Giuseppe De Luca, Singing 'Largo al factotum' from 'The Barber of Seville'

Giuseppe De Luca ably performs the famous aria from "The Barber of Seville". in this early Vitaphone short. The version broadcast on Turner Classic Movies shows signs of being a poor copy of the film elements, but the sound elements are quite good, with only slight hiss and a bit of hollowness in the recording. Although the elements appear to track almost perfectly, there are several occasions when De Luca's mouth moves and there is no voice, leading me to suspect that this was not the original soundtrack, but a record made about the same time.

The camera work is minimal. The camera sits still and De Luca moves a bit, remaining in optimal range. There was little camera movement in these early pieces because of the difficulty of moving the sound equipment. They were intended to show off the sound process more than the work being filmed, prestige pieces rather than films. Still, they are important records of the state of the art at this stage, not only of movies, but of opera.