Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | N | Notes

Caruso Records.

Article Excerpt
By John R. Bolig. Highlands Ranch, CO: Mainspring Press, 2002. [x, 206 p. ISBN 0-95718193-3. $49.] Illustrations, indexes.

John R. Bolig is a seasoned discographer of the recordings of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. In 1973 he published The Recordings of Enrico Caruso (Dover, DE: Eldridge Reeves Johnson Memorial, Delaware State Museum, 1973). As noted in his preface to Caruso Records, the 1973 discography contained no surprises but rather was noteworthy for its "comprehensiveness and organization." In contrast to earlier Caruso discographies, most arranged alphabetically by composer, Bolig's offered a chronological listing. Where others had listed only released recordings, Bolig traced and documented every record known to have been made by Caruso, both published and unpublished. Bolig also included matrix and take numbers, along with catalog numbers of the various 78 rpm issues in both Europe and the United States. ("78 rpm" is an approximation; for a variety of technical reasons, most so-called "78s" were recorded at speeds other than the nominal 78.26 rpm well into the 1930s.) Emulating the work of the late Aida Favia-Artsay in Caruso on Records (Valhalla, NY: The Historic Record, 1965), Bolig included recording/playback speeds for all published Caruso recordings. An updated, but substantially abridged, discography by Bolig appeared in Michael Scott's biography The Great Caruso (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988, 265-93). In the interest of saving space, the publisher did not include catalog numbers, making it less useful for...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!