Enrico Caruso/Titta Ruffo : Si, pel ciel marmoreo giuro! (Otello) Verdi : 2022 restoration.

This recording was made on 8th January 1914 by purely mechanical means, 11 years before microphones and other electrical equipment were used in recording studios.I have tried to give the audio a more true-to-life sound and just to give a "live" effect with a bit more presence, have added applause. This is regarded by many as one of the greatest operatic recordings ever made but, unfortunately, it is the only recording that Enrico Caruso and Titta Ruffo made together. In the opera, Iago (Titta Ruffo) fans the flame of Otello's (Enrico Caruso) passionate rage higher and higher until, in an outburst of terrific fury, Otello cries "Ah that the slave had forty thousand lives! one is all too weak for my revenge!" Calling upon Iago to witness his oath, he swears by Heaven and earth that he will never rest until his hand has wrought his blood revenge. The false Iago, kneeling beside him ,delivers himself of just as violent an oath that he will devote "his wit, hands and heart to wronged Otello's service" and live only to see him revenged.