Caruso sings Mario Costa's composition, "Sei Morta Nella Vita Mia" (Your Heart No Longer Beats for Me) for Victor in 1918. Vincenzo Bellezza on the piano. This is one of the rarest recording that Caruso made for Victor company, since this recording was never released commercially.

According to the Victor files, Calvin Child, the head of Victor's artist department, thought this recording "sounds too life-like and too good", so he demanded to cancel the issue of this record. Like he said, this recording is really well-recorded, and maybe Calvin Child feared that the public would demand more much higher quality recordings which was hardly achieved in those days.

This recording was first released in 1947, as one of the RCA Victor Christmas present for the Victor salesmen and dealers. It was pressed on a red vinyl, which is similar to that of "Heritage Series" records material, but much harder, enough to be played on an acoustic machines. Later it was released in 1949 by American Gramophone Society (AGS) label (shellac pressing), but I never saw the copy.

Played on my Victrola J1-50 with Mica No.2 Reproducer. The result is very remarkable, and really good. Hope you'll enjoy this. (less info)