 Paoli was the first operatic artist to record an entire opera when he participated in a performance of "Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo in Milan, Italy.He was selected in 1907 as the First Tenor in the main character, by a team of engineers and musicians which included Leoncavallo.The recording was arranged in the following manner; the musicians were placed at the end of the recording room and the back-up singers in a semi-arc in front of the gramophone, while Paoli stood alone away from the gramophone.