[78-L] Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in the old house

[Elizabeth McLeod]

on 12/25/10 2:36 AM Michael Biel wrote:

>I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason is that most Met 
>broadcasts survive as outside air-checks while the Tosciinini broadcasts 
>are line-checks or direct in-house recordings.  There were so many opera 
>lovers recording off-air and there has been little real recordings from 
>the network to use as upgrades, while the Toscanini broadcasts are quite 
>common from NBC and RCA originals.

I believe, in fact, that the Met contract with NBC specified that no 
recordings were to be made by the network at all, at least until the 
contract was renegotiated around 1940. So *all* surviving Met broadcast 
recordings from the thirties are airchecks, and anything goes so far as 
quality is concerned.

Jackson's book "Saturday Afternoons At The Old Met" discusses this in 
some detail, and reproduces a letter from a Speak-O-Phone studio to a Met 
performer, offering to record her upcoming performance. 

Elizabeth