Aida Favia-Artsey

Aida Favia-Artsey, music critic and discographer. Author of ‘Caruso On Records’ Aida Favia-Artsey was born December 5th, 1904 in Russia, and died on February 14th, 1998, at the age of 93, in Westchester, NY. Her father, Raffaele Favia, a Russian baritone of Italian descent, sang and taught professionally, and he and his daughter even made a record together with Victor in 1920, although it was never published. She started record collecting in late 1930s and corresponded with a lot of old-time Opera stars, such as Titta Ruffo, Geraldine Farrar, and some other rather unknown artists such as Edith Helena and Fritzi Scheff - the former later appeared on the TV show "Life begins at 80" with the help of Ms. Favia-Artsay in 1955. She married an engineer, who helped her a lot with some technical stuffs such as the stroboscope that was the part of "Caruso on Records" book that could cover up from 67.92rpm to 87.80rpm. From 1950s to 70s she made some private LP reissues from her collection, mostly with Edward J. Smith. Also, she even provided some of Mapleson Cylinders that were missing from the NYPL's collection. Her final article appeared on Opera Quarterly, Fall of 1993.