Cetra Records

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Cetra (Compagnia per edizioni, teatro, registrazioni ed affini) was an Italian record company, active between 1933 and 1957, the year in which, by merging with Fonit [it] (Fonodisco Italiano Trevisan), it gave birth to Fonit Cetra. Its roster of artists included Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Lina Pagliughi, Ebe Stignani, Carlo Bergonzi, Galliano Masini, Giovanni Malipiero, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Carlo Tagliabue, Rolando Panerai, Italo Tajo, Giuseppe Taddei, Tancredi Pasero and Cesare Siepi, among other leading Italian opera singers.

The company was notable for issuing many recordings of obscure or rarely performed operas and the more obscure operas of Giuseppe Verdi to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the composer's 1901 death in 1951. Cetra recordings are often now reissued by the company Fonit Cetra. Cetra opera albums were first distributed in the United States on the Cetra-Soria label (founded by Dario and Dorle Soria, who later founded Angel Records). In 1966, Everest Records began distribution of several Cetra opera recordings in the United States.^[1]

Cetra also produced popular music recordings from at least the World War II years through the 1960s. One of their instrumental artists is accordionist Michele Corino, a soloist with Italy's prominent Angelini Orchestrauntil he moved to San Francisco (California), in 1948. "Mike" ran a prominent accordion studio in "North Beach Music" (a.k.a. Corino Music) and taught, worked and recorded with brothers Fabio and Gianfranco Giotta, part of the San Francisco-based Caffé Trieste (see also "Cavalier Records", "Caffé Trieste" and "Trieste Records"). Gianfranco shared the studio with Mike on the 1963 Cetra album titled "Rome to Paris".