These are treasures for collectors in the plural but they come from the treasury of one collector: Bill Breslin, proprietor of the 78 Emporium in Edinburgh, after which he has named the series (Volume 1, 6/04), and the subject of a ‘Singertalk’ in January 2004. Nowadays, really exciting discoveries are few and far between, and you probably have to travel to distant parts to find them – Mr Breslin goes to Russia. Such collectors may seem marginal in musical life but these enthusiasts are the preservers of live musical history: records here document the performing practices of a time now long distant, of the late 19th century as it passed into the 20th.

All 26 items here are of the utmost rarity as far as original copies are concerned, and often rare as samples of the art of the particular singer. Italy’s first Elektra is here, and so is London’s; the first Silvio of all, the first Ariadne and the first Lisa of The Queen of Spades. The names of only a few survive in general knowledge – Jeritza, Mei-Figner, perhaps Ancona (Caruso’s partner in The Pearl Fishers duet). But most are forgotten, and undeservedly so. For instance, Swedish baritone Conny Molin, heard in Nilakantha’s aria from Lakmé: a stylish singer with a fascinatingly individual timbre. Or tenor Alexander Kirchner, also singing in Swedish, brilliantly fluent and gifted with a true heroic ring. Or Ada Adini-Milliet, whose aria from an opera called Histoire d’amour is one of the most convincing recordings of the soprano voice in this period.

The period is essentially pre-First World War (the 1930 recording is the odd one out, a magical performance by the 70-year-old Mei-Figner of her friend Tchaikovsky’s song At the Ball). Those who might be thinking of venturing a tentative toe into unknown waters will be astonished by the clarity and immediacy of these voices from the primitive studios of so long ago.