Collections with names like this one are immediately suspect, but the first five excerpts, from Boheme, are almost enough to justify the hyperbole all by themselves. Beniamino Gigli’s early “Che gelida…” is stunning, with a smile in his voice, a welcome avoidance of melodrama, care to the text, and a tone of gold. He is Rodolfo. Similarly our two Mimis–Lucrezia Bori and Lotte Schoene–are ideal interpreters, with scaled-down sounds (this was when Mimi was really only a lyric soprano role, pre-Tebaldi, say) and a type of “face” that makes you feel as if you know them. Ezio Pinza’s “Coat Song” is touching and lyrical as well, and when Tito Schipa takes over as Rodolfo for the (awkwardly cut) death scene with Bori, his elegance is deeply appreciated.
And so the 79-minute CD goes–from Giacomo Lauri-Volpi’s “Addio fiorito asil” and Hina Spani’s death scene in Butterfly, to Lawrence Tibbett’s Tosca “Te Deum”, Jussi Bjoerling’s “E lucevan le stelle”, Meta Seinemeyer’s “In quelle trine morbide”, and Schoene’s perfect “Signore ascolta” from Turandot, from which we also get Eva Turner’s towering “In questa reggia” and Antonio Cortis’ “Nessun dorma”. These might not be the supreme recordings, but they’re pretty remarkable. The sound is, at best, historical.
