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

[Kevin P. Mostyn]

I have the 12/30/1939 MET Gioconda (Martinelli, Milanov, etc.) on several
16" NBC discs. Linechecks, not airchecks. So there.

--Kevin Mostyn

-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Elizabeth McLeod
Sent: Saturday, December 25, 2010 5:09 AM
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in the old house

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