Not a major studio, not a big organization, just three guys in a virtual garage -- Mike Richter (publisher and janitor), Allen Combs (audio engineer) and Eduardo Gabarra (graphic design) -- have come up an extraordinary CD-ROM (computer-playable only) of FIRST OPERA RECORDINGS, going back almost a century! As with a couple of other recent projects, Mike is turning distribution over to Opera Classics (http://www.operaclassics.com/), which MAY have it ready in mid-October. *No, not now*...:) As before, with other MikeProjects, the price is kept under $10 for many hours of music that you cannot possibly find anywhere else. Likely contents: Bizet: Carmen (Berlin, 1908; Destinn, Nast, Joern, Bachman) Gounod: Faust (Berlin, 1908; La Scala, 1918; Destinn/Bosini, Joern/Romagnoli; Knuepfer/Autori) Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (La Scala 1907, 1918, British National Opera, 1927; Huguet/Conti/Licette, Paoli/Bolis/Mullings) Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana (Berlin 1909, La Scala 1916, British National 1927; Rose/Ermolli/Blyth; Naval/Tumminello/Nash) Puccini: La boheme (La Scala 1918; Bosini, Giana, Andreini) Puccini: Madama Butterfly (UK [Goossens] 1922; Buckmann, Davies, Ranalow) Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (La Scala 1919; Pereira, Taliani, Badini) Verdi: Aida (Columbia 1912; Armanini, Beinat, Tommasini, Toninello, Bettoni) Verdi: Rigoletto (Paris 1912, La Scala 1916, 1917, San Carlo 1918; Vallandri/Ferraris/Borghi-Zerni/De Angelis, Lassalle/Taccani/Broccardi/De Lucia, Note'/Formichi/Danise & Badini/Armentano) Verdi: La traviata (Paris 1912, La Scala 1915; Morlet/Bevignani, Trosselli/Tuminello, Albers/Badini) Verdi: Il trovatore (Paris 1912; Morlet, Lapeyrette, Fontaine, Note') Wagner: The Ring - Excerpts (English recordings, with Coates, Goossens, Pitt, Roland conducting; German artists in Paris 1928; Gottlieb, Schram-Tchoerner, Klose, Kirchoff, Weber) Wagner: Tannhauser - Act II (Berlin 1909; Krull, Vogelstrom, Weil) Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Act III (London Symphony 1927; Ljungberg, Widdop) Wagner: Die Walkure - Act I (Bluethner 1913; Denera, Decker, Schwegler) Gilbert and Sullivan Operas (Mikado 1917, Ruddigore 1922, Princess Ida 1924, HMS Pinafore 1922) Kurzoper - sets of highlights: Boheme (Roswaenge), Carmen (Ruziczka-Roswaenge), Freischuetz (Marherr- Soot-Ernster), Lohengrin (Malkin-Wolff), Martha (Mayen-Mueller-Transky) Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]