Fonotipia Records

Fonotipia Records, or Dischi Fonotipia, was an Italian gramophone record label established exclusively to record the art of celebrities, principally opera singers, in 1904 and which continued after 1925 into the electrical recording era, when it was absorbed into Odeon records. The records made by this company are still prized by collectors for the high technical quality of their recording and the high artistic interest of what was recorded. The catalogues of its productions were reconstructed, so far as possible, by the discophiles J.R. Bennett and James Dennis in 1953, and published in a limited edition. It is not to be confused with the "Phonotype" record label which was active in the same period.

History of the issues

Fonotipia records was established in 1904 by the Anglo-French composer Baron Frederic d'Erlanger (1868-1943), as the "Società Italiana di Fonotipia, Milano", expressly for recording celebrities, principally opera singers. (A recent re-issue of some titles states that it was formed as part of the International Talking Machine Company of Berlin. [Symposum CD 1261, "Fonotipia, a Centenary Celebration 1904-2004".] ) The records were lateral needle-cut of the usual kind, starting at the outer edge, and playing at speeds at or near 78 rpm. From the outset it was distinguished by the use of unusual record sizes, the original series of one thousand titles (numbered 39000-39999) being in the 27cm or ten and three-quarter inch format. (Disc xPH 1, issued as 39003, was cut in 1904 by the great La Scala baritone Giuseppe Pacini, who sings "Il balen", from Verdi's "Il Trovatore".) Unlike the Gramophone Company's numbering system, Fonotipia's included male, female and ensemble artists, with piano accompaniment, on an indiscriminate basis. This original series was complete by 1907 when the new 27cm series 62000 was begun, also with piano accompaniment. From late 1907 it ran in tandem with the 27cm 92000 series, which had orchestral accompaniments.

In 1905, the 69000 series was introduced. It featured a large disc of 35cm (13 and three-quarter inches) but ran to only 22 titles before being discontinued as unpopular with the consumer market, owing to the format. However this short series had the distinction of including the only known commercial records by the great tenor Jean de Reszke, namely the titles 69000 "Scene du tombeau" ("Roméo et Juliette", Gounod), and 69001 "Ô Souverain, Ô Juge, Ô Père" ("Le Cid", Massenet). Unfortunately the record was never officially issued and although there have long been rumours of the existence of a test pressing, no copy is certainly known to exist. This is therefore a 'holy grail' of the operatic record collector, who must fall back on the primitive Lionel Mapleson phonograph cylinders (now known as the Mapleson Cylinders) to hear de Reszke's voice. The 35 cm Fonotipia series also included two titles by the Czech violinist Jan Kubelik, including 69010 a transcription of the Sextet from "Lucia di Lammermoor".

There was also a 12" (30cm) series, issued under the number 74000 and following, which included some operatic titles, though most of the first 100 numbers were dedicated to band music, or to the violinists Kubelik and Franz von Vecsey. They resumed as 74100 for another series with orchestral accompaniment. The 74000 series ceased production with the advent of electrical recording c1925. 92000, the orchestral 27cm series, was completed in 1914, and was replaced by the 69000 series now at 27cm, commencing with 69050. There was a break in activity during the First World War. By 1922 it had become a partner of Odeon records, and in that year a new conventional 10" series numbered 152000 was begun. This included a good deal of inferior material.

The 1925 Catalogue is thought to have been the last issued under the Fonotipia name, though many titles remained and were listed under one cover with the Odeon catalogue. Electrical recording was begun in 1926, and the first such issues were released with the 1928 catalogue. Many of the matrices were carried over into pressings issued under Odeon labels. It also seems possible that some of the recording equipment was transferred to the Odeon studios, for a distinctive feature of the tracking of the groove-cutting equipment in Fonotipia records shows a single revolution halfway through the side where the groove is widely-spaced, and this idiosyncrasy occasionally persists.

The Catalogues: celebrity artists

The reconstruction of the Fonotipia catalogues was undertaken in 1953 with the help of several collectors worldwide who had access to collections of the discs. The result was a valuable slim hardback volume, published in Ipswich, UK, by the Record Collector Shop at 61 Fore Street.

In 2003, Historic Masters Ltd (in association with EMI) published the complete Fonotipia discography taken from the original recording ledgers which were found at the EMI studios in Milan by Keith Hardwick and Ruth Edge. This work was issued in database format on a CD ROM, and is still available from Historic Masters. Over 10,000 sides recorded by Fonotipia and associated companies are detailed on the CD ROM. For the first time exact recording dates have been made available.

Among the famous singers who recorded for Fonotipia were the following: Aino Ackté, Pasquale Amato, Giuseppe Anselmi, Teresa Arkel, Ernesto Badini, Aristide Baracchi, Maria Barrientos, Ramon Blanchart, Alessandro Bonci, Giuseppe Borgatti, Georgette Bréjean-Silver, Eugenia Burzio, Victor Capoul, Mercedes Capsir, Maria Carena, Margherita Carosio, Ferruccio Corradetti, Emilia Corsi, Armando Crabbé, Gilda dalla Rizza, Leon David, Nazzareno de Angelis, Elvira de Hidalgo, Giuseppe De Luca, Fernando De Lucia, Emmy Destinn, Adamo Didur, Léon Escalais‎, Giuseppina Finzi-Magrini, Nicola Fusati, Edoardo Garbin, Giovanni Inghilleri, Maria Jeritza, Jan Kiepura, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Félia Litvinne, Antonio Magini-Coletti, Luigi Manfrini, Gino Martinez-Patti, Victor Maurel, Irene Minghini-Cattaneo, Francesco Navarini, Giuseppe Noto, Giuseppe Pacini, Rosetta Pampanini, Tancredi Pasero, Aureliano Pertile, Lily Pons, Giannina Russ, Mario Sammarco, Emile Scaramberg, Mariano Stabile, Rosina Storchio, Riccardo Stracciari, Conchita Supervia, Richard Tauber, Ninon Vallin, Ernest van Dyck, Francisco Vignas and Giovanni Zenatello. In addition to Jan Kubelik and Ferenc von Vecsey, violinists included Jacques Thibaud, Bronislaw Huberman and Vaša Přihóda.

ee also

* List of record labels

References

Sources

*J.R. Bennett, Dischi Fonotipia - A Golden Treasury (Record Collector Shop, Ipswich 1953).