inch.

Clay