r/OldOpera

Does anyone know if there were any arias or sections recorded from Ivanhoe, by Arthur Sullivan, prior to 1964? I say that because the original score was lost in a fire then. It would be interesting to hear at least some parts of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanhoe_(opera)

Mario Basiola in the radio broadcast of Edipo Re of Leoncavallo. I have made this reel for Instagram after I acquired the score of the opera. The broadcast is a RAI tape from 1939 which is a real rarity. Most RAI broadcasts before 1950 have not survived, so the fact this one does is outstanding.

Some have suggested the singer is not Basiola at all but I have done a lot of research into it and fact checked it with multiple archives and other broadcasts of the opera 1955 onwards, and it does not match any of them. And the other singers in the broadcasts are definitely the singers listed in the RAI listing (Rina Corsi, Ettore Parmeggiani and Luciano Neroni).

Alas, this is a thrilling final scene of this short opera. A deeply dramatic piece which requires a real singing actor. Basiola succeeds at that exactly.

Since I began listening to Giovanni Inghilleri I have been captivated by his sound, and in the process have discovered that not only was he the first to record excerpts from Il Tabarro but was also present as Amonasro (possibly Verdi's most dramatic baritone role) on the first electric recording of Aida in 1928 (coincidentally the same year as his Tabarro recordings).

The cast is as follows-

Conductor- Carlo Sabajno
Orchestra & chorus- Teatro alla Scala
Aida- Dusolina Giannini
Radames- Aureliano Pertile
Amneris- Irene Minghini-Cattaneo
Amonasro- Giovanni Inghilleri
Ramfis- Luigi Manfrini
Il Re di Egitto- Guglielmo Masini
Un Messaggero- Giuseppe Nessi

Here is the full opera-

https://youtu.be/azgsUDQ60_s?si=xVH8kqO-zEuD6IJ8

And here is the incredible "Ciel! Mio Padre!" duet from Act III (Amonasro's big moment!)-

https://youtu.be/k2T31cTDQYQ?si=FKcx_JnU8dUDXiDB

For those interested, below is a contemporary review of the recording by Herman Klein (a leading English singing teacher who advocated for Manuel Garcia Jr's teachings and journalist)-

"This present month of May sees both the leading companies ready with remarkably fine examples in electric recording of as difficult an opera as there is in the modern Italian repertory. Puccini with his Turandot may impose a heavier strain on the Voice, but he demands neither the finesse of technique nor the pure line of cantilena that Verdi does in Aida. In the whole part of the imperious Chinese Princes,there is not a page calling for real bel canto in the same degree as do passages like I sacri nomi, O patria mia, and Si schiude il ciel respectively in the first, third, and fourth acts of this exacting work.

Dusolina Giannini, who fills the title-role in the H.M.V, Cast, has all the requisite delicacy and finish for the task, while her tone has the right ring of pathos and sweetness in addition to a power that is never forced. And these, after all, are the good qualities that were perceived in her Aida when she sang the part at Covent Garden, just as robust strength and easy control of a splendid organ distinguished Pertile’s Radamés on the same occasion—his début here. But I had better give the whole cast, viz.: The King, Masini; Radamés, Pertile; Amonasro, Inghilleri; Ramphis, Manfrini; Messenger, Nessi; Ammneris, Cattaneo; Aida, D. Giannini; conductor, Carlo Sabajno; with the chorus and orchestra of La Scala. The opera is contained in 19 double-sided 12-in. records, D 1595-1613.

It would serve no useful purpose to enter into minute or detailed comparisons between the H.M.V. performance and that of Columbia, which I shall deal with directly. Truth to tell, both are so far superior to anything gramophone recording could have furnished even a year ago that I find myself less inclined to criticise than to express my gratitude that such things can be. The listener, indeed, has less and less difficulty in imagining himself sitting at the back of a box at the Opera with eyes closed and enjoying every instant of a faultless musical representation. Finer voices, better singing, a more perfect ensemble and balance, added to a mechanical reproduction attaining the maximum of excellence, it would be unreasonable and absurd to expect. I will not choose between artists in this H.M.V. collection beyond saying that I think Dusolina Giannini, Pertile ond Inghilleri "head and shoulders" ​above their companions, even as I consider the third act distinctly the most completely satisfying of the four. This is not to say a word in disparagement of the other three; only that in the Nile scene, which many deem the finest in the opera—the most original, the richest in melody, tragic beauty, and intensity of poignant feeling—we do indeed get the greatest moments, the highest level of vocal achievement. Alike in the O cieli azzurri and the sublime passages of the duet with Amonasro, Dusolina Giannini stands out as a soprano of exceptional merit endowed with a voice of haunting charm. The orchestral playing, no less than the work of the chorus, is consistently good."

I am sharing this with you because not only did it begin here, but it may prove useful to some of you, both for individual arias and full operas that you may wish to make clearer or add some bass or trebel to. Some time ago, I began this enormous thread about frequency restoration in acoustic recordings. (link for background/can be skipped)

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldOpera/comments/1oqgz2k/frequency_restoration_in_acoustic_recordings/

To make a very long story short, there is software that can do this, but ninety-nine percent of it is inaccessible with NVDA (my screen reader). The one program that is, Audacity, is far too complicated for me to understand. I found some sites with sliders, but even they didnt read out what they were, leaving me confused and annoyed. So after months of getting nowhere, I decided to write my own program. This is actually becoming quite popular in the blind community, so I thought why not try it? I named it Otello, both to honour Francesco Tamagno, the quality of whose recordings started me on this journey, and because I felt like some kind of a warrior while doing this. Below are some essential facts from the help file.

"***Important Notes

1. This program was made with Windows Forms and was written in C#. It was created with Perplexity. I myself am not a programmer and know nothing about code. However, I tested each and every feature before releasing this to you. So I know that it works and that it is safe.

2. This is a portable program. It will not be installed on your machine. Simply run Otello.exe and it will start. If you delete the folder, it's gone. However, it does require Microsoft .Net Framework 4.8, which can be downloaded from their site.

3. While this program was created with artificial intelligence, it is not used in the processing of the files. Otello is simply an equaliser. At best, it can help reveal features that exist in recordings which may be difficult to hear due to the original recording technology. It does not technically add anything to them. Therefore, it may work better on some types of recordings than others i.e. electric versus acoustic.***

===

System Requirements

This program works on Windows 7 and later, on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. However, it was specifically made for Windows 7.

===

General Purpose

Otello is a simple, screen reader-accessible audio equaliser. It is designed so that anyone, including those with no knowledge of technical terms and frequency numbers (I'm among them), can use it to change the sound of recordings. If you've used the sliders on a stereo or the knobs on a mixer, this should be easy. If you're used to controling the sound on an original acoustic machine, you're a genius and this should be very easy!"

Downloads (if the link doesn't work, I will re-upload it)

Otello Light (program only)

https://wormhole.app/kAjKrW#svJ-YnuqYF4B0NFg9OabYg

Otello Full (program and source code)

https://wormhole.app/AyDX4b#2ce1rUnF8I15zUkoC5RxUA

Giovanni Inghillieri, a baritone trained by E. Herbert Caesari whose career straddled both sides of world war two, is one of my current favourite baritones and an excellent 'dramatic' baritone with an incredible range of repertoire, and I recently discovered he was the first baritone to record anything from Puccini's "Il Tabarro", another favourite of mine.

In these recordings from 1928 Inghilleri is sublime. Michele is a complex but ultimately sympathetic character, and in these extracts Inghilleri channels both the character's despair and sadness at losing his wife's love and his rage and fury at her infidelity. He is the first baritone I have heard who REALLY brings the emotion into the Michele-Giorgetta duet- usually the emotional weight of the scene is carried by Puccini's music alone, but here Inghilleri brings such raw emotion as to be overwhelming. Also, note Inghilleri's roaring open E-flats in the duets and total ease in the upper register.

Duet- "Perche non m'ami piu"

https://youtu.be/TzHNVRc-GZw?si=oezgTBJ9-l60EwlB

Aria- "Nulla! Silenzio"

https://youtu.be/7juOjtgrM6g?si=yWHaKRWX5o1dFZQY