memo: 百年唱片重见天日
巴黎歌剧院和法国国立图书馆于2007年12月19日展示了一个世纪以前封存、装有唱片的两只瓮。当年埋藏这两只瓮的目的是为了让后世子孙有机会聆听当时著名歌剧演唱家的绝唱。
1907年12月24日，在位于巴黎市中心的巴黎歌剧院地下室举行了一次庄严的仪式，24张唱片被放入两只瓮中封存起来。每只瓮中装有12张唱片，上面录制了法国和意大利最杰出的歌剧，其中包括比才、古诺、多尼采蒂、罗西尼和威尔第等名家的作品，演唱者则是当年最著名的音乐家，其中包括富于传奇色彩的歌剧首席女主角梅尔芭和意大利男高音演唱家卡鲁索。
唱片捐赠者是当年的留声机公司老板阿尔弗雷德·克拉克，他要求在100年后打开这两只瓮，“这样，那个年代的人就可以听到我们这个时代最出色的声音”。
两只瓮于1989年被挖出，由国立图书馆保管。鉴于当年为保护唱片所使用的石棉材料有可能对人体造成伤害，在19日的公众见面仪式上不会打开瓮。
前身是留声机公司的百代唱片公司将根据瓮中保存的唱片内容发行一张CD，并会效仿当年再举行一次仪式，“将代表当代音乐的唱片封存起来”。
After 100 Years, Caruso and Melba Sing Again
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: December 17, 2007
A century after they were sealed, two urns containing 24 discs representing the best of French and Italian opera, as sung by artists like Nellie Melba and Enrico Caruso, will be put on display on Wednesday by the Paris Opera and the French National Library, Agence France-Presse reported. During 2008 the recordings, which feature works by Bizet, Gounod, Donizetti and Rossini, will be extracted from their protective covering, and EMI, the successor to Gramophone, which donated the discs, will issue them on CD. The records were sealed on Dec. 24, 1907, in a solemn ceremony in the basement of the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris as a gift from Alfred Clark, the head of Gramophone in France. He stipulated that they remain unopened for 100 years, “so men of that epoch can hear what the leading voices of our time sounded like.” The urns were exhumed in 1989 and entrusted to the library for safekeeping. Because of danger from the asbestos used to protect the records, the urns will not be opened when they are displayed this week.