Cetra Records
Cetra Records was an Italian company which produced opera recordings from the 1930s onwards. 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 seldom heard operas by 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 Warner Fonit Cetra. Cetra opera albums were first distributed in the United States on the Cetra-Soria label. Beginning in 1966, several Cetra opera recordings were distributed in the U.S. by Everest Records.
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 "Orchestra Angelini" until he moved to San Francisco, California, in 1948. "Mike" ran a prominent accordion studio in "North Beach Music" and taught, worked and recorded with brothers Fabio and Gianfranco Giotta, part of the San Francisco-based Caffe Trieste. Gianfranco shared the studio with Mike on the 1963 Cetra album titled "Rome to Paris".
