Article

Rococo Records

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Rococo Records. Label for LP reissue of rare 78s and cylinders. It was introduced in the mid-1950s by Ross, Court & Co, a firm established in 1951 in Toronto by André Ross and Leonard and Peter Court as a retail outlet for historic and European recordings.

Rococo Records

Rococo Records. Label for LP reissue of rare 78s and cylinders. It was introduced in the mid-1950s by Ross, Court & Co, a firm established in 1951 in Toronto by André Ross and Leonard and Peter Court as a retail outlet for historic and European recordings. In 1972 Court moved to England, opening a store - The Old Record - in Twickenham, and Ross assumed sole direction of the Rococo label, moving to Coral Gables, Fla, but maintaining a stockpile in Canada and continuing in 1991 to market Rococo records from Toronto.

The first Rococo record (R-1, a 10-inch LP released in April 1955) featured singers Sir Charles Santley, Francesco Marconi, Selma Kurz, Emilie Herzog, Felia Litvinne, and Feodor Chaliapin (a rare 1901 recording). By 1977 some 400 LPs of vocal and instrumental music had been released. Among Canadian artists represented are Emma Albani, Thérèse Deniset, Pauline Donalda, Louise Edvina, Jeanne Gordon, and Edward Johnson. Rococo distributes Cantilena Records, a label established in 1966 on similar principles by John Stratton, and has released under its own label a few LPs of vaudeville and music hall performances.