I heard in recent years a series on the German television about the "schellack" era. In that time I didn't bother what "Schellack" was, only that it were records of the early 20th century. And the series was most about records of the voices of the great opera singers. I think I can find it back, but as it is all in German...
But today I wanted to start a thread about this early records, not anymore on a wax cylinder, but on records made of "shellac"
And thus I wondered what shellac was...and I didn't believe it a product of bugs...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac
And the Schellackplatte:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schellackplatte
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x81ydTRZFEk
Records from 1900 on
https://www.mediathek.at/historische-toene/fruehe-schellackeinspielungen/

Among others a monologue from Hamlet in German
and  also this:
https://www.mediathek.at/portaltreffer/atom/0C35E7F6-3B5-0005E-00000E98-0C3547FF/pool/BWEB/


And then the great Caruso first record from 11 April 1902
http://www.scena.org/lsm/sm7-7/caruso-en.html




Kind regards from Paul.