[78-L] Caruso museum

[Michael Biel]

The audio on this site is from the Austrian recordings with a modern
stereo orchestra in case you do not have any of  the three CDs and have
been wondering what they sound like.  I happen to like them and just
bought the one I was missing.

On 9/14/2010 11:14 AM, Jeff Sultanof wrote:
> Mike,
>
> Do you have label info., etc. on the three Austrian CDs? I'd like to get
> them.  Thanks,  Jeff Sultanof
>
>
They were produced by the Austrian Broadcasting Corp (ORF) but released 
by RCA Victor.  The orchestra is the Vienna Radio Symphony Orch.  The 
titles have a subtitle The Digital Recordings.

Caruso 2000  74321-69766-2
Caruso Italian Songs  74321-82569-2
Caruso Amor Ti Vieta  Great Opera Arias  74321-62518-2

They used a variation of the computer program which Thomas Stockham and 
Neil Miller demonstrated in the 1970s which could eliminate the sound of 
the orchestra and allow Caruso to sing a Capella.  Unfortunately these 
CDs never give us an example of this.  Instead, in the first disc they 
end with a "comparison track" playing an unrestored original shellac of 
Vesti La Giubba with stereo surface noise.  Generally they are better 
than that sample that Stockham played which has the voice breaking up in 
the lower notes, but I do hear a digital artifact problem at 54 seconds 
into Celeste Aida and what sounds like simple analogue drop-outs at 2:50 
and 4:42.

While I don't find the Stockham/Miller Caruso a Capella on the web (I 
should post it) there is a great "modification" of Caruso that used it 
that you will ALL want to hear whether you like opera or not.  Called " 
Any Resemblance Is Purely Coincidental" by Charles Dodge, you can find 
it here:

http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=37

It is an EXPERIENCE that you will not believe!!!!  Remember  though, it 
was done in 1980 before the development of sampling keyboards,  and 
modern pitch-shifting was in its infancy.


Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com