Enrico Caruso, Tenor – the opera guide

The online opera guide to Enrico Caruso

Read the short biography of Enrico Caruso and listen to highlights of his career. Caruso changed the Tenor Fach forever. Still Today, 100 years later, he is a reference point to tenors from all over the world. He combined the demands of Belcanto with the intensity of the roles and the vocal power of Verismo. Caruso was the first opera singer to fill stadiums and become popular with the masses.

Enrico Caruso’s Life

Enrico Caruso was born in 1873 in a poor, large family (7 or 21 depending on the source) in Naples.

Education and breakthrough

His talent was recognized early and he enjoyed his most important vocal training with Vergine, who taught him free of charge but contractually secured himself 25% of the income of the first five years. Many years of performances in small houses followed. In 1897 he sing to Puccini, who reacted with the legendary exclamation: “Who sends you – God?” 1899 follows a Russian tour with the famous Tetrazzini and Bastiannini. After his debut in Scala and a legendary Elisir d’amore under Toscanini, his hometown gave him a very cool reception in La bohème.

Una furtiva lagrima

He decided never sing there again, what he did. Relatively late at the age of 30 he made his international breakthrough at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

The recordings

In 1902 the famous recordings in a hotel room in Milan with the label Victor were made, which the producer Gaisberg had organized on his own authority. Others followed. Due to the attractive middle range, his voice was particularly suitable for phonography, as high voices and their overtone-rich sound were clearly disadvantaged with the recording technique existing at that time.

 

Family and children

He had 2 sons with the opera singer Ada Giacchetti. The two separated later, not least because of Caruso’s notorious infidelity. Later he married a rich American woman and had a daughter with her.

 

Physical decline

Enrico Caruso was a heavy smoker and had many frightening habits (see also the anecdotes). Some habits were due to his constant stage fright. In spite of serious health problems (e.g. permanent attacks of racing headaches) he sang non-stop what accelerated his decline. A picture of the 47-year-old shows a strongly aged man. At the last performance Caruso had to be supported, spitting blood during the opera. He died in 1921 and was buried in Naples with the greatest reverence.

His impact

Caruso was appreciated by Puccini and sang in the premiere of “La fanciulla del West”. Most famous was his Pagliaccio, with which he influenced several subsequent generations of artists.

No Pagliacccio no son

His voice had a very beautiful middle range, he had to work his way to the high C at a young age. Caruso changed forever the lyric tenor’s singing towards the heroic tenor.

His voice had a very beautiful middle range, he had to work his way to the high C at a young age. Caruso changed forever the lyric tenor’s singing towards the heroic tenor. He combined the demands of Belcanto with the intensity of the roles and the vocal power of Verismo. Caruso was the first opera singer to fill stadiums and become popular with the masses.

Carusos highlights on records (to be continued)

 

A great recording from the third act from IL TROVATORE (3/3): Note the famous Caruso sobbing in “madre felice”, with which he “turned the martial tenor fanfare into an expressive piece” (Kesting).

Di quella pira

 

The Brindisi of LA TRAVIATA (3/3) with a great ending

Libiamo  – Caruso / Gluck

 

In 1908, the tenor Enrico Caruso and five Singer made a recording that became an instant legend —it is the «Seven-Dollar Sextet» from LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR (2/2)

Chi mi frena a tal momento (7 dollar Sextett) – Caruso et alt.

 

A very lyrical and sonorous un di all azurro spazio from Giordanos ANDREA CHÉNIER (1/1), simply perfect.

Un di all azzurro

 

In 1901 Enrico Caruso sang una furtiva lagrim from Donizetti’s Elisir d’amore for the first time.  It was his debut season at the Scala and Toscanini conducted. It was the biggest ovation that ever was heard in this theater so far. It became one of the most important operas in his career and at the Met. “Una Furtiva lagrima” was one of the first arias that Caruso recorded and it was perhaps the aria that became the most famous, along with vesti la giubba. In this recording (technically accompanied by a modern orchestra) the classical rubato can be heard, for example, on the second “che piu cercando io vo”, which, combined with a grandiose accelerando, is twice as long as Pavarotti’s eighty years later. The same can be said for the (wonderfully) long ritardando on “io la vedo”.  The 20th century saw the arrival of the tyrant Toscanini, who under the title of faithfulness to the original work,  sorted out the singer’s rubato, which led to controversial discussions to this day. In the second part of the aria, Nemorino imagines holding Adina in his arms and feeling her heartbeat. Listen to Enrico Caruso sing this passage tenderly and then with a wonderful crescendo cheering “Cielo” without losing tenderness. The end of this aria is, in Kesting’s words, “the wonderful agility of the voice that can be heard; the Coloratura chains string the notes together like shimmering pearls. With the last phrase, Caruso goes beyond the bel canto without leaving the technical basis of classical “singing on the breath”. He sings the word “si puo morir” not like a tenor di grazia, but with a powerful crescendo. Caruso lets the voice swell very slowly, and then adds a fast but dominated vibrato: the sudden flare-up of a fire by a violent gust of wind.”

 

Una furtiva lagrima

 

Next we hear Recondita armonia from Puccini’s Tosca. He sings the aria with a beautiful legato.

Recondita armonia

 

The other famous aria from the opera Tosca His beautiful ornaments (e.g. on languide) and occasional vibrati (O dolci baci) bring big emotions into the first part. The ritardando on Discogliea is overwhelming and the “muoio disperato” is heartbreaking. And the famous Caruso sobbing in “tanto la vita” is the icing on the cake. The orchestral accompaniment, of course, is not original, it has been subsequently supplemented with a modern orchestral sound.

E lucevan le stelle

 

From the opera Il Trovatore

Ah si ben mio

 

In his 1906 recording of this famous Aria from Il Trovatore, Enrico Caruso sings the sixteenth-note quadruplets precisely and somewhat more slowly than other tenors. However, the aria was transposed half a tone down and it does not end with the C but on the Bb. Caruso had a baritone coloured voice. Although he reached the high C, he also avoided it occasionally when it was not convenient. He shares this habit with other tenors. (del Monaco, Domingo, Carreras, Tucker, Gigli, Pertile…).

Note the famous Caruso sobbing in “madre felice”, with which he “made an expressive piece out of the martial tenor fanfare” (Kesting).

Di quella pira

 

The legendary Caruso recording of Rigoletto’s quartetto. A fantastic document from the golden era of opera.

Bella figlia d’amore –  Caruso / Galli-Curci / Perini / de Luca

 

Especially remarkable is his great coloratura at the end of this famous aria.

La donna è mobile  –  Caruso

 

Caruso, who had a rather baritonal voice, showed trouble with high notes at the beginning of his career. “When he made his first recordings, this problem was at any rate solved, as the splendid recording of Salut, demeure chaste et pure, which he sang in February 1906 and in which the fusion of the lyrical with the heroic can be heard very beautifully, shows: developed from a tender mezza voce, the voice blossoms more and more and unfolds on a splendid high C, which makes no signs of a troublesome plague. ” (Fisherman, great voices)

Salut, demeure chaste et pure

 

From Verdi’s Otello: we hear the great and famous recording of this passage by Caruso with a uniquely red glowing passion.

Desdemona rea … Ora per sempre addio

 

In 1914, the two titans of the Italian opera sang this duet from Otello. Tito Ruffo the century baritone and Enrico Caruso the century tenor cultivated an artistic rivalry.

Si, pel ciel marmoreo giuro  –  Caruso / Ruffo

 

With the recording of “Vesti la giubba” Enrico Caruso made history. Let Jürgen Kesting speak: “On March 17, 1907, Caruso’s most famous and momentous record was recorded. It is the Canio’s lamento from Pagliacci with the inimitable sob and the desperate laughter after the phrase “bah, si tu forse un uom”. The long phrase “sul tuo amore infranto”, to be unfolded with a great sound, forms Caruso, audibly carried away by what he sings and suffers singing, on one breath and a powerful, even ecstatic phonation.

This recording from 1907 was, by the way, the first record of which over a million copies were sold !

Recitar…vesti la giubba

 

The recording of Caruso still impresses today. His voice was rather dark, lyrical and yet with great volume and rich colors.

No Pagliacccio non son

 

A feature of this famous aria is that the tenor is accompanied by a solo violin that plays around the tenor’s voice throughout the piece. Berlioz said that this trick of Gounod “is much more of a pity than a help to the whole, and I think the singer Duprez was right, who one day, when an instrument solo in the orchestra accompanied him during a romance, said: “This devil’s instrument with its runs and variations irritates me like a fly that whirrs around my head and wants to sit on my nose. »

Conde countered that Gounod pronounces with the violin what the words could only halfway say (” ce que les mots ne disent qu’à demi “).

Fausts’ words are spiritual and expressive. Words like “innocente et divine ” or “que de richesse (“How rich”) give the singer the opportunity to show the subtlety and richness of his voice. The intensity increases steadily up to the climax of the aria with the spectacular high C, which should be sung tastefully and must under no circumstances be coarse and craving for recognition, which would destroy the mood of this piece. The piece ends with a beautiful adagio of the solo violin.

Caruso, who had a rather baritonal voice, showed trouble with high notes at the beginning of his career. “When he made his first recordings, this problem was at any rate solved, as the splendid recording of Salut, demeure chaste et pure, which he sang in February 1906 and in which the fusion of the lyrical with the heroic can be heard very beautifully, shows: developed from a tender mezza voce, the voice blossoms more and more and unfolds on a splendid high C, which makes no signs of a troublesome plague. ” (Fisherman, great voices)

Salut, demeure chaste et pure  –  Caruso

 

Caruso himself declared this piece from “La forza del destino” to be his best duet recording. In fact, this interpretation of the two Neapolitans received reference status.  Both voices harmonize to the highest degree and exude a velvety softness in the most beautiful legato.

Solenne in quest’ora giurarmi dovete  –  Caruso / Scotti

 

The trio became famous in the twenties with a legendary recording by Enrico Caruso.

Je viens célébrer la victoire  –  Caruso / Homer /Journet

 

 

 

Peter Lutz, opera-inside, the online opera guide about Enrico Caruso