Torna a Surriento~1924~Giovanni Martinelli

Its symphonic Sundays again. Time for a bit of light classical from 90 years past.
Torna a Surriento was recorded in Camden, New Jersey February 27, 1924 and was assigned matrix BVE 29444, label Victrola 1100 with Nina being marketed on Side B. The first three attempts to record Surriento were unsuccessful, take 4 was held as a backup, and take 5 was deemed to be of sufficient quality to release to the public. Victrola 1100 is a double sided red label 10 inch disc manufactured by the Victor Talking Machine Co of Camden.
The recording is pre-1925 and as such, is acoustically recorded with vocalist, featured violinist and limited orchestra all crowded in front of a "horn" which gathered the sound and concentrated it in a small pipe which culminated at a recording needle. The recordings were of inferior quality when compared to electrical recordings using the new Western Electric microphone technology starting in April 1925.
Martinelli was born in Italy in 1885 and became one of the worlds most famous tenors of the 20th century after a 32 season run at the New York Met where he sang 36 different rolls in 926 performances. Along with Francis Alda, Rosa Ponselle, Alma Gluck and Louise Homer, he made commercial recordings of operatic offerings and in many instances, performed duos with one of the ladies. Martinelli was a handsome playboy but remained married to the love of his life, Adele Prevatali, from 1913 until his death in 1969.
The song is about the town of Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast of Italy and the film & pictures in the last half of this vid are of that coast.
This record was transcribed using a 1911 hand cranked Victrola and a Canon digital camera to digitalize the sound. Thanks again to Mike W and the heirs of Gustav Groos of San Antonio, Texas for letting me have use of this disc to record and upload.