“Air du Miroir” from Thaïs, composed by Jules Massenet (1842–1912)

Sometime around 1950, the Paris-based Saturne record label began a short-lived series of picture discs, incorporating artwork onto the actual recordings, which ranged from opera and dance music to spoken word and jazz. This example features an aria from Jules Massenet’s opera Thaïs, as sung by the soprano Géori Boué. She also sang on the first recording of the full opera, released in 1952 on Urania Records. The disc’s illustration shows the title character, Thaïs, an Egyptian courtesan. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is one of two known libraries to own a copy of this disc.