Is there anyone who doesn’t like Gilbert and Sullivan? Their operettas were the height of entertainment in the 19th century and continues to charm us. I’m not sure if this 1936 recording of The Mikado is the entire work or an abridged rendition but it certainly delivers all the fun. The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company is conducted by Isidore Godfrey. This MP3 album is taken off of an old 78rpm set and is, of course, monaural. However it is fine for its time and is excellently transferred by F. Reeder into 92kbps MP3 format. If you are not familiar with the dynamic composing duo of Gilbert & Sullivan, just download and listen. You will be hooked.

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John McCormack was a celebrated operatic tenor at the beginning of the 20th century. While Caruso continues to be the ultimate name in classical voice of this period, McCormack certainly had his admirers. While trained in the Italian school of opera, he was the epitome of the Irish tenor, proficient in classical music but also excelling in popular music and Irish traditional. Like Caruso, McCormack was one of the earliest endorsers of recorded music, putting his voice on cylinders in 1904. He continued to record and perform until his retirement in 1938 and died of Emphysema in 1945.

The Internet archive’s 78rpm collection has collected 55 of his recordings under The Collected Works of John McCormack. There is a few arias here, but most of the tracks are popular songs of the era and traditional Irish melodies. Of interest is “It’s a Long Ways To Tipperary”, noticeable because it was the first recording of this World War I anthem. There are a few untitled songs. Most of them appear to be opera arias. Of course, the Irish songs stand out and these old songs might be a nice addition to your St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

The album is available from The Internet Archive and the tracks are in MP3 format in varying bitrates.

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Born in 1952, Wolfgang Rihm is one of the more important post-war German composer and remains a popular avant garde figure in music. However his earlier music is most associated to the earlier Expressionist movement with strong influences by such giants as Schoenberg and Mahler.

Jacob Lenz is an early opera, his second, and is written for chamber orchestra, voices, and chorus. It is based on the life of 18th century author Jacob Lenz who was a contemporary of Goethe and a writer of the Sturm and Drang period. Lenz suffered a nervous breakdown in 1777 and this stage of his life is the focus of the opera. The sound of this work is at the least, tumultuous. It is a composition that is as disturbing as it is beautiful. The voice of Lenz is sung by baritone Richard Salter. More information and extensive liner notes in German and English are available from the download page for the FLAC files.

The work is available in FLAC and MP3 files. The MP3 files are in the bitrate of 192kbps. FLAC files have a superior sound but be aware that they are huge and your music software may not be able to play them.

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FLAC files
MP3 files

Although Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is one of the greatest Russian composers, his music is very rarely performed outside of Russia. With the exception of the novelty excerpt Flight of The Bumble Bee, his compositions are unfairly neglected. It is regretable for his works are quite accessible and among the most important compositions of the early part of the 20th century. Having written many orchestral works and 15 operas, he deserve a bigger audience.

Michael Steinberg attempts to rectify this situation by placing three old but exceptional opera recordings on his web page titled Three Tales by Rimsky-Korsakov. These are Soviet era recordings from the 1960s of even older performances. The albums have excellent monaural sound and are converted to VBR MP3 at around 96kbps. The sound quality is so good that it is hard to believe that these were taken off vinyl discs over 40 years old. The files are nicely packed in an album zip along with a synopsis of each opera.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan was written in 1899. This 1953 performance by The Bolshoi Opera is conducted by Vassily Nebolsin and features Ivan Petrov as the Tsar, Vladimir Ivanovsky as Guidon, Yevgenia Smolenskaya as the Tsarina and Galina Olenitchenko as the Swan-Princess. Steinberg states there is no modern recording of the opera so this may be your only chance to hear this charming work. By the way, you will find “The Flight of The Bumble Bee” at the end of Act III.

The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh and of The Maiden Fevronia was wrtten in 1907. Again we have The Bolshoi but this time conducted by Vasili Nebolsin. Fevronia is sung by Natalya Rozhdestvenskaya. Other vocalists include Dmitri Tarkhov, Vladimir Ivanovsky, and Ivan Petrov in this 50s performance.

Christmas Eve is based on the Dikanka stories of Nikolai Gogol. The recording is from 1948 and conducted by Nicolai Golovanov with the Moscow Radio orchestra. Steinberg writes that this is a good place for the novice opera listener to start. I tend to agree with that but frankly I’m in love with the opera Tsar Saltan.

I am sure you will enjoy these rare recordings. Make sure you read Steinberg’s fine introductions on his web page and the opera synopsis included in the album zip.

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Tsar Saltan
The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh
Christmas Eve

Is there any opera singer more famous than Enrico Caruso? Not only is he considered one of the greatest tenors of all time but was the most popular vocalist of any musical genre in the early 20th century. Although he died in 1921, Caruso made over 250 recordings and was one of the first artists to embrace the early techniques of recorded music.

The Internet Archive’s 78 RPM collection has obtained a ton of Caruso recordings and placed them in two parts. This is not just an online album but a truckload of music. Part one has 96 tracks. Part two is less unwieldy with 30 tracks. The sound ranges from awful (”Adorables Tourments” of 1908) to quite good (”Vienie Dur Mar” of 1919) considering these were taken from very old 78rpm acetate disks. Of special interest is the recording of “Vesti La Giubba” which was the first record to sell a million copies. Predictably most of these tracks are opera arias but there are a few old popular standards (”Dreams of Long Ago” 1912) and Italian classics (”O Sole Mio” 1916).

Both collections are in 128kbps either by separate tracks or album zip. The bitrate doesn’t mean much since, as stated before, these are very old and scratchy recordings with the earliest being from 1902! Nonetheless, despite the primitive sound, it is easy to see why Caruso was and is so revered.

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Collected Works Part 1
Collected Works Part 2

Opera has an unenviable reputation. The conventional wisdom with most music lovers and historians is that Opera combines music and theater into the ultimate art form. Yet many people see opera as stuffy, artificial and just plain boring. Opera can be one of the most satisfactory of entertainments but admittedly it takes a little work to understand and appreciate.

Stanford University’s web site Opera Glass and Naxos Records have combined to make freely available a 4 CD set called Opera For Everyone. Narrated by Ira Ross, the set offers four operas; Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Verdi’s La Traviata, Bizet’s Carmen, and Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Mr. Ross describes both plot and music as musical highlights are presented in excerpts. While you are not getting the entire work, this is an excellent way to be introduced to these masterpieces. Even I, being thoroughly familar with these works, found these albums to be very entertaining. The set comes with a downloadable teaching manual that lists the performers, tracks, and gives much information on the operas.

The albums are available using 56kbps for spoken narration tracks and 128kbps for the musical tracks. It’s an interesting choice, lowering the download size yet keeping the music in decent quality sound. Don’t forget to download the teaching manual!

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