Rare BERLINER 78 rpm Caro ROMA & Wills PAGE "Miserere" Trovatore. rec Jan 1899
£
84
$
111
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Description
Buy this 1899 operatic rarity,
and help rescue BADGERS, and other wildlife!
We'll be selling LOTS MORE lovely 78 rpm RARE operatic
and classical-vocal items soon, so keep an eye on our listings.
Don't forget!
If you buy MORE THAN ONE ITEM we will offer you
a HUGE POSTAGE DISCOUNT!
Here we have a 7” single-sided Berliner record featuring American soprano Caro Roma, (stage name of Carrie Northey 1866 – 1937) performing “Miserere” from Il Trovatore, with the English(?) tenor Wills Page, with piano accompaniment.
The number is 4057, and it was recorded in London on the 12th of January 1899, Crikey!
We can’t tell you a great deal about Wills Page. He seems to have been a regular performer at The Albert Hall, and other top venues, and to have toured extensively in UK Variety Theatres, G&S Operas, and concerts.
He’s rather difficult to research, because every time we type “Wills Page” into a search engine, we get offered advice about leaving money and property to our nearest and dearest.
Caro Roma was a Jack (or Jill) of all trades and sang opera, light opera and variety and vaudeville songs. She was an accomplished musician and songwriter. F’rinstance she wrote the minstrel-styled song “Can't Yo' Heah Me Callin' Caroline” in 1914 (as heard in the 1949 Hollywood movie “Look For The Silver Lining”) and wrote other music and/or lyrics in many different styles.
She had been an orchestra conductor, the prima donna with the Henry Savage Opera Company in Boston USA, and in Europe she performed for King Edward VII. Quite a gal.
This disc is clean and tidy, with the “dimples” in the surface that you often find in discs of this prehistoric era, and a rough edge from poor storage.
Caro is noted as “Madame Roma” on the hand-scribed label. There are other numbers etc engraved, 815 and y-12
There is one visible (but not audible) scratch and a VERY, VERY noisy start. The record is hard to “get started” because the needle seems to want to stay in the run-in groove! It needs a push into the bit where the music begins. That's because of the rough edge/rim. The first couple of seconds are VERY noisy, but it gets better. We would, after much discussion, rate it as just about a G+++/V-, using VJM’s vague and abstruse grading system.
It is very collectable and plays quite well for a 125 year old record.
There is piano accompaniment, but NO announced start.
Buy it now or live a life drenched with regret.
NO OVERSEAS bidders please.
And NO OVERSEAS bidders using UK addresses please.
SORRY, NO BUYER COLLECT...but.. if you buy MORE THAN ONE RECORD we will give you a HUGE discount on POSTAGE!
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