About
"Who sent you to me? God himself?"
--Composer Giacomo Puccini to Caruso upon hearing his auditioning for a role in La Bohème.
Enrico Caruso, tenor
Enrico Caruso was one of the most famous tenors of the early twentieth century. The warmth, power, range and beauty of his voice has carried his popularity into the present, over one-handed years into his career.
Born February 25, 1873, in Naples, Italy, the young Caruso grew up in destitute conditions. Other than a brief three year tutelage with Guglielmo Vergine, Caruso's musical training consisted mostly of church choirs and work as a serenade singer. His debut, while in an inauspicious back street theatre, was impressive enough to launch him onto the Southern Italian circuit. It was however during an audition for La Bohème, in the summer of 1897, in front of composer Giacomo Puccini, that Caruso's star began to rise. After hearing the young man sing, Puccini exclaimed "Who sent you to me? God himself?".
Major roles followed, the first being in Giordano's Fedora, in Milan on November 17, 1898. By 1903, Caruso would begin his storied career with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he was the leading male singer for seventeen years.
In 1904, Caruso signed with the Victor Talking-Machine Company (later RCA Victor). His lifelong association with the company resulted in over 250 recordings. His 1902 recording of "Vesti la giubba" from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci was the first record to sell one-million copies.
Caruso died August 2, 1921 from complications of pleurisy, a lung-ailment. He is buried in Naples. |
