3xRIGOLETTO Quartet LUCIA Sextet Caruso Sembrich GIGLI HOMER PINZA GALLI CURCI
$
45
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Description
A series of great OPERA Records from early G&Ts to World War II recordings on 78 rpm Victrola Records
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3xRIGOLETTO Quartet LUCIA Sextet Caruso Sembrich GIGLI HOMER PINZA GALLI CURCI
1908 Enrico CARUSO Marcella SEMBRICH Scotti Journet Daddi LUCIA SEXTET VIC 96200
Superb Victor Batwing 12" 78 rpm Victor Record Condition: EXCELLENT close to pristine, plays very quiet faint swish - A GREAT COPY
1908 1st REC ENRICO CARUSO Marcella SEMBRICH RIGOLETTO Quartet Scotti VIC 96001
Second recording of the Quartet superg 12" Victor Batwing Record 78 rpm THIS IS THE FAMOUS FIVE DOLLAR RECORD (original selling price) Condition: EXCELLENT close to pristine faint scuffs, tiny 1mm blister causes two ticks, plays very quiet lightest hiss A GREAT COPY
1927 RIGOLETTO Quartet LUCIA Sextet Beniamino GIGLI HOMER
Superb pre war Gold Circle VICTOR 12" 78 rpm record.
Condition: EXCELLENT close to pristine faintest scuffs, plays EXCEPTIONALLY quiet rare ticks
A SUPERB COPY
The recording that Caruso never made: first Orthophonic Electric Recoding of the Rigoletto Quartet/ Lucia Sextet, with the same singers that sang with Caruso: Young Beniamino Gigli sings Tenor, Ezio Pinza replaces Journet
Rigoletto Quartet is Take 3, some later issues also used Take 1
This is one of the very few electric recordings of either Louise Homer or Amelita Galli-Curci
Lucia : Sextette Chi mi frena (What restrains me? )
Gaetano Donizetti (composer)
Amelita Galli-Curci (vocalist : soprano vocal)
Louise Homer (vocalist : contralto)
Beniamino Gigli (vocalist : tenor vocal)
Ezio Pinza (vocalist : bass vocal)
Giuseppe De Luca (vocalist : baritone vocal)
Angelo Bada (vocalist : tenor vocal)
Giulio Setti (conductor)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (Musical group)
12/16/1927 New York, New York. Liederkranz Hall
Rigoletto : Quartet Bella figlia dell' amore (Alternate title) Disc label (RDI)
Giuseppe Verdi (composer)
Amelita Galli-Curci (vocalist : soprano vocal)
Beniamino Gigli (vocalist : tenor vocal)
Louise Homer (vocalist : contralto)
Giuseppe De Luca (vocalist : baritone vocal)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (Musical group)
Giulio Setti (conductor)
12/16/1927 New York, New York. Liederkranz Hall
Please see top of the page for condition
In its advertising the Victor Red Seal line had always featured combinations of the prominent singers of the day in various ensembles. The Lucia Sextet and the Rigoletto Quartet had sold well even at advanced prices and were obvious candidates for new electric versions. One of the convenient aspects of such a project was that the same four singers for the Verdi ensemble could serve, with the addition of a bass and a second tenor, for the Donizetti. These projects traditionally made a feature of the tenor, as the quartet begins with the Duke’s solo, and Edgardo, along with the baritone Enrico, starts off the first section of the sextet.
What would be more natural then than to plan these new recordings around Gigli, currently the star Italian tenor of the Victor stable, and to use Galli-Curci, a veteran of the 1917 versions with the late Caruso (the soprano having proven herself in the intervening decade something of a gold mine for Victor). Louise Homer, then in her mid-fifties and even more of a veteran (her first Red Seals had been made in 1903), was currently (in 1927) enjoying a sort of postscript to her distinguished career. Giuseppe De Luca had sung the baritone parts with Caruso and Galli-Curci in Victor’s last project with these ensembles in 1917. To these four were added the then-recent arrival in the United States, Ezio Pinza, and that prince of comprimarios, Angelo Bada.
In the electric Rigoletto Quartet Gigli is a mellifluous Duke, seductive in tone but without seeming even slightly urgent in his pursuit of Sparafucile’s sister. Galli-Curci is a sweetly cautious Gilda here; Homer, a rock-solid but not very suggestive Maddalena; De Luca, in his best bel canto form. All in all, this is a pretty concert reading devoid of any suggestion of drama. Gigli is more involved in the Lucia ensemble, singing with a sense of text and sounding quite brilliant on the series of B flats when he doubles the soprano line near the end.
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