The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here, to while away the socially distanced time, is a recording from two years or less after the opera's premiere. My apologies that at this late hour I can't seem to get the YouTube video to embed; hence, a link.

https://youtu.be/_wm5rjQ7j0Q

That was very nice.

Thanks,
James.

Information on Enrico de Primo is hard to find. He is not even mentioned in "A concise biographical dictionary of singers" by Kutsch & Riemens.
This record is probably one of the few which he made for Pathé in Milan before emigrating to the USA in 1915.

epigramophone wrote:Information on Enrico de Primo is hard to find. He is not even mentioned in "A concise biographical dictionary of singers" by Kutsch & Riemens.
This record is probably one of the few which he made for Pathé in Milan before emigrating to the USA in 1915.

It may seem odd that Pathé would have retained such a vanishingly obscure tenor for what would have been a significant assignment, the opera being Puccini's latest, albeit somewhat controversial, creation at the time, but I may have found the reason. "Enrico de Primo" apparently was a nom de disque for Serge De Zamco (or Zanco), and an undated article reprint online connects him to an impending gala opera series in Rome in which Toscanini was reported to be conducting the opera's Italian premiere. He wasn't the tenor on that occasion (Amedeo Bassi took that honor, and a very young Giovanni Martinelli substituted for him partway through the production), but, I'll speculate, perhaps "de Primo" was somehow involved, perhaps as an understudy or in a secondary role, and was available to record for cheap--or was the best Pathé could find not under exclusive contract to some other company? Or perhaps the tenor learned the aria there and made his record as a calling card in hopes of scaring up engagements in what was likely to be a hot new property? According to Wikipedia, the event took place in Rome on June 12, 1911, not too long before the 1912 date of de Primo's series of Pathé recordings in Milan.

A squib in a 1922 "Music News" periodical describes De Zanco as "well known in Chicago" and planning a Midwest tour. He must have been associated, then, with the Chicago Opera after his move to the United States. Google searching reveals his name crops up in snatches in other like publications of the period, but he doesn't seem to have made much of an impression. That said, if his Fanciulla recording is an example, he seems to have been blessed with a splendid set of pipes!

Too bad Caruso didn't record this aria from the opera role he originated. But, this is a fun record done very close to the original performances at the Met in New York. Thanks for posting.

Serge de Zamco/Zanco does not get an entry in Kutsch & Riemens dictionary either, so as drh suggests, he cannot have made much of an impression.