These two CD-ROMs provide opera oddities of several sorts. An introduction is given below. Technical information is necessary for many users and is also supplied. But the primary interest is, I hope, in the contents of this disc.
The opera recordings offered here are from a variety of sources. Some are taken from the audio signal broadcast on a televised performance or from 78-rpm recordings I have owned (though all have since been donated to the University of California). The recordings from La Scala are of substantial historical interest in their reflection of performance practice, though many voices are less than stellar. Note, too, that processing of the signal has been held to a minimum; you may wish to adjust your playback for sustained listening
Bellini: I Pirata
Bellini: I Puritani
Bizet: Carmen
Boito: Mefistofele
Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia
Donizetti: Rita
Giordano: Andrea Chenier
Janacek: Jenufa
Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
Nono: Intolleranza
Orff: Die Kluge
Puccini: La Boheme
Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Puccini: Suor Angelica
Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Rossini: La Cenerentola
Rossini: Le Comte Ory
Rossini: Semiramide
Sullivan: The Mikado
Verdi: Rigoletto
Verdi: La Traviata
Operatic performances are inherently transient; they occur while the stage is occupied and vanish with the final applause. Some are distributed through broadcast or recording. Where originally broadcasts were conceived as comparably transient, they quickly came to be captured, in whole or in part, on audio and later video recording as well as on the memories of the audiences. In some cases, those recordings have had wide circulation; more often, they have resided in a few copies. Some of those latter have all but disappeared through aging of the medium. One function of this effort is to preserve the ones in my collection; another is to preserve others sent to me for the purpose.
Disappointingly, the same fate has befallen many published recordings. Some of them are of only historical interest while others have musical value of high order. But in the days of more primitive technology, many sets valued highly a decade earlier were supplanted by those with finer sound. Similarly, works of limited interest when first recorded or broadcast were not valued highly when available and are nearly lost. It is said that half the films (not just the operatic ones) produced before 1950 will have been lost before the end of the century. In a modest effort to keep some of the audio recordings from suffering the same fate, this series is produced to generate a continuing record. Whether someone will continue this effort beyond this first pair of discs will depend in part on its reception and in part on the willingness of others to join me in their production.
To comment on the effort presented here, plus contact me, Michael Richter at
mrichter@mindspring.com
2600
Colby Av
Los Angeles, CA 90064-3716
310-477-7969
Macintosh users are urged to read macread.htm or macread.txt on this disc as well as the following.
Most of the files on these discs are recorded in MP3 format. Players for such compressed audio are available for most platforms. Since most users of personal computers when these discs are published have 32-bit Windows (95 or above; NT4 or above) installed on their systems, the discs include a licensed browser and a freeware player which handle not only MP2 and MP3 files but also a specific format of playlist for MP3 termed M3U. Most users of these discs will find that they automatically load the browser and its support programs; in that case, all functions should be directly accessible in the same way they would be with any other browser.
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 MPEG 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. However, you will have to build your own playlists with whatever resources their software provides in order to connect MP3 segments into complete Acts or works. Playlists are indicated in bolded italic type. Multiple versions of the same segment are indicated by a pipe (bar) between their dates. The result may look like the following (non-functional) segment.
1918 | 1930
| 1966 Act II
1918
| 1930 | 1966
Introduction
1918
| 1930 | 1966
Musetta's Waltz
Clicking on the date in the default browser will play the selected item - the full Act or the selected part. With other browsers, the playlists of the first line will not be usable.
Every effort has been made to ensure that all files are accessible to all users. However, some of the files place greater demands on the system than others. The prototypes of these discs have been tested on a variety of computers and all reasonably modern ones have managed to work in the configurations tested. There is little that can be done if your computer has problems with the highest quality of files - except either to give up those files or to upgrade the computer. As an indication of their modest needs, the discs proved fully functional on a Pentium 75 laptop with 8 MB of RAM and a 2x CD-ROM drive.
Please note that the quality of the recordings presented here varies widely. In some cases, it exceeds that of stereo FM broadcast; in others, it is inferior to that of AM radio. If a commercial recording is found, it should offer better sound than these discs; they are intended to provide an historical record and a research resource, not reference sound quality. Unfortunately, variations within a 'complete' opera may also be intrusive. I have seldom attempted to correct the pitch where it varied on consecutive sides; there were some sides missing from the 78-rpm sets and broken discs for which only portions could be recovered; and on some releases acceptable sound on one 78 was followed by a marked change in sound level and balance. In general, I did the least processing of my originals which gave acceptable results; you should expect to rebalance your sound to your taste. One edit which I did make for live recordings was to remove what I considered excessive applause. Frankly, that was done primarily for my own pleasure; particularly after the first hearing, I prefer to listen to the music rather than to several minutes of applause - however deserved it may be.
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 make sure 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.
Note that playlists are set off by strong, italic type; no harm will be done if you select such a link from your own browser, but the link may fail. For technical reasons, most combinations of browsers and MP3 players do not properly support playlists from a CD-ROM. For that reason, I have not provided as many separate 'tracks' on these discs as one might expect. Where a familiar opera is given here in different versions, I have split tracks to assist in comparisons.
The WinAmp player here is not the current, shareware version. However, it is an excellent freeware release quite sufficient for the needs of these discs. It 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. For example, a disc containing only monaural files is preset for monaural playback; that will slightly reduce the burden on the computer and allow better results from one of modest power. I urge those with more general interest in MP3 playback and those seeking players for other browsers to explore http://www.nullsoft.com/ and http://www.winamp.com/ for the current offerings for Mac and PC.