The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here are two Enrico Carusso recordings by the Opera Disc Company. Most all of these were destroyed after Victor won its lawsuit and all remaining Opera Discs had to be turned over to Victor for destruction.

Rich Gordon

rgordon939 wrote:Most all of these were destroyed after Victor won its lawsuit and all remaining Opera Discs had to be turned over to Victor for destruction.

Rich Gordon

They may have been destroyed after Victor won it's lawsuit against the ODC, but they certainly sold well before that. Opera Discs certainly aren't rare by any means.

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:...I'm lucky enough to have found quite a large stash of very early discs from one collection that the owner had bought from unsold dealer stock in the early 1930s when he was a teenage collector. He never played them and they are amazing to listen to. They won't be seeing an acoustic machine in my lifetime!

Sean

Are any of these Caruso G&Ts?

Nope. I think you've seen all the G&T Carusos I have, haven't you? I think I have three that would be in solid E condition with no greying and the others, well...not so great. Having them on CD restored by Ward is good enough for me. The dealer stock stuff is all Monarch / Deluxe Victors, I'm pretty sure you saw / heard a good number of those when you visited a couple of years ago, remember that mountain of 78s that came from Connecticut??

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:

rgordon939 wrote:Most all of these were destroyed after Victor won its lawsuit and all remaining Opera Discs had to be turned over to Victor for destruction.

Rich Gordon

They may have been destroyed after Victor won it's lawsuit against the ODC, but they certainly sold well before that. Opera Discs certainly aren't rare by any means.

Sean

I have a secret love for Opera Discs, I have a nice selection of 12 or so discs. The quality, in my opinion, is superior to Victor (and the label is pretty, too!). The Opera Discs are also a bit thicker than Victors. I guess when they didn't have to pay the recording artists, they could spring a few extra bucks on better shellac.

HisMastersVoice wrote:I have a secret love for Opera Discs, I have a nice selection of 12 or so discs. The quality, in my opinion, is superior to Victor (and the label is pretty, too!).

One might even find some 'rarer' items among those Opera Discs. I was happy to stumble on a copy of Caruso's 12 " 1904 G & T of his Pearl Fishers aria (on Opera Disc) one day because where I am I never see G & T 's just sitting in the old junk piles. That particular recording is a favorite of mine and one that was much superior to his Victor version.

According an article I read, at some point, Opera Disc actually published a catalog of records that numbered around 1000 titles.

Potentially off-topic, but here's a nice article on the Opera Disc Company by Allan Sutton: http://www.mainspringpress.com/caruso_opdisc.html

Wolfe wrote:One might even find some 'rarer' items among those Opera Discs. I was happy to stumble on a copy of Caruso's 12 " 1904 G & T of his Pearl Fishers aria (on Opera Disc) one day because where I am I never see G & T 's just sitting in the old junk piles. That particular recording is a favorite of mine and one that was much superior to his Victor version.

I agree it's far better than the Victor recording, he does a great falsetto high C at the end which is mind blowing! I wonder if the public didn't think so as well, from what I've seen (I guess in an area where these do turn up frequently), it seems to have sold very well. I have at least 5 copies of that one left and I've given several away to friends as "wow, you have to have a copy of this" gifts.

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:

Wolfe wrote:One might even find some 'rarer' items among those Opera Discs. I was happy to stumble on a copy of Caruso's 12 " 1904 G & T of his Pearl Fishers aria (on Opera Disc) one day because where I am I never see G & T 's just sitting in the old junk piles. That particular recording is a favorite of mine and one that was much superior to his Victor version.

I agree it's far better than the Victor recording, he does a great falsetto high C at the end which is mind blowing! I wonder if the public didn't think so as well, from what I've seen (I guess in an area where these do turn up frequently), it seems to have sold very well. I have at least 5 copies of that one left and I've given several away to friends as "wow, you have to have a copy of this" gifts.

Sean

According to William R. Moran's discography, that particular record was issued once on HMV, twice on Deutsche Grammophon / Opera Disc, once on IRCC (International Record Collectors Club) and even once on Victor, so it's not really that rare as far as other issues go.

But it appears to be the sole Caruso G & T that was issued on Opera Disc. The rest of his on that label would be Victor. And more Victors were issued as Deutsche Grammophon label.