Ah! Lève toi Soleil!

The Librabry of Congress has put online some Victor recordings from the early XXth century in a section called National Jukebox. The Opera section contains, to date, more than 1000 extracts.

This is indeed a good way to re-discover famous operas and famous names from the past, long since forgotten. In the French section, this includes extracts from

• Victor Massé, Paul et Virginie, "Air du tigre"
• Ferdinand Hérold, Le pré-aux-clercs, "Souvenirs du jeune âge"
• Ambroise Thomas, Le caïd, "Air du tambour major"
• Félicien David, La Perle du Brésil, "Charmant oiseau" 
• Benjamin Godard (the composer who reorchestrated Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles, see there), La vivandière, "Viens avec nous petit" (the melody reminds me of the French national anthem)
• Meyerbeer, Robert le Diable ("Du rendez-vous") and Le Prophète ("O toi qui m’abandonnes")
• Lecocq's operette La fille de Madame Angot, "Voyons, Monsieur, raisonnons politique"
• Massenet, Cléopâtre ("Air de la lettre") and Griselidis ("Ouvrez-vous sur mon front, portes du paradis!")

Other Gounod's extracts:

• "Oh nuit d'amour ciel radieux" duet with Geraldine Farrar and Enrico Caruso, from Faust
• "O ma lyre immortelle", Jeanne Gerville, Sapho
• "Au bruit des lourds marteaux d'airain", Marcel Journet, Philémon et Baucis (the tempo is not as good as the recording I own and doesn't really give justice to this beautiful aria - Philémon et Baucis is, to my opinion, a brilliant score ruined by an atrocious libretto, which explains why the opera was alas forgotten)
• "Faites lui mes aveux" (air de Siebel), Louise Homer, Faust
• "Ah! Lève-toi soleil", Charles Dalmorès, Roméo et Juliette
• "Ah! Ne fuis pas encore!", Beniamino Gigli and Lucrezia Bori, Roméo et Juliette

Extracts from Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles:

• "Je crois entendre encore", Enrico Caruso
• "Au fond du temple saint", Marcel Journet and Edmond Clément
• "De mon amie", Enrico Caruso

And I haven't even started the italian section...