La Favorite - Ange si pur
Agustarello Affre was the premier tenor of the Paris Opera House from the 1890s through the 1910s.
This recording, and others, announced by Affre typically sound so rushed (to my English ears) that he seems to pronounce his name "Aff".
The Pathé Phonograph Company's process of producing records involved recording
their artists on huge wax master cylinders from which
sub-masters were copied usually pantographically (sometimes horn-to-horn),
then copied again to the final
Comparison of the Pathé intermediate ("salon") size cylinder and the standard size.
The sound of the pantographic copying process employed by Pathé can be clearly heard rumbling along in the background throughout the recording.
Many thanks to Art Guenther, David Winter, and Christian Zwarg for their assistance with this cylinder of the month.
For help playing these sounds, click here. |
This aria, Ange si pur ("Angel so pure"), is from the 4th act of "La Favorite", Gaetano Donizetti's French opera composed in 1840.
To learn more, see:
- The libretto of La Favorite, courtesy of Stanford University's Opera Glass.
- Wikipedia's biography of composer Gaetano Donizetti.
