Enrico Caruso

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Enrico Caruso
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Enrico Caruso.Enrico Caruso (born Errico Caruso; February 25, 1873 – August 2, 1921) was an Italian opera singer and one of the greatest tenors in history. Caruso was also the most popular singer in any genre in the first two decades of the 20th Century and one of the most important pioneers of recorded music. Caruso's popular recordings and his extraordinary voice, known for its mature power, beauty and unequalled richness of tone, made him perhaps the best-known operatic star of his era. Such was his influence on singing style, virtually all subsequent Italianate tenors (and many non-Italian tenors) have been his heirs to a greater or lesser extent. He remains famous, though he predated the publicity that would aid later stars of opera. - although it should be noted that Caruso was a client of Edward Bernays (the father of public relations) in the latter's tenure as a press agent in the USA.




Life
During his career, Enrico Caruso made over 260 recordings and made millions of dollars from the sale of his 78 rpm records. While Caruso sang at many of the world's great opera houses including La Scala in Milan and Covent Garden in London, he is best known as the leading tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 17 years. Maestro Arturo Toscanini, who conducted some of the operas that Caruso sang in at the Met, considered him one of the greatest artists with whom he ever worked. Caruso's technique and style combined in a unique way the finest aspects of elegant, technically-polished 19th Century tenor singing with the emotionally-charged delivery and exciting, thrusting timbre demanded by the Verismo composers of the early 20th Century.

Caruso was baptized in the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo on February 26, 1873, having been born in Naples, Italy, one day earlier. He began his career in Naples in 1894. The first major role that he created was Loris in Giordano's Fedora, at the Teatro Lirico in Milan, on November 17, 1898. At that same theater, on November 6, 1902, he created the role of Maurizio in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur.

The medal that Enrico Caruso gave to Pasquale Simonelli, his New York City impresario
Obverse:
Caruso facing left.
Lower right:
Salanto, medal maker’s signature.
Reverse:
Music Muse with lira on the left,
over PER RICORDO (memento).

In 1903, with the help of his agent, the banker Pasquale Simonelli, he went to New York City, and, on November 23 of that year, he made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera as the Duke of Mantua in a new production of Verdi's Rigoletto. The following year Caruso began his lifelong association with the Victor Talking-Machine Company; his star relationships with both the Metropolitan and Victor would last until 1920. Caruso himself commissioned Tiffany & Co. to produce a 24 kt. gold medal with his profile, as a memento (PER RICORDO) for his friends of his Metropolitan performances.

In April 1906, Caruso and members of the Metropolitan Opera Company came to San Francisco to give a series of performances at the Tivoli Opera House. The night after Caruso's performance in Carmen, the tenor was awakened in the early morning in his Palace Hotel suite by a strong jolt. San Francisco had been hit by a major earthquake, which led to a series of fires that eventually destroyed most of the city. The Metropolitan lost all of the sets and costumes it had brought. Clutching an autographed photo of President Theodore Roosevelt, Caruso made an effort to get out of the city, first by boat and then by train, and vowed never to return to San Francisco; he kept his word.

On November 16, 1906, Caruso was charged with an indecent act committed in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo. He pinched the bottom of a woman described as "pretty and plump", causing outrage amongst New York high society. Caruso claimed a monkey pinched the lady's bottom. Caruso was eventually found guilty before appeal, and fined 10 dollars.[citation needed]

On December 10, 1910, he starred at the Met as Dick Johnson in the world premiere of Puccini's La fanciulla del West.

In 1917, he was elected as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity's Alpha chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

In 1918 Caruso married Dorothy Park Benjamin, who was then aged 25, the daughter of an old-established New York family. They had one daughter, Gloria. Dorothy published two books about Caruso, one in 1928, the other in 1945, which includes many of his letters to her.

In September 1920, Caruso recorded several discs in Victor's Trinity Church studio, including sacred music by Rossini; these recordings were his very last. On December 11, 1920, during the performance of L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti, he suffered a hemorrhage; after act I of the opera, the audience was dismissed. Following this incident, he gave only three more performances at the Met, the last being Eléazar in Halévy's La Juive, on December 24, 1920.

Caruso died in 1921 in Naples, at age 48. The cause of death was likely peritonitis, due to the bursting of an abscess. He is buried in an elaborate tomb at Naples. Caruso was portrayed by Mario Lanza in a highly fictionalized 1951 Hollywood film biography, The Great Caruso. In 1987, Caruso was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.


Other
Caruso was the third of seven children born to the same parents and one of only three to survive infancy. The myth of 17 or 18 dead children promulgated by biographers such as Francis Robinson and Pierre Key was proven false some years ago and may originally have been the result of a mistranscription as Caruso dictated his memoirs to Key for his official biography. When he was 18, he used fees earned by singing at an Italian resort to buy his first pair of shoes. He is pictured wearing a bedsheet, draped like a toga, in his first publicity photograph because his only shirt was in the laundry.
Caruso's birthplace in Naples, Via San Giovanella agli Ottocalli 7, still stands next to the church where he was baptized. His remains were interred in a mausoleum at the cemetery of Santa Maria del Pianto.
During a performance in Naples, early in his career, Caruso was booed by the audience because he ignored the custom of hiring a claque to cheer for him. Afterwards, he said he would never again go to Naples to sing, but "only to eat spaghetti".
Caruso performed in Carmen in San Francisco in front of thousands the night before the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Caruso was staying at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco when the earthquake struck. His eyewitness account can be seen here.
At a performance of Puccini's La Boheme, the basso on stage lost his voice and Caruso reputedly began to sing his aria "Vecchia zimarra" while the basso mouthed the song. His performance was so appreciated he even went to record it but later asked for it to be destroyed. This recording was recovered and has had several incarnations on LP, including a recital disc published by Club 99 in the 1970s (CL99-60).
Caruso's voice extended to the Tenor C in his prime but this note never came easily to him. Therefore, in his recordings of the tenor's Act I aria of Puccini's La Boheme, the high C is replaced by high B {there is no high 'C' in the score it is a high 'B' - the 'C' is a personal interlop by a singer}; while in Gounod's Faust he sings the high C of Salut demeure in a stylistically appropriate head (not chest) voice. This contrasts with the performances of these arias by, say, the young Jussi Björling, and others, who had naturally high-lying tenor voices which were less robust and golden-toned than Caruso's.[citation needed].
Since his death, numerous compilation albums of his work have been created.
Enrico Caruso was said to be able to shatter a crystal goblet by singing a note of just the right frequency at full voice.

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