Stories of the recordings of the Spanish tenor Antonio Arámburo (1838-1912) were long thought to be apocryphal. However, in recent years, a cache of cylinders, made around 1901 for his own label, Compañía de Impresiones Fonográficas Antonio Arámburo, were discovered. Although Arámburo’s venture into the recording industry proved to be a commercial failure, these rare cylinders provide a glimpse into the art of one of the earliest born tenors to have preserved his voice for posterity.

This particular recording, however, is not one of them. About 60 years ago…before the discovery of the authenticated Arámburo cylinders, Edward J. Smith issued an album on his “Golden Age of Opera” label with a recording of “Niun mi tema” from Verdi’s Otello that was purported to have been made by Arámburo. Listed as an “unpublished stage test” for G&T, the disc was said to have been recorded in 1902 and has received a great deal of circulation (it was even issued on CD in the 1990s) as a rare recording of the tenor’s voice. When compared to the authenticated recordings of Arámburo, the voice in this performance is clearly NOT the same tenor. It should be mentioned here that Smith was notorious for making false attributions in his reissued recordings of unidentified singers, including supposed cylinders of Christina Nilsson and Jean de Reszke. You may recall my own embarrassing misstep of accepting Antonio Cotogni as the mystery baritone on a recording of "Sì, pel ciel" with Francesco Tamagno, solely based on Smith’s attribution. In any case, given that this recording is not Arámburo, who is it? Who is the mystery tenor heard in this recording? If any listeners wish to venture a guess, I would gladly welcome your suggestions.

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