VOCAL 78 rpm Discs Minimum bid as indicated per item. Listings “Just about 1-2” should be considered as mint and “Cons. 2” with just slight marks. For collectors searching top copies, you’ve come to the right place! The further we get from the era of production (in many cases now 100 years or more), the more difficult it is to find such excellent extant pressings. Some are actually from mint dealer stocks and others the result of having improved copies via dozens of collections purchased over the past fifty years. * * * For those looking for the best sound via modern reproduction, those items marked “late” are usually of high quality shellac, pressed in the 1950-55 period. A number of items in this particular catalogue are excellent pressings from that era. Also featured are many “Z” shellac Victors, their best quality surface material (later 1930s) and PW (Pre-War) Victor, almost as good surface material as “Z”. Likewise laminated Columbia pressings (1923- 1940) offer particularly fine sound. * * * Please keep in mind that the minimum bids are in U.S. Dollars, a benefit to most collectors. * * * “Text label on verso.” For a brief period (1912-‘14), Victor pressed silver-on-black labels on the reverse sides of some of their single-faced recordings, usually featuring translations of the text or similarly related comments. VERTICALLY CUT RECORDS. There were basically two systems, the “needle-cut” method employed by Edison, which was also used by Aeolian-Vocalion and Lyric and the “sapphire ball” system of Pathé, also used by Rex. and vertical Okeh. While the grooving is similar, an Edison reproducer and its diamond point would ruin any other needle-cut vertical record. Emerson used the needle cut system early on but cut on a 45 degree angle, supposedly then playable either as a vertical or a lateral record. BESSIE ABOTT [s]. Riverdale, NY, 1878- New York, 1919. Following the death of her father, which left her family penniless, Bessie and her sister Jessie (born Pickens) formed a vaude- ville sister vocal act, accompanying themselves on banjo and guitar. Upon the recommendation of Jean de Reszke, who heard them by chance entertaining on a ship, Bessie began operatic training in New York with Frida Ashforth. She subsequently studied with de Reszke himself and appeared with him at the Paris Opéra, making her debut as Gounod’s Juliette. She also sang the Forest Bird in Wagner’s Siegfried with de Reszke in the title role. Despite various biographical references to the contrary, Abott seems not to have studied with Marchesi. She appeared at the Met during the seasons of 1906-08, and left, dissatisfied with her roles assigned for the next season. She then began arrangements with Mascagni for a new opera in which she would star and tour. The work turned out to be Isabeau. Mascagni, however, developed other ideas as to what would be done with the opera when it was completed, a decision which produced lawsuits on both sides. After touring with her own opera company and appearing in operetta as well, Abott BESSIE ABOTT married sculptor T. Waldo Story (brother of Emma Eames’ first husband, artist Julian Story) in 1912 and subsequently spent much time in Italy, where they had an estate. She evidently met Puccini during this period, as she claimed the composer presented her with one of her proudest possessions, a Pomeranian puppy. 2253. 10” White lbl. Vla 87007. ROMÉO ET JULIETTE: Valse (Gounod). Lt. rubs, 2. $7.00. 2474. 12” Red Pats. Vla 88051. MAGIC FLUTE: Aria della Regina (Flotow). Just about 1-2. $12.00. 26 VOCAL 78 rpm Discs 3333. 12” Red Vla 88084. LAKMÉ: Bell Song (Delibes). Just about 1-2. $12.00. 4120. 12” Red ’08 Pats. “B” plate Vla 88171. MIGNON: Io son Titania (Thomas). A particularly rare Abott disc, issued some months after her other discs and quickly discontinued. Just about 1-2. $15.00. 4121. 12” Red GP ’07 VicTor 89009. MARTHA: Mesta ognor (Flotow). With LOUISE HOMER [c]. Cons. 2. $12.00. 4136. 12” Red GP ’07 Victor 89013. RIGO- LETTO: Tutte le feste … Piangi fan- ciulla (Verdi). With MARIO ANCO- NA [b]. IMs. NR on lbl. Surface gen. 2. $8.00. AÏNO ACKTÉ [s]. Helsinki, 1876-Numela, 1944. Having studied voice with Edmond Duvernoy, Giraudet and Paul Vidal, as well as with her mother (Emmy Ackté, a soprano with the Helsinki Opera), Ackté made her debut at the Paris Opéra, 1897, as Marguerite in Gou- nod’s Faust. Her subsequent career included all the major European operatic centers and the Metropolitan Opera (1903-05). In 1910, she was England’s first Salome (and one of the few sopranos at the time to do the “Dance of the Seven Veils” herself). Her repertoire was diverse, including Micaela in Carmen, Nedda (which she sang in the Paris Grand Opera premiere of Pa- gliacci in 1902) and Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Siegfried, among other Wagnerian heroines. 4392. 10” Red Monarch “A” plate 91042 [1505-F]. À MA FIANCÉE [WID- MUNG] (Schumann). A really superior copy of this rarity. Few TBs, couple LGTs. 2-3. $350.00. AÏNO ACKTÉ in Le Statue (Reyer) ESTHER ADABERTO [s]. Adaberto had been active with the touring Lombardi (or Lambardi?) Opera Company, appearing in San Francisco with them in 1906 and again as a recitalist in 1907 in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, performing “some of the most popular hits of her operatic career”. In 1909 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, singing two performances of Leonora in Il Trovatore with Maria Gay, Riccardo Martin, Pasquale Amato, and Enzo Bozano (who, by coincidence, sings on the reverse side of the record below). She also sang “Vissi d’arte” on a Sunday Evening Concert. She evidently returned to touring after her short Met career ended. 1905. 10” Red vertical Rishell F-2020 [039/890]. LA BOHÈME: Quando m’en vo (Puccini)/ ENZO BOZANO [bs]. GIOCONDA: Pescator, affonda l’esca (Ponchielli). Labels lightly faded. Cons. 2. $15.00. SUZANNE ADAMS [s] 1442. 10” B&S Columbia Grand Opera 1198 [take 1]. COQUETTE (Leo Stern). Few tiny bumps, rubbed but only a few MGTs. 4-5. $100.00. AGUSTARELLO AFFRE [t]. St. Chinian, France, 1858-Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, 1931. He studied at the Toulouse Conservatoire and then in Paris. 1890 marked his Paris Opèra debut as Edgardo to Nellie Melba’s Lucia, the soprano appearing in Paris for the first time the same evening. He remained a leading tenor of that institution for twenty years, also appearing in various other French houses as well as in Brussels, and at London’s Covent Garden. In 1911 he moved to the United States, where he was heard in operas in New Orleans and San Francisco, and in Havana. According to one source, Affre became director of the French Opera House in New Orleans in 1913 when it came under the ownership of Tulane University, and he remained there until his house burned down in 1919. He then retired to a villa on the Côte d’Azur. 9002. 11” Odeon 97002/92068 [XP4259/XP4356]. WILLIAM TELL: O Mathilde / WILLIAM TELL: Accours dans ma nacelle (Rossini). Both with LUCIEN RIGAUX [b]. Cons. 2. $20.00. 27 VOCAL 78 rpm Discs GUIDO AGNOLETTI [t]. Agnoletti’s career as an operetta tenor seems to have begun in Buenos Aires in 1912. From 1914 he toured in Italy with major operetta companies. In 1919 he first ap- peared in opera, singing principal tenor roles in La Traviata, Fedora and Rigoletto, later in 1920 re- turning to operetta. He ventured again into opera in 1932, his roles having included Prunier in La Rondine and Pinkerton, as well as comprimario parts such as Gastone in La Traviata and Parpignol in La Boheme. These performances included radio broadcasts over Rome’s EIAR. 3125. 12” elec. Blk. Edison Bell X549 [1829/ 1829]. SI: Act I Duet / SI: Act II Duet (Mascagni). With AMELIA ARNOLDI [s]. Si (1919) was Mascagni’s only venture into operetta. Just about 1-2. $15.00. ADELINA AGOSTINELLI [s]. Bergamo, 1882- Buenos Aires, 1954. A student in Milan of Giuseppe Quiroli, whom she later married, Agostinelli made her debut in Pavia, 1903, as Giordano’s Fedora. She appeared with success in South America, Russia, Spain, England and her native Italy and was on the roster of the Hammer- stein Manhattan Opera, 1908-10. One New York press notice indicates that her rendering of the “Suicidio” from La Gioconda on a Manhattan ADELINA AGOSTINELLI Sunday night concert “kept her busy bowing in recognition to applause for three or four minutes”. At La Scala she was cast with Battistini in Simon Boccanegra and created for that house in 1911 the Marschallin in their first Rosenkavalier. Her career continued into the mid-1920s, when she retired to Buenos Aires and taught. 9069. 11” (oversized 10”) SS B&S U.S. Columbia Trial Record, mat. M-2096-1. TOSCA: Vissi d’arte (Puccini). Piano acc. Data engraved on outer rim in addition to the above includes March 21, 1908, NY, SP. #21 (I think the horn size) and “for Tosi”. She and the pianist are a bit disjoined shortly after the beginning but connect as the aria progresses. Fine singing. This is the only known copy. 2. $250.00. GIUSEPPE AGOSTINI [t] Verona 1870 - Abdington 1951. Agostini made his debut at the Teatro Municipale in Alessandria in 1895 as Alfredo in La Traviata, replacing an ailing Gaetano Pini-Corsi. He was active in Italy’s smaller houses and first visited New York in 1898, creating for the U.S.