The voice of is still modern Caruso one hundred years after his death. Born in Naples, on February 25, 1873 and died exactly one hundred years ago, on August 2, 1921.
Enrico Caruso, the most famous tenor in the history of Italian bel canto, perhaps equalled in admiration, versatility and fame only later by Pavarotti, was booed at San Carlo on the evening of December 30, 1901 while playing theLove elixir and there were many explanations, but today it seems clear that they did not understand his modernity, his sensual, unstylised voice, set differently from the nineteenth-century models, so much so that he swore he would never perform in his city again, as in fact he did.
This alone would be enough to understand the passion and revolution that Caruso brought to the world of opera, even in his short career, having died at only 48 years of age, and how this was then appreciated and, for the first time, paid with fees that remain practically unique.
After all, he was the first opera singer, for a sum that the record company initially found unacceptable, to record a disc in Milan in 1902, something that his colleagues snobbishly refused. In fact, he recorded ten all together, in one day, and not by chance he also became the first artist in history to sell more than a million discs (with the aria recorded in America two years after 'Vesti la giubba' from 'Pagliacci'), leaving over 78 arias recorded on 250 rpm.
In short, it is no coincidence that living at the dawn of the twentieth century, he had an instinctive openness to modernity, a truth in his voice and in his interpretation and a curiosity and a simple taste for the new which are perhaps what he derived from his history, a boy of the people who grew up outside the educational and musical culture schemes of the time.
His mother was a cleaning lady and at the age of 10 he went to work with his father, a worker in a foundry, for which he later developed fountain designs, taking advantage of a natural propensity for drawing that he had cultivated in an evening school (he later drew sketches and caricatures for years for the newspaper of Italians in America) and discovering his vocal talent by singing in church.
Perhaps in a church or perhaps in one of the cafes where he performed Neapolitan songs he was thus discovered by the baritone Eduardo Misano who took him to the master William the Virgin, who gave him lessons, promising to be paid from his future earnings.
He made his opera debut in 1895 without much success and began to tour the theaters of the province. In Livorno in 1897 he met the soprano Ada Botti Jackets, with whom she had a relationship that lasted 11 years, when she abandoned him in a bad way, but from whom she had two children.
However, 1897 was the year of the turning point: in the space of two seasons she debuted in Palermo, Rome and Milan, sang in Russia, in London and arrived at La Scala with Toscanini, with whom she did not immediately understand each other and, after a 'Tosca', success explodes with 'Boheme'.
A success that brought him to America in 1903, greeted by newspaper headlines about the richness of the contract signed with the Metropolitan. In the 25 years that lasted his career he had an astonishing evolution (someone points out that his five recordings in different years of 'Heavenly Aida'they seem to be sung by five different tenors) which makes him a true leader of all the great tenors of the twentieth century.
At the Met, after his debut with 'Rigoletto', remained for almost twenty years, performing a vast repertoire and singing 607 times (other sources say 863), becoming perhaps the highest paid singer of all time and certainly worldwide popular.
"Life brings me much suffering. Those who have never felt anything, cannot sing”, he loved to say, never forgetting his origins and always ready to sing for charity or for his fellow immigrants who could not afford the great theaters of New York.
He also sings songs, especially Neapolitan ones, and leaves 22 of them recorded at 78 rpm, including 'Ingrate heart', written by Cordiferro and Cardillo, inspired by his sentimental experiences after being abandoned by Giachetti.
Once, in an interview, he said: ”Life is like a medal, what it really represents is not in sight, but is on the other side, the one facing the chest... where only the heart reads".
In 1918 he married Dorothy Benjamin, with whom he had a daughter, Gloria. Two years later Caruso felt ill several times, until in late 1920 he was diagnosed with a serious lung infection and underwent surgery, but he never recovered, dying in Naples seven months later.
Many of these were spent in that hotel in Sorrento where he ended up Lucio Dalla in 1986 and wrote that song that ends: ”so everything becomes small, even the nights there in America / you turn around and see your life like the wake of a propeller / but yes, it's life that ends but he didn't think about it that much / in fact he already felt happy and he started his song again. // I love you very much but so very much you know / it's a chain now that melts the blood inside your veins you know".
On July 25th a concert at the Maschio Angioino opened the Celebrations for the centenary, organized by a National Committee chaired by Franco Iacono, which will develop over the course of three years with the aim of giving back to the world the image of the great tenor by telling his origins, the story of his success and his extraordinary modernity. “We wanted this committee to remember him properly'' said the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini, for which ”Caruso is a symbol of Naples but also of Italy in the world"
Article published on 27 July 2021 - 13:21
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