Enrico Caruso

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For the song "Caruso" by Lucio Dalla, see Caruso (song).

Image:CarusoSmall.JPG Enrico Caruso (February 25 1873–August 2 1921) was one of the most famous tenors in the history of opera. Caruso was also the most popular singer in any genre in the first twenty years of the twentieth century and one of the pioneers of recorded music. Caruso's popular recordings and his extraordinary voice, known for its range, power, and beauty, made him one of the best-known stars of his time.

During his career, he made nearly 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 male singer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for seventeen years.

1 Life and career
2 Repertoire
3 Bibliography
4 Media
5 See also
6 References
7 Literature

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Life and career

Born in Naples, Italy, Caruso began his career in that city in 1894. The first major role that he created came in Giordano's "Fedora" (Milan, 17 November 1898).

In 1903, with the help of his agent, the banker Pasquale Simonelli, he went to New York City to sing with the New York Metropolitan Opera. 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 was one of the first star vocalists to make numerous recordings. He and the disc phonograph did much to promote each other in the first two decades of the 20th century. His 1902 recording of Vesti la giubba from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (Clowns) was the world's first gramophone record to sell a million copies. Caruso could not sing high C, and he often transposed his roles (La Juive, for example), down.

Caruso died in 1921, from what is thought to be complications of pleurisy. He is buried in Naples.

His life was the subject of a highly fictionalized Hollywood motion picture, The Great Caruso, in 1951.

Since his death, numerous compilation albums of his work have been created.

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Repertoire

Caruso's repertoire was the following:

L'Amico Francesco (Morelli) - Napoli, 15 March 1895 (Creation);
Faust - Caserta, 28 March 1895;
Cavalleria Rusticana - Caserta, April 1895;
Camoens (Musoni)- Caserta, May 1895;
Rigoletto - Napoli, 21 July 1895;
La Traviata - Napoli, 25 August 1895;
Lucia di Lammermoor - Cairo, 30 October 1895;
La Gioconda - Cairo, 9 November 1895;
Manon Lescaut - Cairo, 15 November 1895;
I Capuletti ed i Montecchi - Napoli, 7 December 1895;
Malia - Trapani, 21 March 1896;
La Sonnambula - Trapani, 24 March 1896;
Marriedda - Napoli, 23 June 1896;
I Puritani - Salerno, 10 September1896;
La Favorita - Salerno, 22 November 1896;
A San Francisco - Salerno, 23 November 1896;
Carmen - Salerno, 6 December 1896;
Un Dramma in vendemmia - Napoli, 1 February 1897;
Celeste - Napoli, 6 March 1897 (Creation);
Il Profeta Velato - Salerno, 8 April 1897;
La Bohème - Livorno, 14 August 1897;
La Navarrese - Milano, 3 November 1897;
Il Voto - Milano, 10 November 1897 (Creation);
L'Arlesiana - Milano, 27 November 1897 (Creation);
Pagliacci - Milano, 31 December 1897;
La Boheme (Leoncavallo) - Genova, 20 January 1898;
The Pearl Fishers - Genova, 3 February 1898;
Hedda - Milano, 2 April 1898 (Creation);
Mefistofele - Fiume, 4 March 1898;
Sapho - Trento, 3? June 1898;
Fedora - Milano, 17 November 1898 (Creation);
Iris - Buenos Aires, 22 June 1899;
La Regina di Saba (Goldmark) - Buenos Aires, 4 July 1899;
Yupanki - Buenos Aires, 25 July 1899;
Aida - St. Petersburg, 3 January 1900;
Un Ballo in Maschera - St. Petersburg, 11 January 1900;
Maria di Rohan - St. Petersburg, 2 March 1900;
Manon - Buenos Aires, 28 July 1900;
Tosca - Treviso, 23 October 1900;
Le Maschere - Milano, 17 January 1901 (Creation);
L'Elisir d'Amore - Milano, 17 February 1901;
Lohengrin - Buenos Aires, 7 July 1901;
Germania - Milano, 11 March 1902 (Creation);
Don Giovanni - London, 19 July 1902;
Adriana Lecouvreur - Milano, 6 November 1902 (Creation);
Lucrezia Borgia - Lisboa, 10 March 1903;
Les Huguenots - New York, 3 February 1905;
Martha - New York, 9 February 1906;
Carmen - San Francisco, 17 April 1906 (the night before the great earthquake after which Caruso vowed never to return to San Francisco)
Madama Butterfly - London, 26 May 1906;
L'Africana - New York, 11 January 1907;
Andrea Chenier - London, 20 July 1907;
Il Trovatore - New York, 26 February 1908;
Armide - New York, 14 November 1910;
La Fanciulla del West - New York, 10 December 1910 (Creation);
Julien - New York, 26 December 1914;
Samson et Dalila - New York, 24 November 1916;
Lodoletta - Buenos Aires, 29 July 1917;
Le Prophète - New York, 7 February 1918;
L'Amore dei Tre Re - New York, 14 March 1918;
La Forza del Destino - New York, 15 November 1918;
La Juive - New York,22 November 1919.

Caruso also had a repertoire of some 521 songs, ranging from classical to traditional Italian folk songs and popular songs of the day.

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Bibliography

Pietro Gargano Una vita una leggenda, Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori, 1997;
Riccardo Vaccaro Caruso, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1995;
Pietro Gargano/Gianni Cesarini Caruso, Vita e arte di un grande cantante, Longanesi, 1990;
Caruso/Farkas Enrico Caruso My father and my family, Amadeus, 1990 with Discography by William Moran and Chronology by Tom Kaufman;
Michael Scott The Great Caruso, London and New York, 1988 with Chronology by Tom Kaufman;
Jackson S., Caruso, First edition, New York, Stein and Day, 1972;
Key P. V. R., Zirato B., Enrico Caruso. A Biography, Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1922;
Il Progresso italo americano, Il banchiere [1] che portò Caruso [2]negli USA [3], sezione B - supplemento illustrato della domenica, New York, 27 luglio 1986;
Wagenmann J. H. , Enrico Caruso und das Problem der Stimmbildung, (Altenburg, 1911).