Early opera recordings on wax cylinders

Lionel Mapleson created more than 100 cylinder recordings of Metropolitan Opera performances at a time when sound recording was in its infancy. These cylinders made it possible to create a live recording with full orchestra and performers—a feat that was not otherwise accomplished until the advent of electrical recording in the late 1920s. Mapleson, the Metropolitan Opera’s librarian, captured a number of legendary performers who never made commercial recordings, such as Marcella Sembrich, Jean de Reszke, Nellie Melba, Louise Homer, Emma Calvé, and David Bispham, thereby providing documentation of notable artists as well as invaluable examples of early 20th-century performance practice. Mapleson’s recordings were among the first 25 nominated to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, formed to highlight the richness of the nation’s recorded works.