Mussorgsky's "Song of the Flea" - the shellack versions

[adriano]

Hi all :-)
My craziest collection of 78's is the one of Mussorgsky's "Song of the Flea", as interpreted by singers of the past. Alone by Chaliapin, I have 5 different versions. In total there are 33 items, some of which in extremely comic versions - and with piano or orchestral accompaniment. Arrangements are by differenet composers, mostly unnamed. Russian, Baltic, Northern European, German, French, English, Spanish and USA singers can be heard.
The whole would make up a curious double CD with a funny cover, having, for example, a caricature of Mussorgsky riding a big flea...
These interpretations would deserve a particular study - and I am still looking for about 5 missing items before reaching a presumably "complete" shellack collection.
Anybody wanting to know my updated list, can send me a message.
You may know that this "Song by Mephistopheles" has also been set to music by Beethoven and by Busoni.
Is this thread accepted by UC?

[eschiss1]

Well, one could have a sort-of-related "Goethe and the Unsung composer" thread, or something-such- a Faustian bargain at the price, surely. (... bad, bad bad joke. Sorry. Sorry!!!)