Enrico Caruso

Enrico Caruso ( * February 25, 1873 in Naples, † August 2, 1921 ibid; actually Errico Caruso ) was an Italian opera singer. He was the most famous tenor of the first half of the 20th century and is regarded as the most important figure in the world of opera.

Life

Caruso came from a poor family with many children. He was the third of seven children. The Myth of 18 children of his parents is clearly refuted. His mother, whom he loved more than anything, gave him an education. As a child he sang in the church choir boy alto, his voice struck the priest immediately. Enrico then studied singing privately with local teachers from sixteen at the renowned teacher Guglielmo Vergine. This was supposedly not convinced of a great career Caruso, but taught him finally free, but with an adhesion contract which guaranteed him 25% of all revenue in the first five years of a possible career. In contrast, Caruso went on later legal and it came to a settlement. Virgin was also brought Caruso because of the better sound to change his first name from Errico to Enrico. Another teacher was Vincenzo Lombardi.

Caruso had his first engagement in his hometown of Naples, where he remained throughout his life connected by an ambivalent love, because you, in his view, there is not paid him the necessary recognition: In the four years after its debut ( at age nineteen ) remained his career unnoticed. It was only in the role of Loris at the premiere of Umberto Giordano's opera Fedora Caruso began unstoppable ascent. He came ( already a star ) to Naples, where the Society but still looked at him at the Teatro San Carlo as a street urchin who sings under the balconies. He never forgot and vowed never to sing again in Naples, but only to come back to the spaghetti dinner. This vow he kept all his life. The international breakthrough he experienced in 1903 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, in which he sang the Duke. Rarely in a debut: He had to repeat an aria La donna è mobile.

His private life caused a stir. He lived eight years in concubinage with the opera singer Ada Giachetti, with whom he had two sons, Rodolfo and Enrico. The children should be named after the main characters of the opera La Bohème, in which the parents met. For this reason, Enrico was also nicknamed Mimi. Ada left the often unfaithful Caruso. She fled with his chauffeur, whereupon it came to a head and many processes.

Caruso then spent some time with Ada's sister Rina together, also a singer, until he all of a sudden the American millionaire's daughter Dorothy Park Benjamin married to the surprise. With this he got at the age of 45 years, a daughter, Gloria.

Because of his wealth Caruso was the target for the " Black Hand ", an early offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia in the United States, and escaped to Cuba with luck a bomb attack. Caruso's generosity was legendary. So he presented, for example, in his most successful years at the Metropolitan Opera for Christmas almost all employees. His humor was famous. Again and again he took his jokes towards his Stage colleagues out, sewed for example, a sleeve of a jacket to which a colleague in La Bohème had to wear during the performance, or filled water stored in a hat that someone had set up in the performance.

In 1920, Caruso moved to a pleurisy caused by a cold. Although he began to cough up blood during a performance at Elisir d' amore and severe pain felt, the disease was not discovered in time. To consult a doctor, he refused at first. The last performances of The Jewess of Halévy he sang standing supported by his partner because he would not otherwise be able to breathe. After a collapse at Christmas 1920, he underwent surgery and barely survived. He then returned to relaxing holidays to Italy, where he unexpectedly suffered a relapse after a few months. In the Hotel Vesuvio in Naples, he died at the age of 48 years before he could make his way to Rome to his doctors.

Caruso was laid in the royal church of San Francesco di Paola in Naples and accompanied in a large procession to the Cimitero del Pianto. The king himself opened the church in which previously only royal weddings, baptisms and funerals had taken place, for Caruso. At the funeral on August 19, 1921 last lined path to a hundred thousand people Caruso. Friends and crowned heads from around the world were present. The building facades along the funeral procession were draped with black cloths; Business in Naples remained closed. 1929 reached Dorothy Caruso that the embalmed body could no longer be publicly viewed. Since then, the body of the singer rests in a magnificent mausoleum behind marble.

Historical Profile

Caruso is now regarded in the professional world as the greatest tenor of all time. He worked among other things in the world premieres of La Fanciulla del West and Fedora with. His most famous roles were of Canio in Leoncavallo's " Pagliacci I " and Radames in "Aida". Caruso, whose repertoire 67 - the most demanding - included games already mid-20s, was a star and sang in Milan, Naples, London and especially New York. In New York, he was a regular member of the ensemble of the Metropolitan Opera, which he for many years ( a total of 18 seasons) remained loyal.

Caruso was famous for its warm, very dark for a tenor, baritone voice and his unmatched stage presentation. In a performance of La Bohème, he sang for the voiceless suddenly the bass aria " Vecchia zimmarra " so compelling that it is in public nobody noticed and he even recorded the aria later. The volume and the softness of his voice are unmatched to this day. His Sängerformant was found at 2800 Hz. His partner Geraldine Farrar tells how she stood for the first time with Caruso on stage and forgot to sing because she broke out on the beauty of his singing in tears. Lina Cavalieri was him on stage around his neck and kissed him so passionately of enthusiasm that this kiss became known as the first "real " stage kiss in the annals of history. Those who have experienced it described the onset of his voice with the warm power an organ. Caruso really wanted the title role of Rodolfo in La Bohème, and so was his manager a private performance of Puccini arranged. The exclaimed after the performance: " Who sent you to me only? About God? "

Caruso established a completely new style of singing, by letting the bel canto of the beginning of time behind a kind of realism of singing practiced in which was not the nice delivering on the ramp in the foreground, but the one with the figure shown. According to him, no one was able to return to the old form of singing. In his guest appearances Caruso was showered with honors of crowned heads, in Berlin, 30,000 people gathered in front of the opera, in order for a minute to see Caruso. Caruso was a big earner of the opera scene and the first to bullfighting arenas filled with his singing ( in November 1919 in Mexico City in front of 25,000 people ). Caruso also holds an unparalleled record: In 17 years, between November 1903 and December 1920, it was 863 times on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera ( Metropolitan see a data base ). Thus Caruso sang more performances at the Met than any other opera houses around the world.

The biographies that have been written about him are legion. He has made the record and the record him. Caruso was a close artistic friendship with Paolo Tosti and Giacomo Puccini, who wrote many of her works for him. Caruso was also gifted as a cartoonist and illustrator. The striking caricatures from Caruso's hand became known. Caruso has also composed some songs. The name and fame of Caruso are so significant that " Caruso " to become a synonym for " singer " is - probably the greatest homage that can offer an opera performer posterity. The Italian singer- songwriter Lucio Dalla in 1986 created a modern hymn to Caruso. His song titled " Caruso " has been interpreted by numerous artists. One of the most famous versions sang Luciano Pavarotti, but this recording sold more than nine million times.

Recordings

Caruso has received a total of 498 records titles, of which, however, some remained unpublished. Among them are not only opera arias but also many folk songs, especially " O sole mio" by Eduardo Di Capua, which he helped to world fame. It was Caruso, the initialized through his work for RCA Victor the triumph of the record. Its on February 1, 1904 recorded for Victor Vesti La Giubba ( from Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci ) applies with over one million records sold since its release in May 1904 as the first million-seller of the record industry.

A complete edition of the recordings of Caruso was published between 2000 and 2004 from Naxos. The recordings have been restored by Ward Marston, a proven specialist in the restoration of historic sound recordings, played in the correct tempos and very carefully and balanced. An already about 10 years older edition, which includes most published by Caruso's recordings, is the edited with the NoNoise method and thereby greatly disfigured 14 - CD edition of Bayer records. 1999 laid the Orchestra of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, the digital carefully " modernized " Recording the voice of Caruso with a modern orchestra, so you can imagine how it would sound, Caruso could take pictures today. The " Caruso 2000 " called experiment is controversial among specialists and vocal connoisseurs. 2007 brought the Enrico Caruso agency together with pianist Tommaso Farinetti a new Caruso CD on the market to which the young pianist Farinetti Caruso virtually met and the orchestral parts of the original recording replaced by the autonomous set piano accompaniment. The photographs were taken at the difference of the previous digital recordings in a small concert hall and not artificially provided with Hall. The result is that Caruso's voice is in the foreground, the range in the sound quality between the old and the new recording is not quite overcome.

Filmography

Caruso appeared in 1918 with two silent films, of which only one ( " My Cousin " ) is present in copy. The film was a success in Europe.

Caruso's aftermath in film

A fictional version of Caruso's life in 1951 The great Caruso filmed rather cheesy in the title role, under the title Mario Lanza. The film was banned in Italy because of its relatively fictitious content. Also Lanza could never be considered with its electronically enhanced voice seriously as Caruso actor. ( Lanza has all three times been on the opera stage ).

In the movie " Fitzcarraldo " by Werner Herzog with Klaus Kinski in the lead role of Fitzcarraldo is at the beginning a performance by Caruso in the Opera of Manaus ( Brazil), where Caruso, however, has never sung in reality.

Recordings of arias interpreted by Caruso make up a large part of the soundtrack of the film "Match Point" by Woody Allen dar.

Miscellaneous

  • Enrico Caruso possessed an important collection of gold coins that was auctioned after his death on June 28, 1923 and following days by the auction house C. & E. Canessa in Naples. The catalog has 104 pages with lot numbers 1458 and 64 collotype plates.
  • Medal issues with the effigy of Caruso
  • 1902 Gold Medal ( for Caruso ), silver ( five pieces), Bronze (21 pieces), 52 mm. Medal: Egidio Boninsegna
  • 1973 Silver Medal, 39 mm, 100 - year anniversary of his birth. Medal: TP.
  • 1973 Gold Medal (500), Silver ( 2000 ), bronze ( 5000 ), 60 mm, the same occasion. Medal: Bino Bini
  • 1973 as before, but 40 mm.
  • 1973 Silver Medal, 50 mm, the same occasion. Back shows the Villa Bellosguardo. Medalist Bruno Catarzi
  • 1973 Cast in bronze medal, 120 mm. Medalist Bruno Catarzi
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