Jean-Baptiste Faure was THE eminent, most illustrious, most beloved, most-superlativized French baritone of 1800s. He created the roles of Posa in Verdi's Don Carlos (in its original French langauge), Hamlet in Ambroise Thomas's opera, Nélusko in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine and Hoël in his Le pardon de Ploërmel (Dinorah), among others. He was regarded as THE defining characterization of Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust and indeed sang it at its Covent Garden premiere (1863) and at its first performance at the Paris Opera (1869) in a new, revised version. This cylinder is thought to be one of two or three he was convinced to record somewhere between 1897 and 1900. There are disputes as to its authenticity, since there is little to no documentation about it. However, it begins with the either the singer or the recording engineer announcing !!! LE GRAND-PÈRE DU BARYTON !!! (The grandfather of the baritone). That the announcement forgoes the singer's actual name for so grand and loving an honorific (referring also to an elderly person) points wholly and only to FAURE. What we hear here is him singing aged in his late 60s, possibly 70—long after he had retired—on a very primitive recording device. This is, simply put, the *oldest-born great singer whose voice was recorded.* Alphonse of La favorite was one of his most important roles, one with which he toured the provinces of France in 1877, gaining enormous critical and popular notoriety from those who hadn't had a chance to hear him. A sampling of writing about Faure in this role and specifically this recitative and aria: - His voice is skilled in rendering the most violent as well as the gentlest emotions; and right royal is the way in which he sings the "Jardins de l'Alcazar"[...] - It was before a house crowded to the ceiling that the celebrated baritone sang the part of Alphonse in a manner thoroughly justifying the brilliant ovation of which he was the object[...] Only those persons who have heard the great artist in La Favorite can have any notion how much Donizetti's music gains in value and charm by such an interpreter. M. Faure is an exceptional singer, possessed of an admirable voice; he is also a first-rate actor. With what authority he sang the grand air of the second act, 'Palais [sic] de l'Alcazar'! What a striking expression of despite and irony he infused into the romance of the third act, 'Pour tant d'amour...'! LE ROI Jardins de l'Alcazar, délices des rois Maures, que j'aime à promener sous vos vieux sycomores les rêves amoureux dont s'enivre mon cœur! Léonor! Viens, j'abandonne dieu, mon peuple avec mon trône; que ton c¦ur à moi se donne! Rien par moi n'est regretté, si pour ciel et pour couronne il me reste ta beauté. Léonor! Mon amour brave l'univers et Dieu pour toi; à tes pieds, je suis esclave, mais l'amant se relève roi! Rien ne peut finir l'ivresse de mes jours liés aux tiens; pour toujours, belle maîtresse, pour toujours tu m'appartiens. (à don Gaspar, qui entre) Pour la fête, préviens toute ma cour.