"Treasures from the Paris Opera Vaults"

[SDav 10495]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 10:05pm

I know this technically isn't "Broadway", but I just came across this piece in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/arts/music/17vaul.html?_r=1&8dpc

Apparently a number of wax records of various opera arias were made at the beginning of the 20th century and placed in a time capsule beneath the Paris Opera House, not to be opened for 100 years. They've finally been unearthed, cleaned up, and released as a CD set (whose title I put as the subject of this thread). This is certainly an interesting find for any fan of live performance, and (if I have to make some Broadway connection) I found it especially interesting as a fan of "Phantom"--while these recordings were not all done with singers from the Paris Opera, this gives us a better idea of what was popular with Parisian opera-goers around the time Gaston Leroux was researching the Opera House and getting the inspiration to write his novel.

Three audio clips are posted with the NYT article.

[ladybegood]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 11:56am

This was hugely well worth pointing out. Thank you!

I, for one, will be quite fascinated to hear what they produce.