Bizet: Carmen
Gounod: Faust
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana
Puccini: La boheme
Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia
Verdi: Aida
Verdi: Rigoletto
Verdi: La traviata
Verdi: Il trovatore
Wagner: The Ring - Excerpts
Wagner: Tannhäuser - Act II
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Act III
Wagner: Die Walküre - Act I
Gilbert and Sullivan Operas
Kurzoper - sets of highlights
There can be no better introduction to this volume than a message to Thomas Edison by Arthur Sullivan recorded on 5 October 1888.
Dear Mr. Edison:
For myself, I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the results of this evening's experiment. Astonished at the wonderful power you have developed and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever. But all the same, I think that this is the most wonderful invention that I have ever experienced and I congratulate you with all my heart on this wonderful discovery.
Arthur Sullivan
Examining the earliest extended recordings of opera is one of few ways we can know performance practice of earlier generations and appreciate the artists of the day beyond isolated arias and ensembles. The technical problems of recovering accurate sound from those sources are daunting. Such projects as Ward Marston's restoration of the Pathé complete French operas are invaluable, but suffer from requiring great time and skill. As a result, they are too costly for many students and researchers and are too few to cover the spectrum of our operatic heritage fully. In time, all of the recordings captured here may be restored more fully, obviating the need for this disc for the devoted collector. Until then, lesser skills and more modest equipment have been used to ensure that these treasures are not lost.
I must begin by thanking the many contributors to this CD-ROM who supplied recordings not in my own collection. Two volunteers deserve special mention: Allen Combs, <acombs@andover.edu> who painstainkingly corrected pitch and other errors; and Eduardo Gabarra, who is responsible for the graphic design. To the extent that you find pleasure in this disc, the credit is theirs.
It is also a pleasure to initiate in this volume a survey of recordings of acoustic opera sets .
Macintosh users are urged to read macread.txt on this disc as well as the following.
The files on this disc are recorded in MP3 format. Players for such compressed audio are available for most platforms. Since most users of personal computers when this disc was published have 32-bit Windows installed on their systems, we include a licensed browser and a freeware player for their convenience.
Those running Windows who do not find that the browser begins automatically may start it by running I_VIEW.EXE from the root of the CD-ROM drive. Those running other systems, such as Mac and Unix boxes, will need both a browser and an installed MPEG player. Even Windows users may use their preferred browsers equipped with MP3 players. Operation with any browser other than the one on the disc requires that you point it to the CD-ROM and WELCOME.HTM as the URL.
Every effort has been made to ensure that all files are accessible to all users. The prototype of this disc was tested on a variety of computers and all reasonably modern ones have worked in the configurations tested. There is little that can be done if your computer has problems with these files short of upgrading the computer. As an indication of its modest needs, the disc proved fully functional on a Pentium 75 laptop with 8 MB of RAM and a 2x CD-ROM drive.
We have chosen to use the least possible processing of the sound which gives acceptable listening and preserves as much as possible of the original material. If you explore the features of the WinAmp player by right-clicking on it when it is active, you will find a Graphic Equalizer which lets you adjust the balance to your taste. Again, those controls must be set each time you start the disc. If you wish the changes to persist, you may prefer to adjust the your playback equipment.
Those using their own browsers will certainly need no assistance from me. That is fortunate, since it would be difficult to cover all the options of browsers and MP3 plugins and helpers. If you are running the I_VIEW browser on the disc, you should find all operations familiar. Simply click on a link to access it. If you have trouble seeing everything in the browser, please ensure that the page is maximized by clicking the icon one to the left and one down from the top-right corner. Unfortunately, the browser does not 'remember' that setting and you will need to click the icon each time you start the program.
One easy way to integrate MP3 playback into a browser on your PC is to visit http://www.audioactive.com and to download and install the helper appropriate for your system. At the time of publication, they offered helpers not only for Win95, Win98 and NT, but also for Windows 3.x and Macintosh; however, the Macintosh player at this time does not handle our files and the special Mac instructions should be followed instead.
The WinAmp player here is not the current, shareware version but a freeware release quite sufficient for our needs. We thank the developers at Nullsoft for permission to include this excellent program. WinAmp has been preset to the values needed for operation - which is fortunate, since those values cannot be recorded to the CD-ROM and therefore will return to the presets whenever the disc is first accessed. This disc contains only monaural files.
At this writing, I can be reached by e-mail at mrichter@mindspring.com ,
through http://mrichter.simplenet.com or at
Michael Richter
2600 Colby Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90064-3716
310-477-7969
With sincere acknowledgement of the contributions of those who supplied material for this disc, I assume full responsibility for its contents.