Caruso, Enrico

orig. Errico Caruso

born Feb. 27, 1873, Naples, Italy

died Aug. 2, 1921, Naples

Italian tenor.

Apprenticed to a mechanical engineer at age 10, at 18 he began to sing in public in his free time. He attracted the notice of a teacher and made his professional debut in 1894. He sang his best-known role, Canio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, for the first time in 1896. He recovered from a disastrous La Scala debut in 1900 and within two years had gained the high notes that made him an international star and a legend. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera (1903–20) in almost 60 roles, becoming the most famous male opera star of his time. His warm, appealing tenor voice of great emotive power made his recordings (which include some of the first vocal recordings ever made) best-sellers for decades after his death.

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▪ Italian opera singer

original name  Errico Caruso 

born Feb. 25, 1873, Naples, Italy

died Aug. 2, 1921, Naples

 the most admired Italian operatic tenor of the early 20th century and one of the first musicians to document his voice on gramophone recordings.

      Caruso was born into a poor family. Although he was a musical child who sang Neapolitan folk songs everywhere and joined his parish choir at the age of nine, he received no formal music training until his study with Guglielmo Vergine at age 18. Within three years, in 1894, he made his operatic debut, in Mario Morelli's L'Amico Francesco in Naples at the Teatro Nuovo. Four years later, after adding a number of impressive roles to his repertoire, he was asked to create the role of Loris in the premiere of Umberto Giordano's Fedora in Milan. He was a sensation and soon had engagements in Moscow, St. Petersburg (Russia), and Buenos Aires. He made his La Scala debut with La Bohème (1900). In 1901, after being unfavourably received in his performance in L'elisir d'amore in Naples, he vowed never again to sing in Naples, and he kept his word.

      Caruso then created the chief tenor parts in Adriana Lecouvreur, Germania, and La fanciulla del West, and for the La Scala company the tenor roles in Le Maschere and L'elisir d'amore. World recognition came in the spring of 1902 after he sang in La Bohème at Monte Carlo and in Rigoletto at London's Covent Garden. He made his American debut in Rigoletto at the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on Nov. 23, 1903, and continued to open each season there for the next 17 years, presenting 36 roles in all. His last public appearance—his 607th performance with the Metropolitan—was as Eléazar in La Juive (Dec. 24, 1920).

      Caruso became the most celebrated and highest paid of his contemporaries worldwide. He made recordings of about 200 operatic excerpts and songs; many of them are still being published. His voice was sensuous, lyrical, and vigorous in dramatic outbursts and became progressively darker in timbre in his later years. Its appealing tenor qualities were unusually rich in lower registers and abounded in warmth, vitality, and smoothness.

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