The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Some among us will enjoy these gems

FRANCES ALDA
Otello - Ave Maria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq-ZeTjRLKs

ANNA CASE
La Fiesta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hpWHiYUMOU

MISCHA ELMAN
Humoresque (Dvorak)
Gavotte (Gossec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNfkX9Qmp4

GIUSEPPE DE LUCA
Fragment from "Largo al factotum"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp8YwsegyVM

BENIAMINO GIGLI
6/29/1927
Bergere legere
Mirame asi
Come Love with Me
O sole mio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3UuEGhe5uY

BENIAMINO GIGLI
6/29/1927
Selections from La Gioconda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6H53PMcWvw

BENIAMINO GIGLI/MARION TALLEY/GIUSEPPE DE LUCA
Fragment from Rigoletto Act III
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo_qluD_E7E

BENIAMINO GIGLI & GIUSEPPE DE LUCA
3/15/1928
Duet from "Pearl Fishers"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VUNOpp97fw

CHARLES HACKETT
Act I Selections from Faust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6OlJ5ddY4E

CHARLES HACKETT
Two songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAmZ8zTwJ8g

GIOVANNI MARTINELLI
Celeste Aida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-JpBEc89bI

GIOVANNI MARTINELLI
Vesti la giubba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0jPa7qAYfU

GIOVANNI MARTINELLI
Selections from Martha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfYVyxQpwEI

GIOVANNI MARTINELLI
6/29/1927
Selection from La Juive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTDXSWTpiJ0

GIOVANNI MARTINELLI & LOUIS D'ANGELO
Duet from La Juive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jprOzXqqrtA

GIOVANNI MARTINELLI & EUGENIE BRONSKAJA
Temple Scene from Aida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZwVL9T24-4

JOHN MCCORMACK
(from 1934 Color Film)
Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms
Killarney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8wrl5etP-g

ROSA PONSELLE
Habanera from Carmen (Screen test)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyz75uHNHeI

ROSA RAISA
5/19/1929
Plasir d'amour
La Paloma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBjzeY20OJg

ROSA RAISA & GIACOMO RIMINI
Selections from Il Trovatore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucOFu72c1-U

ERNESTINE SCHUMANN-HEINK
8/15/1927
Erlkonig
Trees
Pirate Dreams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMyHjy8bbp4

JOHN CHARLES THOMAs
Danny Deaver
In the Gloaming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJK2Q0zphmk

Its so annoying that my work blocks you tube.....so I will just have to wait until I get home to listen to some of these. I'm looking forward to looking at the Gigli ones in particular.

RJ

That's a real wealth of historical footage collected there, and the first time I've actually been able to SEE anything of Alda, Raisa, Hackett or Case, fascinating.

Thanks for calling attention to these.

These are pretty neat: appalling quality but neat all the same. I am amused that Desdemona has morphed into a nun in the Otello clip. I guess they felt it was more in keeping with the religious sentiment to have the singer go in to supper rather than getting strangled by her husband.
Who plays Maddallena in the Rigoletto clip? And I have to say that these vitaphone clips really do shed a new light on the performers. De Luca ,,,who is wonderful on record...is even better on the screen. And Gigli controls his signature vocal " sob" much more here than he does on his records. (Or as how would sing it his Reck-aHords ) The McCormack is from Wings of the Morning with Henry Fonda which dated later than 1934. I think 1937. There is something odd about the pitch of that exerpt too.
But the Anna Case is wonderful as usual. I'm a big fan of hers. And of the ones I've watched the De Luca Largo al Factotum is utterly superb. Such ease! Such charm! Amazing.