The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

A dealer in the US recently offered a cylinder of Lassalle singing Scindia in Le Roi de Lahore by Massenet, the role he created in 1877. The dealer suggested that this is the earliest work of which a creator recording exists, and that may well be right. But what is the earliest work of which a creator disc exists?

My suggestion is Sullivan’s Martyr of Antioch first performed in 1880 from which Edward Lloyd recorded “Come Margarita” in 1907 on Gramophone & Typewriter Co. 3-2855

Any other nominations?

I cannot outbid this, but I wonder if the discography of Lucien Fugère (1848–1935) might include any contenders – though admittedly the operas which he is said in the Wikipedia article to have created are all considerably later. There are electrical recordings of his dating from 1928.

It is a pity that Charles Santley (1834–1922), who like Fugère was still singing and recording when he was about 80, did not draw on his opera and oratorio repertoire (apart from the one disc from Mozart's Figaro); for example, we might have heard something from Macfarren's Robin Hood (1860), or even the aria from Faust, 'Even bravest heart' ('Avant de quitter') which Gounod wrote especially for Santley in 1864.

Oliver Mundy.