This recording of La Favorite is particularly significant. Through it, one is able to hear Donizetti’s opera as originally written. Despite the primitive sound on this acoustic recording, this performance must be viewed as a most important historic document since it is the only recording of La Favorite sung in French by singers steeped and trained in the French vocal tradition. This recording was made at a time when La Favorite was still enjoying great popularity in Paris and even more so in the French provinces. Although the names of the singers heard here may be unfamiliar to most listeners today, it will be obvious on first hearing that this cast, is completely comfortable with this music, as are no singers of the current generation.

The difficulties encountered in producing this set have been considerable. To begin with, photos of Robert Lassalle and Robert Marvini proved almost impossible to locate. Only at the eleventh hour when I had practically given up hope did examples of each magically appear. I am ever grateful to all who helped in the search. My next task was to remaster the original Pathé discs, and join together the sides so as to give the listener a sense of continuity throughout the performance.

Pathé issued these complete opera sets initially on etched label discs measuring 35 cm or 14 inches in diameter. These records played from the center outward at a speed that ranged from 86 to 96 rpm, depending upon the whim of the particular recording engineer. Four years later, the complete Le théâtre chez soi series was reissued on more conventional paper label discs, measuring 29 cm or 111/2 inches. These discs played from the outside inward at a speed of 75 to 80 rpm. Of course new cylinder to disc transfers had to be made for the new disc format. I had, in my collection, one complete set of La Favorite on the 29 cm paper label format. I also possessed six discs in the earlier 35 cm etched label format. Expecting the sound to be superior on the larger discs, I compared the same sides in both formats. To my amazement, I found very little difference between the two, and so I assumed that my paper label set would suffice for this CD reissue.

At this point, I was prepared to tackle all of the usual problems that one encounters with Pathé discs, namely, sonic inconsistency from one side to another due primarily to Pathé’s careless transferring of their wax cylinder masters to disc. However, as I worked, I was confronted with a quite unexpected and unwelcome problem. Let me explain.

The master recordings for these complete operas were made on to large wax cylinders that could accommodate a recording time of seven to eight minutes. Since the disc format could only contain four minutes of recorded time, the first half of each cylinder was transferred to one disc, and the second half to another. As I began to join the sides together, I noticed that frequently, there were several bars of music missing between the end of one side and the beginning of the next. Since the 35 cm discs were made from different transfers, I decided to listen carefully to the six that I owned and was pleased to find that they contained at least some of the missing music. But where was I to find a complete set of the large format discs? I contacted every collector I know in the U.S., England, France, and Germany with no luck. It never occurred to me that a collector in Australia could help, but that is exactly what happened. Michael Quinn, a collector living in Brisbain told me that the Australian Film and Sound Archive has a 35 cm set of La Favorite presumably in excellent condition. I immediately contacted them and they were pleased to prepare a digital copy of their La Favorite set using my suggestions for speed and stylus size. Fortunately, this set contains music missing from my discs. During the past month, I have compared their sides with mine and integrated the best of both.