Enrico Caruso (25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic tenor, who sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. Generally recognized as the preeminent tenor of the 20th century and the first international recording star, Caruso made around 250 commercially released recordings between 1902 and 1920.
Biography Early life
Caruso was born in Naples in the via Santi Giovanni e Paolo n° 7 on 25 February 1873. He was baptised the next day in the adjacent 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 Italy.
Caruso was the third of seven children and one of only three to survive infancy. For decades, it was widely reported that Caruso's parents had 21 children, 18 of whom died in infancy. However, based on genealogical research (amongst others conducted by Caruso family friend Guido D'Onofrio), biographers Pierre Key, Francis Robinson, and Enrico Caruso Jr. and Andrew Farkas, have proven this to be untrue. Caruso himself and his brother Giovanni may have been the source of the exaggerated number. Caruso's widow Dorothy also included the story in her best-selling memoir about her husband, published in 1945. She allegedly quoted the tenor, speaking of his mother, Anna Caruso (née Baldini): "She had twenty-one children. Twenty boys and one girl – too many. I am number nineteen boy."
The Caruso family was poor, but not destitute. Marcellino Caruso, the tenor's father, was a mechanic and foundry worker. Initially, Marcellino thought his son should adopt the same trade, and at the age of 11, the boy was apprenticed to a mechanical engineer who constructed and maintained public water fountains. Whenever visiting Naples in future years, Caruso liked to point out a certain fountain that he had helped to install. Caruso later worked alongside his father at the Meuricoffre factory in Naples. At his mother's insistence, he also attended school for a time, receiving a basic education under the tutelage of a local priest. He learned to write in a strikingly handsome script and studied technical draftsmanship. At this time, he sang in a church choir, and his voice showed enough promise for him to contemplate a possible career in music.
Caruso was encouraged in his early musical ambitions by his mother, who died in 1888. To help support his family, he worked as a street singer in Naples and performed at cafes and soirées. In 1894, his progress as a paid entertainer was interrupted, however, by 45 days of compulsory military service, which was completed for him by his brother, Giovanni. Caruso resumed his vocal studies upon being discharged from the army.
Early career On 15 March 1895, Caruso made his professional stage debut at age 22, appearing 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 high notes and polished his style. Three 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's funeral.
Money continued to be in short 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 dress shirt was away being laundered.
During the final 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 December of that year in the part of Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's 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 aristocracy at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as part of a touring company of first-class Italian singers.
The first major operatic role that Caruso created was Federico in Francesco Cilea's L'arlesiana (1897); then he was Loris in Umberto Giordano's 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 role of Cavaradossi in Tosca at its premiere in January 1900, but ultimately chose the older, more established Emilio De Marchi instead. Caruso appeared in the role later that year and Puccini stated that Caruso sang the part better.
In February 1901, Caruso participated in a grand concert at La Scala organized by Toscanini to mark the recent death of Giuseppe Verdi. Among those who appeared with him at the concert were two other leading Italian tenors of the day, Francesco Tamagno (the creator of the protagonist's role in Verdi's Otello) and Giuseppe Borgatti (the creator of the protagonist's 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's Manon which was even more coolly received. The indifference of the audiences and harsh critical reviews in Caruso's native city hurt him deeply, and he vowed never again to sing there. He later said: "I will never again come to Naples to sing; it will only be to eat a plate of spaghetti". In March 1902, Caruso embarked on his last series of performances at La Scala. On 11 March, he sang under Toscanini in the world premiere of Germania by Alberto Franchetti, creating the principal tenor role of Frederico Loewe.
A month later, on 11 April, Caruso was engaged by the British Gramophone Company to make his first series of recordings in Milan, for a fee of 100 pounds sterling. These ten records swiftly became best-sellers. Among other things, they helped spread 29-year-old Caruso's fame throughout the English-speaking world. The management of London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, engaged him for a season of appearances in eight different operas ranging from Verdi's Aida to Mozart's Don Giovanni. On 14 May 1902, Caruso made his successful debut at Covent Garden as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto. Covent Garden's highest-paid diva, the Australian soprano Nellie Melba, sang opposite him as Gilda in their first of several appearances together during the early 1900s. In her memoirs, Melba praised Caruso's voice but considered him to be a less sophisticated musician and interpretive artist than Jean de Reszke, the Met's star tenor before Caruso.
Metropolitan Opera On 23 November 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 series of performances in Italy, Portugal and South America. Caruso's contract had been negotiated by his agent, the banker and impresario Pasquale Simonelli. Caruso's Met debut was in a new production of Rigoletto with Marcella Sembrich singing opposite him as Gilda. A few months later, Caruso began his lifelong association with the Victor Talking Machine Company. He made his first recordings in America on 1 February 1904 in Carnegie Hall, having signed a lucrative financial deal with Victor. Thereafter, Caruso's recording career ran in concert with his Met appearances, each bolstering the other, until his death in 1921.
In 1904, Caruso purchased the Villa Bellosguardo, a palatial estate near Florence. The villa became his retreat from the pressures of the operatic stage and the grind of travel. Caruso's preferred address in New York City was a suite at Manhattan's Knickerbocker Hotel. Caruso commissioned the New York jewellers Tiffany & Co. to strike a 24-carat gold medal adorned with the tenor's profile. He presented the medal in gratitude to Simonelli as a souvenir of his many well-remunerated performances at the Met.
In addition to his regular New York engagements, Caruso appeared in opera and gave occasional recitals in a large number of cities across the United States and Canada. He also continued to sing widely in South America and Europe, again appearing at Covent Garden in 1904–07 and 1913–14, and undertaking a tour of the UK, including Scotland, in 1909. Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, Caruso sang regularly in Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Belgium and Monaco. In 1909, Melba asked him to participate in her forthcoming tour of Australia, but he declined because of the distance and significant amount of travel time that such a trip would entail.
Caruso and other members of the Metropolitan Opera visited San Francisco on tour in April 1906. The morning after an appearance as Don José in Carmen at the city's Grand Opera House, a strong jolt awakened Caruso at 5:13 AM on April 18 in his suite at the Palace Hotel. He found himself in the middle of the San Francisco earthquake, which led to a series of fires that destroyed most of the city. The Met lost all of the sets, costumes and musical instruments that had been brought on tour, but none of the company members were harmed. There are innumerable stories about Caruso's experience in the earthquake, many of them contradictory, some of them implausible, and it has become difficult to separate fact from fiction. Caruso grabbed his autographed photo of President Theodore Roosevelt and ran from the hotel into the street. Supposedly, he composed himself enough to walk to the St. Francis Hotel, where he ordered breakfast. Charlie Olson, the broiler cook, served the tenor bacon and eggs. The disaster apparently did not adversely effect Caruso's appetite, as he cleaned his plate and tipped Olson $2.50.Bronson, William, The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned, p. 50 Eventually, Caruso was successful in fleeing the burning city, first by boat and then by train, using his autographed photo of the President as a form of identification. "Give me Vesuvius" he said, when asked later about the experience. Caruso vowed never to return to San Francisco and he kept his word.An account of the earthquake by Caruso's lifelong friend, the baritone Antonio Scotti, including Scotti's observations of Caruso's behaviour, is found in
In November 1906, Caruso was arrested and charged with allegedly pinching the buttocks of a woman in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo. Caruso claimed a monkey did the bottom-pinching and evidence was soon uncovered which proved the tenor had almost certainly been framed (the victim gave a false address, never appeared in court and knew the arresting officer who previously made similar charges against men in the monkey house). Nevertheless, Caruso was found guilty and fined ten dollars. The incident received extensive newspaper coverage and some members of New York's opera-going high society were initially outraged. However, the affair was soon forgotten and Caruso's popularity was unaffected.David Suisman, "Welcome to the Monkey House: Enrico Caruso and the First Celebrity Trial of the Twentieth Century". In The Believer, June 2004, webpage accessed 14 May 2009 Caruso's fan base at the Met was not restricted, however, to the wealthy; he enjoyed an immense following among New York's half million Italian immigrants and middle classes, who eagerly paid to hear him sing and purchased his records.