The Creators of Verismo, Vol. 1

Verismo opera is easier to identify than define. When one thinks of verismo, a number of composers come to mind: Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Franchetti, and Giordano. During the first decade of the verismo era, several sopranos made their reputations in connection with this new kind of opera. Among them were Angelica Pandolfini, Gemma Bellincioni, Amelia Pinto, Rosina Storchio, and Emma Carelli, all of whom made recordings at the beginning of the 20th century. For the first time on CD, we present the five incredibly rare G&T sides of Pandolfini, her complete recorded output, and the complete recordings of Gemma Bellincioni on four G&T sides, and ten Pathé sides. Also included in this set are the nine G&T sides from Giordano’s Siberia sung by the original cast. To round out this fascinating album with notes by Michael Aspinall, we present selected recordings by other important La Scala sopranos of the period – Amelia Pinto, Emma Carelli, and Cesira Ferrani. These have al