Maria Galvany and Titta Ruffo - Dunque io son? ('The Barber of Seville' - Rossini) (1907)

Maria Galvany and Titta Ruffo sing 'Dunque io son?' with orchestra conducted by Carlo Sabajno, recorded in Milan in 1907 and transferred from Victrola 92501. Facts are sparse about the Spanish soprano Maria Galvany, and although it appears that she was probably born in 1878 (or thereabouts) no-one is sure when she died, although it could well have been 1918. Desmond Shawe-Taylor writing in 'The Record Year' (1952) wrote, 'Coloratura sopranos are often described as acrobatic, but Maria Galvany suggests a conjurer. The incredible speed and adroitness with which she negotiates repeated notes in alt, wide skips and chromatic scales, is like sleight-of-hand; it also resembles figure skating, or an old silent film in which everything happens at an immensely accelerated pace.' In 'Tornami a dir,' however, we hear a rather different singer. From Wikipedia: Titta Ruffo (9 June 1877 – 5 July 1953), born as Ruffo Cafiero (double forename) Titta, was an Italian operatic baritone who had a major international singing career. Known as the 'Voce del leone' ('voice of the lion'), he was greatly admired, even by rival baritones, such as Giuseppe De Luca, who said of Ruffo: 'His was not a voice, it was a miracle' (although not often published is the second part of De Luca's conclusion 'which he [Ruffo] bawled away...'), and Victor Maurel, the creator of Verdi's Iago and Falstaff. Maurel said that the notes of Ruffo's upper register were the most glorious baritone sounds he had ever heard (see Pleasants, cited below). Indeed Walter Legge, the prominent classical record producer, went so far as to call Ruffo 'a genius.'