"Divas Volume 1. 1906-1935" by Various Artists (Nimbus Records)

This was the compilation that started my love affair with old 78 rpm recordings from a century ago. Back than, some two decades ago, I knew classical music just vaguely, had nobody to point me to that direction and was at that age where pop music was all I cared about. But the experience of working on the radio and seeing how it all works behind the scene soured my enthusiasm for pop music to the point that at home I turned to old jazz & blues recordings that I liked immensely precisely because it was another world. The sound of old, scratched recordings actually thrilled me and transported me to another dimension, it was like time machine - besides, after 1980s I got so tired of ubiquitous synthesisers and drum machines that were all the rage, hearing that sound everywhere made it all somehow plastic and uniformed. So I dived into old 1920s recordings of earliest blues artists and from here it was just a step into this.

Like always, it was nothing planned: I strolled casually trough my local library, looking for something else and voilà this compilation caught my attention. 

Took it home and enjoyed it immensely, because it opened new door to me - it also had nice liner notes with explanations who these people were and why they were so important in their times. In the meantime I became very familiar with British record company Nimbus Records whose sub-label Prima Voce lovingly restores these old, pre-WW2 classical recordings and keep them on the market for connoisseurs of this type of music. We are talking about gramophone with giant acoustic horn and recordings that had one song per side - something that Sherlock Holmes would have played at home (I was thrilled to discover that Romanovs in their court loved and collected some of the music compiled here). 

We are far removed from the times when these recordings were originally created; where classically trained soprano was once the most familiar and popular of voices, eclipsed by other forms of modern music, operatic soprano today is one of the most alien - it came to sound pompous and affected to majority of audience long removed from its popular appeal. Although authors like Rupert Christiansen claim this was the popular music of its time, I am not absolutely convinced that its appeal ever went beyond limits of urban cities and audiences who had access to theatres (and gramophone), however there is no doubt that people like Mozart and Bellini were hit makers of their time. Ladies represented here were huge stars with international following and although these recordings were very important in shaping future generations of singers (young Maria Callas idolised Claudia Muzio who is included here) we must not forget that in reality they were primarily live performers who cautiously approached this new recording business as novelty, never expecting the future will evaluate them on the strength of these recordings. Just a magical time machine experience and I am very glad to find this compilation again.