Scope and arrangement
The Dorle Soria papers document Soria's work with her husband, Dario Soria, including the establishment and operation of the Angel Records label for EMI; the Soria Series of albums produced for RCA; the Cetra-Soria Records label; the launch of the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, in collaboration with Gian Carlo Menotti; and Dorle Soria's working relationships with various musicians dating from her time working for Arthur Judson, as well as in later years. The papers consist of subject files containing professional and personal correspondence, contracts, promotional material, clippings, business records, company catalogs, and photographs. Correspondence throughout the collection is with either Dorle or Dario Soria.
The Angel Records and EMI files document the founding and history of the label from 1953 until the Sorias left the company in 1958. The Cetra-Soria files cover the years 1945 to 1958 and include catalogs, clippings, and photographs of the company offices. The RCA files contain inter-office correspondence and and press releases regarding the Soria Series artist and repertoire, album designs, publicity, and other business matters, and include Dorle Soria's Grammy nomination for best Classical album design. They also contain correspondence between Dario Soria and RCA regarding his resignation from the company in 1970.
The files for Festival of Two Worlds and Gian Carlo Menotti hold correspondence with Menotti describing the nature of the Festival and the role of the Sorias in running it, as well as promotional material and programs.
Other subject files hold correspondence with or regarding musicians the Sorias worked with, including Eugene Ormandy, Vladimir Horowitz, José Iturbi, Yehudi Menuhin, Gregor Piatigorsky, Sir Thomas Beecham, Jascha Heifetz, Walter Legge, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. This correspondence discusses concert appearances and touring activities, recording and other business matters, and also holds informal personal notes and letters.
The files for Horowitz, Iturbi, Piatigorsky, and Schwarzkopf hold photographs as well as correspondence. A separate file of photographs contains images of unidentified persons.
The files also contain a folder on the book The Festival of Opera, for which Dario Soria wrote the preface. The file for Benny Goodman contains a report prepared by Dario Soria in 1958 advising Goodman on record company options. The clippings file holds articles about the Sorias, as well as articles by Dorle Soria from various publications she wrote for. Her writing is also represented by the file of Carnegie Hall program note drafts. The subject file for the Sorias contains biographies of both of them.
Correspondence with Maria Callas and Arturo Toscanini originally held in this collection was removed and processed separately.
Arrangement
The papers are arranged alphabetically by file title.