QUESTION#3: Opera Song Written for Recording Industry

What well known opera song was written for the young recording industry?

Hint. The standard record in the early 1900s was a 10” 78 r.p.m.(revolutions per minute) platter made of Bakelite or some other hard breakable plastic like material. This record would take about 2 ½ minutes of music. Some records were better than others.

I remember my father had a recording of Beethoven’s moonlight sonata on two 12” 78 r.p.m. records (4 sides in all) on a German label called Polydor. The pianist was a very young Wilhelm Kempf. The surface hiss on these records was dreadful. Much worse than H.M.V., Columbia or Victor. Ah! Wouldn’t the world have been a better place if the Nazis had applied German industrial expertise to records instead of Tiger tanks? But, I digress.

This is actually a trick question, but you will still get a prize for giving the standard answer anyway.

ANSWER: 

The most familiar, or standard, answer is the song “Mattinata” words and music written
by Leoncavallo. Recorded initially by Enrico Caruso on April 8, 1904 with Leoncavallo at
the piano. Subsequently it has been recorded by almost every other Italian tenor.

So what’s the trick? Actually the Gramophone Company (Italy), Ltd., commissioned
songs to be recorded from five well known composers.

They are: “Ascoltiamo!” by Pietro Mascagni, “Canto d’Anime” by Giacomo Puccini
“Verso l’Aurora” by Alberto Franchetti, “Mattinata” by Ruggiero Leoncavallo and “Crepuscolo Triste” by Umberto Giordano.

I will include “Canto d’anime” in our forthcoming Pucciniana recital. Puccini, an inveterate
self borrower, subsequently recycled the melody as Rinuccio’s celebration of Florence from “Gianni Schicchi” which we will be able to see again at San Francisco Opera this September.

I have not been able to find the scores or recordings of the contributions of Mascagni,
Franchetti or Giordano. Help! If you can????????????