[78-L] Help Identifying a 78

[Bertrand CHAUMELLE]

I have that "À la recherche du son" DVD: it contains 3 Phonoscènes: 
"L'air du Toréador" from "Carmen" (1910), "La légende du Roi Gambrinus" 
and "La Marseillaise".

But the "Lucia Sextette" isn't a 'Phonoscène' (according to the DVD's 
leaflet). It was produced by Georges Mendel with another process: 
"Phono-Gramo-Théâtre". Ditto for "La donna e mobile" produced by Alfred 
Duskes in Germany with the "Cinophon" process.

I was mentioning "Jerusalem" because it could be based on the "Rameaux" 
music.

BC
Le 1 nov. 08, à 21:04, Chris Zwarg a écrit :

>
> At 20:26 01.11.2008, you wrote:
>> These short films were called "Phonoscènes", to be played on Gaumont's
>> Chronophone.
>> One of them, titled "Jerusalem" has survived and can be found on a 
>> DVD.
>
> A number of others survive as well - excerpts of chansons sung and 
> acted by Polin, Mercadier, Dona, and Dranem (all popular stars in 
> pre-WW1 Paris) were shown in a French TV documentary "Le roman du 
> music-hall" which is available on video. There is also a fine DVD "Les 
> premiers pas du cinéma: A la recherche du son" which has several 
> Phonoscènes in their entirety, among them a Lucia Sextette synched to 
> the 1908 Caruso/Sembrich record (the actors are not authenticated, but 
> both Sembrich and Caruso do look very much like the "real thing" - 
> maybe this was shot by Gaumont while the Metropolitan Opera ensemble 
> was in Paris for guest performances?), and a "La donna è mobile" also 
> sung by Caruso, but obviously acted by someone else (one source says 
> we are seeing the obscure German tenor Bernhard Ahlbeck here).
>
> Recently, the German and Austrian National Film Archives each 
> (re-)discovered a number of German-language Messter-Gaumont 
> phonoscenes in their vaults; some of these feature major stage stars 
> of the period like Alexander Girardi and Fritzi Massary, in excerpts 
> from then-current operetta productions, and the best of them are 
> currently being restored - I am actively involved in tracking down the 
> discs and remastering the soundtracks. Run at the appropriate (odd) 
> speeds, the sync mostly is on a par with much later lip-synched 
> musical movie scenes, and the effect can be pretty stunning - real 
> "soundies" a hundred years old. Hopefully we will get these on a DVD 
> at some point; currently, producing modern 35mm sound-on-film prints 
> suitable for theatrical screenings is the idea.
>
> Chris Zwarg
>
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