To a whole generation of record collectors outside Italy Mafalda Favero was Tito Schipa’s partner in the Cherry Duet from L’amico Fritz. She was, we all agreed, a very worthy partner, and we probably went as far as looking her up in the books, which placed her firmly in Milan (1928-1950) with plentiful appearances throughout Italy and excursions abroad, including South America, London (1937 and ’39), San Francisco and (1938-9) the Metropolitan, New York. But she was certainly not the well-known figure she should have been. The reason, of course, is the Second World War. Favero was born in 1903 (earlier reference books give later dates), so that she had arrived at her mid-30s at the outbreak of war, which cut across her career just when it was beginning to fulfil its international promise …