La fleur que tu m’avais jetee -Carmen (Bizet) McCormack, Bjorling , Lanza, Pavarotti.

Four nice recordings of The Flower Song from Bizet’s Opera Carmen. 0:00 John McCormack 7th Jan 1910 Sung in Italian 3:57 Jussi Bjorling 10th Aug 1938 Sung in French 7:48 Mario Lanza 8th April 1950 Sung in French 11:26 Luciano Pavarotti 1974 Sung in French The first three have been newly restored to give a fuller more spacious sound and just to give the effect of it being a concert and to give a smooth transition between tracks I have added some applause is from a Jussi Bjorling Carnegie Hall Bjorling and Lanza recordings were made in mono and the Pavarotti recording in stereo. When comparing please bear in mind that the McCormack recording was made 110 years ago, a full 15 years before microphones and electrical recordings were introduced. The singer and musicians were arranged round a conical horn that had a diaphragm attached to the small end.A needle or stylus was attached to the diaphragm , the music caused the diaphragm to vibrate and the sound wave was cu