Word: mapleson
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Between 1900 and 1904, the Met's London-born librarian, Lionel Mapleson, immortalized dozens of performances from his perch in the prompter's box and, later, from a catwalk 40 ft. above the stage. But then he abandoned the project, and the fragile, two-minute wax cylinders were left to decay and, in some cases, break and disappear. As early as 1938, collectors began preserving the priceless vocal treasures. Now a team of two critics and a recording engineer, under the auspices of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, the Performing Arts Research Center and the New York...
...sonic limitations of the Mapleson cylinders, they are shot through with this authentic spirit. Paradoxically, their very primitiveness forces modern listeners through the sound barrier, to reach the heart of the music beneath. It is a region that deserves more frequent visits. --By Michael Walsh
...Mapleson Cylinders (Distributed by Metropolitan Opera Guild, 1985). Calve sings! And so do Nordica, Sembrich and De Reszke on these treasures from the Met, recorded on wax cylinders by the company's librarian between...
...hope of interesting a Victor affiliate in his work, Mapleson sent many of his best cylinders to England, where they were promptly ruined by the climate. The ones he kept were played so often by the singers themselves that they were nearly worn out by the time Mapleson gave up recording (in 1903) and stored them away. The dust-covered cylinders were unearthed in 1937, shortly before Mapleson's death, by a diligent phonographic antiquarian named William H. Seltsam, of Bridgeport, Conn., and some were transferred to 78-r.p.m. disks. These, plus several other Mapleson cylinders never before released...
...Mapleson recordings are not for the casual listener or the audiophile ("This is not a high fidelity record," says the album jacket testily). Most of the performances are so badly flawed with a variety of grindings, thumpings and banshee wails that the singers and orchestra are barely audible. Solos break off at tantalizing spots. But for all that, the records offer invaluable testimony to the student of singing on the style, range and phrasing of such otherwise unrecorded golden-agers as Jean De Reszke, Albert Saléza and Georg Anthes, and such better-preserved stars as Lillian Nordica, Emma...