I too came upon some of the play - or opera? - connection to that late 19th C business but have not had a chance to explore.

My father, a complete technophobe, will be amused and beaming to hear this.

I too wish I had the storytelling gift.  My maternal grandfather, a professor of entomology at the University of Missouri, was terrific at it.  I have crossed paths with several others over the years with the raconteur gift - sometimes stories, sometimes jokes.  One who comes to mind was the fellow who - like me - worked for an engineering firm yet had previously, or so he claimed, made a living at writing jokes, including selling some to Phyllis Diller.  His joke-telling prowess certainly supported his claims.

Any chance of you finding a way to document some of the tales of your gifted lawyer-acquaintance?  I sure wish I had done that with Grandpa.

For some it is probably possible to train and practice so as to become adept at this sort of thing.  Doubtless not all, though, and it would have to be a commitment, likely at the cost of other life-interests.  It is regrettable that traditional oral pass-ons, whether storytelling, singing of folk-style songs, or other, is a rarity these days.  It saddens me that my children never got the experience that I did of learning scores of tunes from bygone eras from a parent's voice.  They have my love of music, but not that more-intimate and transcendant experience, nor from what I can tell, much interest in pre-50's music of any sort.  Nor can they break into "Cockles and Mussels," "Red River Valley," or "Green Grow the Rushes Oh" at will.  They might be able to piece together parts of "El Paso" though - one of the few pre-60's numbers they have heard from me.