Reviews for Opening Night La Fanciulla Del West New York City Opera

Italian opera singer (1873–1921)

Enrico Caruso
Caruso circa 1910
Built-in	(1873-02-25)25 Feb 1873 Naples, Kingdom of Italian republic
Died	two August 1921(1921-08-02) (aged 48) Naples, Kingdom of Italy
Resting place	Cimitero di Santa Maria del Pianto
Occupation	Operatic tenor
Years active	1895–1920
Spouse(due south)	Dorothy Park Benjamin (m. 1918)
Partner(s)	Ada Giachetti (1898–1908)
Children	5
Signature

Enrico Caruso (,^[1] ,^[ii] ^[3] ^[4] Italian: [enˈriːko kaˈruːzo]; 25 February 1873 – ii August 1921) was an Italian operatic tenor. He sang to peachy acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. Ane of the first major singing talents to exist commercially recorded, Caruso made 247 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920,^[five] which made him an international pop entertainment star.

Biography [edit]

Early life [edit]

Caruso in ane of his signature roles, as Canio in Pagliacci, 1908

Enrico Caruso came from a poor but not destitute background. Born in Naples in the via Santi Giovanni e Paolo n° 7 on 25 February 1873, he was baptised the next day in the next Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. His parents originally came from Piedimonte d'Alife (now called Piedimonte Matese), in the Province of Caserta in Campania, Southern Italia.^[half-dozen]

Caruso was the 3rd of seven children and i of just three to survive infancy. At that place is a story of Caruso's parents having had 21 children, 18 of whom died in infancy. However, on the basis of genealogical enquiry (amongst others conducted by Caruso family friend Guido D'Onofrio), biographers Pierre Cardinal,^[vii] Francis Robinson,^[8] and Enrico Caruso Jr. and Andrew Farkas,^[nine] have proven this to be an urban fable. Caruso himself and his brother Giovanni may take been the source of the exaggerated number.^[9] Caruso'south widow Dorothy also included the story in a memoir that she wrote about her husband. She quotes the tenor, speaking of his female parent, Anna Caruso (née Baldini): "She had 20-ane children. Twenty boys and 1 girl – also many. I am number nineteen boy."^[10]

Caruso'south father, Marcellino, was a mechanic and foundry worker. Initially, Marcellino thought his son should adopt the aforementioned trade, and at the age of eleven, the boy was apprenticed to a mechanical engineer who constructed public h2o fountains. (Whenever visiting Naples in future years, Caruso liked to signal out a fountain that he had helped to install.) Caruso later worked alongside his father at the Meuricoffre factory in Naples. At his female parent's insistence, he too attended school for a time, receiving a bones education under the tutelage of a local priest. He learned to write in a handsome script and studied technical draftsmanship.^[11] During this period he sang in his church choir, and his voice showed plenty promise for him to contemplate a possible career in music.

Caruso was encouraged in his early musical ambitions by his female parent, who died in 1888. To raise cash for his family, he found piece of work as a street singer in Naples and performed at cafes and soirées. Aged 18, he used the fees he had earned by singing at an Italian resort to buy his beginning pair of new shoes. His progress as a paid entertainer was interrupted, withal, past 45 days of compulsory military service. He completed this in 1894, resuming his phonation lessons upon discharge from the ground forces.

Early on career [edit]

On 15 March 1895 at the historic period of 22, Caruso made his professional stage debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples in the now-forgotten opera, L'Amico Francesco, by the amateur composer Mario Morelli. A string of further engagements in provincial opera houses followed, and he received instruction from the conductor and voice teacher Vincenzo Lombardi that improved his loftier notes and polished his style. Iii other prominent Neapolitan singers taught by Lombardi were the baritones Antonio Scotti and Pasquale Amato, both of whom would go on to partner Caruso at the Metropolitan Opera and the tenor Fernando De Lucia, who would also appear at the Met and later sing at Caruso'southward funeral.

Money continued to exist in curt supply for the young Caruso. One of his first publicity photographs, taken on a visit to Sicily in 1896, depicts him wearing a bedspread draped like a toga since his sole apparel shirt was away being laundered.

During the concluding few years of the 19th century, Caruso performed at a succession of theatres throughout Italy until 1900, when he was rewarded with a contract to sing at La Scala. His La Scala debut occurred on 26 Dec of that year in the part of Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini'southward La bohème with Arturo Toscanini conducting. Audiences in Monte Carlo, Warsaw and Buenos Aires also heard Caruso sing during this pivotal phase of his career and, in 1899–1900, he appeared before the Tsar and the Russian elite at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as role of a touring visitor of first-form Italian singers.

The showtime major operatic role that Caruso created was Federico in Francesco Cilea'due south 50'arlesiana (1897); and then he was Loris in Umberto Giordano'southward Fedora (1898) at the Teatro Lirico, Milan. At that same theatre he created the role of Maurizio in Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur (1902). Puccini considered casting the young Caruso in the part of Cavaradossi in Tosca at its premiere in January 1900, just ultimately chose the older, more than established Emilio De Marchi instead. Caruso appeared in the role later that yr and Puccini stated that Caruso sang the part ameliorate.

Enrico Caruso as Duke in Rigoletto, 1904
Caruso as Duke in The Theatre, 1912

Caruso took part in a k concert at La Scala in Feb 1901 that Toscanini organised to mark the contempo expiry of Giuseppe Verdi. Among those appearing with him at the concert were two other leading Italian tenors of the day, Francesco Tamagno (the creator of the protagonist'south role in Verdi's Otello) and Giuseppe Borgatti (the creator of the protagonist'due south role in Giordano's Andrea Chénier). In December 1901, Caruso made his debut at the San Carlo Opera House in Naples in L'Elisir d'Amore to a lukewarm reception; two weeks later he appeared as Des Grieux in Massenet'south Manon which was fifty-fifty more than coolly received. The indifference of the audiences and harsh disquisitional reviews in his native city upset him securely and he vowed never to sing there again. He later said: "I will never once more come to Naples to sing; information technology will merely be to consume a plate of spaghetti". Caruso embarked on his final series of La Scala performances in March 1902, creating the principal tenor part of Federico Loewe in Germania past Alberto Franchetti.

A month later, on 11 Apr, he was engaged past the Gramophone Company to brand his beginning group of audio-visual recordings in a Milan hotel room for a fee of 100 pounds sterling. These ten discs swiftly became all-time-sellers. Amid other things, they helped spread 29-year-old Caruso's fame throughout the English-speaking world. The management of London'due south Royal Opera Firm, Covent Garden, signed him for a flavour of appearances in eight different operas ranging from Verdi's Aida to Mozart'southward Don Giovanni. His successful debut at Covent Garden occurred on 14 May 1902, equally the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto. Covent Garden's highest-paid diva, the Australian soprano Nellie Melba, partnered him as Gilda. They would sing together often during the early 1900s. In her memoirs, Melba praised Caruso's vox but considered him to be a less sophisticated musician and interpretive artist than Jean de Reszke—the Met's biggest tenor drawcard prior to Caruso.

Metropolitan Opera [edit]

In 1903, Caruso made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The gap between his London and New York engagements had been filled by a serial of performances in Italy, Portugal and South America. Caruso'due south contract had been negotiated past his agent, the broker and impresario Pasquale Simonelli. Caruso's debut was in a new production of Rigoletto on 23 November 1903. This fourth dimension, Marcella Sembrich sang opposite him every bit Gilda. A few months later, he began his lifelong association with the Victor Talking Machine Visitor. He fabricated his first American records on ane Feb 1904, having signed a lucrative financial deal with Victor. Thereafter, his recording career ran in tandem with his Met career, both bolstering each other, until his death in 1921.

Contrary: Euterpe, muse of music, with lyre

Caruso purchased the Villa Bellosguardo, a palatial country house almost Florence, in 1904. The villa became his retreat away from the pressures of the operatic stage and the grind of travel. Caruso's preferred accost in New York City was a suite at Manhattan'south Knickerbocker Hotel. Caruso commissioned the New York jewellers Tiffany & Co. to strike a 24-carat-aureate medal adorned with the tenor'southward profile. He presented the medal in gratitude to Simonelli as a souvenir of his many well-remunerated performances at the Met.

In improver to his regular New York engagements, Caruso gave recitals and operatic performances in a large number of cities across the United States and sang in Canada. He too continued to sing widely in Europe, actualization again at Covent Garden in 1904–07 and 1913–14, and undertaking a UK tour in 1909.^[13] Audiences in France, Kingdom of belgium, Monaco, Austria, Hungary and Germany as well heard him before the outbreak of World War I. In 1909, Melba asked him to participate in her forthcoming bout of Australia, simply he declined because of the significant amount of travel fourth dimension that such a trip would entail.

Members of the Met'due south roster of artists, including Caruso, had visited San Francisco in April 1906 for a series of performances. Post-obit an appearance as Don José in Carmen at the city's K Opera House, a strong jolt awakened Caruso at 5:13 on the morning of the 18th in his suite at the Palace Hotel. He found himself in the centre of the San Francisco earthquake, which led to a series of fires that destroyed most of the city. The Met lost all the sets, costumes and musical instruments that it had brought on tour only none of the artists was harmed. Holding an autographed photo of President Theodore Roosevelt, Caruso ran from the hotel but was composed enough to walk to the St. Francis Hotel for breakfast. Charlie Olson, the broiler cook, made the tenor salary and eggs. Plainly, the quake had no effect on Caruso's appetite, as he cleaned his plate and tipped Olson $2.l.^[14] Caruso made an ultimately successful try to abscond the city, offset by boat and then by train. He vowed never to return to San Francisco and kept his word.^[xiv] ^[15]

In November 1906, Caruso was charged with an indecent act allegedly committed in the monkey firm of New York's Key Park Zoo. The police force accused him of pinching the buttocks of a married woman. Caruso claimed a monkey did the bottom-pinching. He was found guilty and fined ten dollars, although suspicions linger that he may have been entrapped by the victim and the arresting officer. The leaders of New York's opera-going high club were outraged initially by the incident, which received widespread newspaper coverage, but they before long forgot about it and continued to attend Caruso's Met performances.^[xvi] Caruso's fan base at the Met was not restricted, yet, to the wealthy. Members of America'south middle classes also paid to hear him sing—or buy copies of his recordings—and he enjoyed a substantial post-obit among New York's 500,000 Italian immigrants.

Caruso created the function of Dick Johnson in the world premiere of Puccini'southward La fanciulla del West on x December 1910. The composer conceived the music for Johnson with Caruso'southward vox specifically in heed. With Caruso appeared two more of the Met's star singers, the Czech soprano Emmy Destinn and baritone Pasquale Amato. Toscanini, then the Met'due south principal conductor, presided in the orchestra pit.

Extortion by Black Hand [edit]

Caruso's success in the Metropolitan Opera drew the attention of Blackness Mitt extortionists.^[17] They threatened to injure his throat with lye or damage him and his family if he did not pay them coin.^[18] He initially paid their extortion fee of $2,000 expecting the matter to be settled, but his willingness to pay fabricated them more brazen. They subsequently demanded an even larger sum of $fifteen,000."^[nineteen] He was aided past New York Urban center police force detective Joseph Petrosino^[twenty] who, impersonating Caruso, captured the extortionists.^[21] Two Italian men, Antonio Misiano and Antonio Cincotto, would exist later specifically accused of the crime.^[22] ^[23]

Subsequently career and personal life [edit]

Caruso in front of his white Empire-style upright piano, in his flat in New York Metropolis

Caruso's timbre darkened equally he aged and, from 1916 onwards, he began adding heroic parts such every bit Samson, John of Leyden, and Eléazar to his repertoire. Caruso toured the S American nations of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil in 1917, and 2 years afterwards performed in Mexico City. In 1920, he was paid the enormous sum of 10,000 U.S. dollars a night (~$126,000 in 2018) to sing in Havana, Cuba.^[24]

The United states had entered World War I in 1917, sending troops to Europe. Caruso did extensive charity piece of work during the conflict, raising coin for war-related patriotic causes past giving concerts and participating enthusiastically in Liberty Bond drives. The tenor had shown himself to be a shrewd businessman since arriving in America. He put a sizable proportion of his earnings from tape royalties and singing fees into a range of investments. Biographer Michael Scott writes that by the end of the war in 1918, Caruso's annual income taxation bill amounted to $154,000.^[25]

Prior to World State of war I, Caruso had been romantically linked to an Italian soprano, Ada Giachetti, who was a few years older than he was.^[26] Though already married, Giachetti bore Caruso four sons during their liaison, which lasted from 1897 to 1908. Ii survived infancy: Rodolfo Caruso (1898–1951) and singer/actor Enrico Caruso Jr. (1904–1987). Ada had left her hubby, manufacturer Gino Botti, and an existing son to cohabit with the tenor. Information provided in Scott'south biography of Caruso suggests that she was his vocal autobus equally well as his lover.^[27] Statements by Enrico Caruso Jr. in his book tend to substantiate this.^[28] ^[29] Her relationship with Caruso broke down later on 11 years and they separated. Giachetti's subsequent attempts to sue him for damages were dismissed past the courts.^[xxx]

Caruso with his wife and daughter

Towards the end of the war, Caruso met and courted a 25-year-erstwhile socialite, Dorothy Park Benjamin (1893–1955). She was the girl of a wealthy New York patent lawyer. In spite of the disapproval of Dorothy'south begetter, the couple wed on 20 August 1918. They had a daughter, Gloria Caruso (1919–1999). Dorothy wrote two biographies of Caruso, published in 1928 and 1945. The books include many of Caruso's letters to his wife.^[31]

A fastidious dresser, Caruso took at least two baths a day and enjoyed proficient food and convivial company. He forged a particularly shut bail with his Met and Covent Garden colleague Antonio Scotti – an amiable and stylish baritone from Naples. Caruso was superstitious and habitually carried several adept-luck charms with him when he sang. He played cards for relaxation and sketched friends, other singers and musicians. His wife, Dorothy, said that by the time she knew him, her husband's favourite hobby was compiling scrapbooks. He also amassed valuable collections of rare stamp stamps, coins, watches and antiquarian snuffboxes. Caruso was a heavy smoker of strong Egyptian cigarettes. This deleterious habit, combined with a lack of exercise and the punishing schedule of performances that Caruso willingly undertook season later season at the Met, may accept contributed to the persistent ill-health which affected the last year of his life.^[32] ^[33] ^[34]

Illness and decease [edit]

Caruso's body lying in state in the Vesuvio Hotel in Naples, 3 August 1921

On 16 September 1920, Caruso concluded 3 days of recording sessions at Victor'southward Trinity Church studio in Camden, New Bailiwick of jersey. He recorded several discs, including the Domine Deus and Crucifixus from the Petite messe solennelle past Rossini. These recordings were to exist his final.

Dorothy Caruso noted that her married man'due south health began a singled-out downward spiral in late 1920 subsequently he returned from a lengthy N American concert tour. In his biography, Enrico Caruso Jr. points to an on-stage injury suffered past Caruso as the possible trigger of his fatal illness. A falling pillar in Samson and Delilah on 3 December had striking him on the back, over the left kidney (and non on the chest as popularly reported).^[35] A few days before a performance of Pagliacci at the Met (Pierre Key says information technology was four December, the 24-hour interval afterward the Samson and Delilah injury) he suffered a arctic and developed a cough and a "dull hurting in his side". Information technology appeared to be a astringent episode of bronchitis. Caruso's physician, Philip Horowitz, who unremarkably treated him for migraine headaches with a kind of archaic TENS unit of measurement, diagnosed "intercostal neuralgia" and pronounced him fit to appear on stage, although the pain connected to hinder his vox product and movements.

During a performance of L'elisir d'amore past Donizetti at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on 11 Dec 1920, he suffered a throat haemorrhage and the performance was cancelled at the end of Human activity ane. Post-obit this incident, a clearly unwell Caruso gave just three more performances at the Met, the final one beingness as Eléazar in Halévy's La Juive, on 24 December 1920. By Christmas Twenty-four hours, the pain in his side was then excruciating that he was screaming. Dorothy summoned the hotel physician, who gave Caruso some morphine and codeine and called in some other doctor, Evan K. Evans. Evans brought in three other doctors and Caruso finally received a correct diagnosis: purulent pleurisy and empyema.^[36] ^[37]

Caruso'due south wellness deteriorated further during the new year, lapsing into a coma and almost dying of middle failure at i point. He experienced episodes of intense pain considering of the infection and underwent seven surgical procedures to bleed fluid from his chest and lungs.^[38] He slowly began to meliorate and he returned to Naples in May 1921 to recuperate from the nigh serious of the operations, during which office of a rib had been removed. According to Dorothy Caruso, he seemed to exist recovering merely immune himself to exist examined by an unhygienic local doctor, and his condition worsened dramatically later on that.^[39] ^[40] The Bastianelli brothers, eminent medical practitioners with a clinic in Rome, recommended that his left kidney be removed. He was on his way to Rome to see them merely, while staying overnight in the Vesuvio Hotel in Naples, he took an alarming turn for the worse and was given morphine to aid him slumber.

Caruso died at the hotel shortly after ix:00 a.k. local time, on 2 August 1921. He was 48. The Bastianellis attributed the crusade of expiry to peritonitis arising from a flare-up subphrenic abscess.^[41] ^[42] The King of Italia, Victor Emmanuel Three, opened the Imperial Basilica of the Church building of San Francesco di Paola for Caruso's funeral, which was attended by thousands of people. His embalmed body was preserved in a glass sarcophagus at Del Pianto Cemetery in Naples for mourners to view.^[43] ^[44] In 1929, Dorothy Caruso had his remains sealed permanently in an ornate stone tomb.

Historical and musical significance [edit]

Caruso's 25-twelvemonth career, stretching from 1895 to 1920, included 863 appearances with the New York Metropolitan Opera (both at the Met and on tour) before his decease in 1921 at the age of 48. Thanks largely to his tremendously popular phonograph records, Caruso was one of the most famous entertainment personalities of his twenty-four hour period, and his fame has continued to endure to the present. He was one of the first examples of a global media celebrity. Beyond records, Caruso's proper name became familiar to millions throughout the world via newspapers, books, magazines, and the new media engineering of the 20th century: cinema, the phone, and telegraph.^[45]

Caruso toured widely both with the Metropolitan Opera touring company and on his ain, giving hundreds of performances throughout Europe, and North and South America. He was a client of the noted promoter Edward Bernays, during the latter'south tenure as a press agent in the United States. Beverly Sills noted in an interview: "I was able to do information technology with television and radio and media and all kinds of assists. The popularity that Caruso enjoyed without any of this technological assistance is amazing."^[46]

Caruso biographers Pierre Key, Bruno Zirato and Stanley Jackson^[33] ^[34] aspect Caruso's fame not only to his voice and musicianship but also to a great business sense and an enthusiastic embrace of commercial sound recording, then in its infancy. Many opera singers of Caruso's time rejected the phonograph (or gramophone) owing to the depression allegiance of early on discs. Others, including Adelina Patti, Francesco Tamagno and Nellie Melba, exploited the new technology once they became aware of the fiscal returns that Caruso was reaping from his initial recording sessions.^[47]

Caruso made more than 260 extant recordings in America for the Victor Talking Car Company (later RCA Victor) from 1904 to 1920, and he and his heirs earned millions of dollars in royalties from the retail sales of these records. He was also heard live from the phase of the Metropolitan Opera House in 1910, when he participated in the first public radio broadcast to exist transmitted in the Us.

Edward José (left), the director of the motion-picture show My Cousin, is seen with Caruso during a break in filming

Caruso also appeared in two motion pictures. In 1918, he played a dual role in the American My Cousin (silent film, entirely restored in July 2021^[48]) for Paramount Pictures. This motion-picture show included a sequence depicting him on stage performing the aria Vesti la giubba from Leoncavallo'southward opera Pagliacci. The following year Caruso played a character called Cosimo in another picture, The Fantabulous Romance. Producer Jesse Lasky paid Caruso $100,000 each to announced in these 2 efforts but My Cousin flopped at the box part, and The Splendid Romance was apparently never released. Brief candid glimpses of Caruso offstage have been preserved in contemporary newsreel footage.

While Caruso sang at such venues every bit La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House, in London, the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint petersburg, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, he appeared most frequently at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where he was the leading tenor for xviii sequent seasons. Information technology was at the Met, in 1910, that he created the function of Dick Johnson in Giacomo Puccini's La fanciulla del West.

Caruso'due south voice extended upwardly to high D-apartment in its prime and grew in power and weight every bit he grew older. At times, his phonation took on a dark, almost baritonal coloration.^[49] He sang a wide spectrum of roles, ranging from lyric, to spinto, to dramatic parts, in the Italian and French repertoires. In the High german repertoire, Caruso sang only two roles, Assad (in Karl Goldmark's The Queen of Sheba) and Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, both of which he performed in Italian in Buenos Aires in 1899 and 1901, respectively.^[50]

Honors [edit]

Caruso, examining a bust sculpture of himself, 1914

During his lifetime, Caruso received many orders, decorations, testimonials and other kinds of honours from monarchs, governments and miscellaneous cultural bodies of the various nations in which he sang. He was also the recipient of Italian knighthoods. In 1917, he was elected an honorary member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men involved in music, by the fraternity's Blastoff affiliate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. One unusual award bestowed on him was that of "Honorary Helm of the New York Police Force". In 1960, for his contribution to the recording industry, Caruso received a star located at 6625 Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Caruso was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Honour in 1987. On 27 February of that same year, the U.s.a. Mail service issued a 22-cent postage stamp postage in his honour.^[51] He was voted into Gramophone 's Hall of Fame in 2012.^[49]

Repertoire [edit]

Caruso's operatic repertoire consisted primarily of Italian works along with a few roles in French. He also performed two High german operas, Wagner's Lohengrin and Goldmark'southward Dice Königin von Saba, singing in Italian, early in his career. Below are the first performances by Caruso, in chronological gild, of each of the operas that he undertook on the stage. Globe premieres are indicated with **.

Caruso signing his autograph; he was obliging with fans

L'amico Francesco (Morelli) – Teatro Nuovo, Napoli, 15 March 1895 (debut)**
Faust – Caserta, 28 March 1895
Cavalleria rusticana – Caserta, April 1895
Camoens (Musoni) – Caserta, May 1895
Rigoletto – Napoli, 21 July 1895
La traviata – Napoli, 25 Baronial 1895
Lucia di Lammermoor – Cairo, 30 October 1895
La Gioconda – Cairo, 9 Nov 1895
Manon Lescaut – Cairo, xv November 1895
I Capuleti eastward i Montecchi – Napoli, seven December 1895
Malia (Francesco Paolo Frontini) – Trapani, 21 March 1896
La sonnambula – Trapani, 25 March 1896
Mariedda (Gianni Bucceri [information technology]) – Napoli, 23 June 1896
I puritani – Salerno, 10 September 1896
La Favorita – Salerno, 22 November 1896
A San Francisco (Sebastiani) – Salerno, 23 November 1896
Carmen – Salerno, vi Dec 1896

Caruso'southward sketch of himself as Canio in Pagliacci, c. 1900

Un Dramma in vendemmia (Fornari) – Napoli, ane February 1897
Celeste (Marengo) – Napoli, half dozen March 1897**
Il Profeta Velato (Napolitano) – Salerno, 8 April 1897
La bohème – Livorno, 14 August 1897
La Navarrese – Milano, 3 November 1897
Il Voto (Giordano) – Milano, x November 1897**
L'arlesiana – Milano, 27 November 1897**
Pagliacci – Milano, 31 Dec 1897
La bohème (Leoncavallo) – Genova, 20 January 1898
The Pearl Fishers – Genova, 3 February 1898
Hedda (Leborne) – Milano, 2 April 1898**
Mefistofele – Fiume, 4 March 1898
Sapho (Massenet) – Trento, three June (?) 1898
Fedora – Milano, 17 November 1898**
Iris – Buenos Aires, 22 June 1899
La regina di Saba (Goldmark) – Buenos Aires, iv July 1899
Yupanki (Berutti)– Buenos Aires, 25 July 1899**
Aida – St. Petersburg, 3 January 1900
Un ballo in maschera – St. Petersburg, 11 January 1900
Maria di Rohan – Saint petersburg, two March 1900

Caruso's sketch of himself equally Don José in Carmen, 1904

Manon – Buenos Aires, 28 July 1900
Tosca – Treviso, 23 October 1900
Le maschere (Mascagni) – Milano, 17 January 1901**
L'elisir d'amore – Milano, 17 Feb 1901
Lohengrin – Buenos Aires, seven July 1901
Germania – Milano, 11 March 1902**
Don Giovanni – London, 19 July 1902
Adriana Lecouvreur – Milano, 6 November 1902**
Lucrezia Borgia – Lisbon, x March 1903
Les Huguenots – New York, 3 February 1905
Martha – New York, 9 February 1906
Madama Butterfly – London, 26 May 1906
L'Africana – New York, 11 Jan 1907
Andrea Chénier – London, 20 July 1907
Il trovatore – New York, 26 February 1908
Armide – New York, fourteen November 1910
La fanciulla del West – New York, x December 1910**
Julien – New York, 26 Dec 1914
Samson et Dalila – New York, 24 November 1916
Lodoletta – Buenos Aires, 29 July 1917
Le prophète – New York, seven February 1918
50'amore dei tre re – New York, xiv March 1918
La forza del destino – New York, xv Nov 1918
La Juive – New York, 22 November 1919

Caruso also had a repertory of more than than 500 songs. They ranged from classical compositions to traditional Italian melodies and popular tunes of the day, including a few English-language titles such as George One thousand. Cohan'southward "Over There", Henry Geehl's "For Y'all Alone" and Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord".

Recordings [edit]

Self-caricature of Caruso making a tape

Caruso possessed a phonogenic phonation which was "manly and powerful, yet sugariness and lyrical", to quote the singer/author John Potter (see bibliography, below). He became 1 of the get-go major classical vocalists to make numerous recordings. Caruso and the disc phonograph, known in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland as the gramophone did much to promote each other in the first two decades of the 20th century. Many of Caruso's recordings have remained continuously available since their original result over a century ago, and all of his surviving recordings (including several unissued takes) have been remastered and reissued several times over the years. Although recordings of consummate operas have been available since the early on 1900s, (Carmen in 1908 for example), Caruso never participated in a complete opera recording.^[52]

Caruso's commencement recordings were arranged by recording pioneer Fred Gaisberg and cut on disc in iii carve up sessions in Milan during April, November and December 1902. They were made with piano accompaniments for HMV/EMI's forerunner, the Gramophone & Typewriter Limited. In April 1903, he made 7 further recordings, also in Milan, for the Anglo-Italian Commerce Company (AICC). These were originally released on discs bearing the Zonophone label. Three more Milan recordings for AICC followed in October 1903, released by Pathé Records on cylinders every bit well equally on discs. He made i final recording for the Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd in April 1904. On i February 1904, Caruso made his start recordings in America for the Victor Talking Car Company and thereafter recorded exclusively for Victor. While most of Caruso'southward American recordings would be made in Victor's studios in New York and its headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, Caruso later recorded in Camden's Trinity Church, which Victor acquired as a recording studio in 1917 for its acoustical properties and which could arrange a big band of musicians. Caruso's outset recordings for Victor in 1904 were made in Room 826, a pocket-size vocal studio at Carnegie Hall in New York. "Questa o quella" and "La donna è mobile" from Verdi's Rigoletto were the first to be recorded. Caruso's terminal recording session took identify at Victor's Trinity Church studio in Camden on 16 September 1920, with the tenor singing the "Domine Deus" and "Crucifixus" from Rossini'due south Petite messe solennelle.

Caruso's earliest Victor records of operatic arias from 1904–05, similar their thirty or so Milan-made predecessors, were all accompanied by pianoforte. From Feb 1906, however, orchestral accompaniments became the norm, utilizing an ensemble of between eleven and twenty musicians. The regular conductors of these recording sessions with the orchestra were Walter B. Rogers and, from 1916, Josef Pasternack. Beginning in 1932, RCA Victor in the U.s. and EMI (HMV) in the UK, reissued several of the Caruso discs with the original accompaniment over-dubbed by a larger electrically recorded orchestra.^[53] Earlier experiments using this re-dubbing technique, carried out by Victor in 1927, had been considered unsatisfactory. In 1950, RCA Victor reissued a number of Caruso recordings on 78-rpm discs pressed on red vinylite instead of the usual shellac. As long-playing discs (LPs) became pop, many of his recordings were electronically enhanced with reverb and like furnishings to make them sound "fuller" for release on the extended format. Most Caruso LP collections issued by RCA Victor during the early on 1950s were as well simultaneously released on their new 45-rpm format.

Caruso recorded with several sopranos including Nellie Melba, Geraldine Farrar, Amelita Galli-Curci, Frances Alda, Emmy Destinn, Alma Gluck, Frieda Hempel, Luisa Tetrazzini, Johanna Gadski, Marcella Sembrich, and Bessie Abott. Among the mezzo-sopranos and contraltos with whom Caruso made records, are Louise Homer, Minnie Egener, Flora Perini and Ernestine Schumann-Heink.^[54]

During the 1970s, Thomas One thousand. Stockham of the University of Utah developed an early digital reprocessing technique called "Soundstream" to remaster Caruso's recordings for RCA. This calculator procedure removed or reduced some of the undesirable resonances and reduced surface noise typical of the early acoustically recorded discs. From 1976 to 1985, these early on digitised efforts were partially issued on LP (RCA never finished the Complete Caruso series on LP and the pre-1906 recordings were never remastered using the Soundstream process) and were finally issued consummate by RCA Victor on compact disc (in 1990, over again in 2004 and a third time, in 2017). Other complete sets of Caruso's recordings in new remasterings were issued on CD on the Pearl label and in 2000–2004 by Naxos. The Pearl and Naxos sets were remastered past the noted American audio-restoration engineer Ward Marston. In 1993, Pearl likewise released a 2-CD collection devoted to RCA and EMI's electrically over-dubbed versions of some of Caruso's original acoustic discs, originally issued in the 1930s. RCA Victor has issued three CDs of Caruso recordings with over-dubbed modernistic, orchestral accompaniments, digitally recorded. Since the expiration of their original copyrights, Caruso's records are at present in the public domain and have been reissued by several different record labels with varying degrees of audio quality. They are also available over the internet equally digital downloads. Caruso's best-selling downloads at iTunes take been the popular Italian folk songs "Santa Lucia" and "'O sole mio".^{[ citation needed ]}

Caruso died before the introduction of high fidelity, electrical recording applied science in 1925. All of his recordings were made using the acoustic process, which required the recording creative person to sing into a metallic horn or funnel which relayed audio direct to a primary disc via a stylus. This procedure captured but a limited range of the overtones and nuances present in his singing voice. Caruso'south 12-inch acoustic recordings were express to a maximum duration of effectually four and one-half minutes. Consequently, near of the selections that he recorded were limited to those that could be edited to fit this time constraint. Longer selections were occasionally issued on two or more record sides.

Media [edit]

"O Mimì, tu più not torni" with Antonio Scotti equally Marcello from La bohème (1907)
"No! Pagliaccio non son!" from Pagliacci (1910)
"Manon! avez-vous peur ... On fifty'appelle Manon" from Massenet'due south Manon (1912)
"O souverain, O juge, O père!" from Massenet's Le Cid (1916)

Encounter also [edit]

Nascence of public radio dissemination
Caruso sauce
The Young Caruso 1951 Italian film
The Great Caruso, 1951 US film
Caruso-Kronenboden-Collection, Berlin, Caruso sings again

Notes [edit]

^ "Caruso, Enrico". Lexico United kingdom English Dictionary. Oxford Academy Printing. north.d. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^ "Caruso". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fifth ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^ "Caruso". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^ "Caruso". Merriam-Webster Lexicon . Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^ "CARUSO, Enrico: Complete Recordings, Vol. 10 (1916-1917)". Classical Music - Streaming Classical Music. 14 Baronial 2003. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
^ Caruso Jr & Farkas 1990, p. eighteen.
^ Key & Zirato 1922.
^ Robinson, Francis, Caruso: His Life in Pictures, Brahmhall, 1957.
^ ^a ^b Caruso Jr & Farkas 1990, p. xx.
^ Caruso 1945, p. 257.
^ Key & Zirato 1922, p. 16.
^ Pasquale J., Simonelli (2012). Enrico Caruso Unedited Notes. Sacer Equestris Aureus Ordo. ISBN978-0615714905.
^ "Enrico Caruso in Scotland". Opera Scotland. iii September 1909. Retrieved iv Apr 2012.
^ ^a ^b Bronson, William, The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned, p. 50
^ An business relationship of the earthquake by Caruso's lifelong friend, the baritone Antonio Scotti, including Scotti's observations of Caruso'due south beliefs, is found in Pierre Fundamental's biography of Caruso, Fundamental & Zirato 1922, pp. 228–229
^ David Suisman, "Welcome to the Monkey House: Enrico Caruso and the First Celebrity Trial of the Twentieth Century". In The Laic, June 2004, webpage accessed 14 May 2009.
^ Holahan, David (23 April 2017). "Before the Mafia, at that place was the terrifying 'Blackness Hand'". USA Today . Retrieved 5 Nov 2017. Earlier the Mafia captured the American criminal offence spotlight in the 1920s, in that location was the Society of the Black Hand, which fabricated ends meet by terrorizing and extorting fellow Italians, mainly, among them tenor Enrico Caruso and Italian-American business organisation owners
^ Nash, Jay (1998). Terrorism in the 20th Century: A Narrative Encyclopedia From the Anarchists . M Evans and Company. p. 21. Retrieved 5 November 2017. The notation stated that lye or other corrosive agents would exist slipped into Caruso's vino or tea.
^ Nuance, Mike (2009). The Get-go Family unit: Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia. Simon & Schuster. p. 26. ISBN978-i-84737-173-7.
^ Raab, Selwyn. V Families: The Ascension, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. London: Robson Books, 2006. ISBN ane-86105-952-iii. p. 19.
^ "Inside 'The Black Hand' Law-breaking Wave A Century Agone". NPR. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
^ "Prominent People". The Irvington Gazette. xx May 1910. Retrieved 5 November 2017. Enrico Caruso accused Antonio Misiano with trying to obtain $xv,000 from him by Black mitt methods.
^ "Caruso Blackmailer Gone: Italian Who Sought $5,000 from Vocaliser Jumps His Bail". The New York Times. five February 1912. Retrieved viii March 2018.
^ Scott 1991, p. 181.
^ Scott 1991, p. 168.
^ Caruso Love Letters Reveal Passion Behind a Life of Epic Operatic Drama 2005 article describing the discovery of voluminous correspondence between Caruso and Giachetti.
^ Orlando Barone, Caruso Mysteries Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Car, commodity written for the Opera-L discussion list 1996-02-21, retrieved 29 October 2010.
^ Caruso Jr & Farkas 1990, p. 338.
^ Wah Keung Chan, The Voice of Caruso from La Scena Musicale Vol. 7, No. 7 online, retrieved half-dozen November 2010.
^ Caruso Jr. covers his father'south relationship with Giachetti in great item. Jackson 1972 and Scott (1988) also contain extensive information most the liaison.
^ Gloria Caruso Murray, 79, Creative person and Tenor's Daughter, William H. Honan, The New York Times, 18 December 1999
^ Caruso 1945, p.^{[ page needed ]}. Mrs Caruso enumerated these facts partly to satisfy public marvel and partly to dispel myths and rumours about her hubby.
^ ^a ^b Key & Zirato 1922, p.^{[ folio needed ]}.
^ ^a ^b Jackson 1972, p.^{[ page needed ]}.
^ Caruso, Jr.'s biography devotes an entire department to medical opinions concerning the tenor'south ailments and possible causes of his death.
^ Caruso 1945, pp. 234–244.
^ Pierre Fundamental, p. 386.
^ Caruso described his affliction and surgical procedures in a lengthy letter to his blood brother Giovanni, reprinted in Caruso, His Life in Pictures by Francis Robinson (Bramhall, 1977), p. 137.
^ Caruso 1945, pp. 268–70.
^ Biographer Pierre Primal attributed Caruso'due south decline to over-exertion every bit he convalesced (meet p. 389), as did Francis Robinson (p. 139). Dorothy agrees with this in part, saying (p. 262) that a group of hangers-on encouraged him to get on excursions, give dinners and otherwise exert himself.
^ Caruso 1945, p. 275.
^ "Enrico Caruso Dies in Native Naples: Death Came All of a sudden", The New York Times, iii Baronial 1921, retrieved 14 May 2009.
^ Pringle, Heather, The Mummy Congress, London, 2002, pp. 294–296
^ "Italia: Caruso under Drinking glass". Time. 18 Jan 1926 – via content.time.com.
^ John Potter, Almost as Good as Presley: Caruso the Pop Idol. Archived 22 December 2014 at the Wayback Automobile In Public Domain Review, online magazine, 2012-02-13, retrieved 18 October 2012.
^ Enrico Caruso: The Vocalisation of the Century (A & E Biography, 1998).
^ A.J. Millard, America On Record (Cambridge Academy Press, 2005), pp. 59–60.
^ https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/cultura/movie house/2021/07/23/restauro-di-my-cousin-la-voce-di-caruso-aggiunta-al-muto_1be93344-3789-42dd-b8a7-eb2c0d6c1fde.html
^ ^a ^b "Enrico Caruso (tenor)". Gramophone . Retrieved eleven April 2012.
^ Fundamental & Zirato 1922, p. 145.
^ Scott catalogue #2250.
^ "Carmen. The first complete recording. Liner Notes by Harold Bruder". Marston Records. Archived from the original on 30 July 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
^ "Voice Grafting 1932". British Pathé . Retrieved x May 2019. (Newsreel moving-picture show of the overdubbing process being carried out at HMV studios in London.)
^ Caruso complete recordings. Included liner notes. Naxos Direct. 2016.

References [edit]

Caruso, Dorothy (1945). Enrico Caruso: His Life and Death. discography by Jack Caidin. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Caruso Jr, Enrico; Farkas, Andrew (1990). Enrico Caruso: My Father and My Family. discography past William Moran, chronology past Tom Kaufman. Portland: Amadeus Press.
Jackson, Stanley (1972). Caruso. New York: Stein and Twenty-four hour period.
Key, Pierre Van Rensselaer; Zirato, Bruno (1922). Enrico Caruso, a Biography. Boston: Footling, Brown and Co.
Scott, Michael (1991), The Neat Caruso, Random Firm, ISBN978-0-517-06766-six

External links [edit]

Works by Enrico Caruso at Project Gutenberg
Works by Enrico Caruso at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Works by or about Enrico Caruso at Internet Archive
Consummate Thesis of Jean-Pierre Mouchon "Enrico Caruso. The Man and the Artist" (Terra Beata, 45, bd. Notre-Dame, 13006. Marseille, France, 2011, 1359 p. ill. ISBN 2-909366-sixteen-ii)
Caruso, Enrico and Luisa Tetrazzini: Caruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing (1909), complete text at Project Gutenberg
"Caruso and the San Francisco Earthquake" San Francisco Museum
Enrico Caruso recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
Enrico Caruso at IMDb
The Enrico Caruso Museum of America
The Enrico Caruso Page
Enrico Caruso – Audio Clips and Narration at History of the Tenor
Recordings of Caruso Office one, Office two Audio files at Internet Archive
Video of Caruso at 1908 opening of Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires
Enrico Caruso at Find a Grave
Simonelli, Pasquale (2012), Enrico Caruso Unedited Notes, Charleston, SC.: S.E.A.O. Inc. ISBN 978-0615714905
Newspaper clippings about Enrico Caruso in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

howescorephrearm.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Caruso