Okay, the album is actually entitled "The Magnificent Caruso" but I decided to use the clichéd version...!
I acquired this album for just a couple of pounds in an HMV sale. It's a strange thing. Bear in mind that Caruso died in 1921. All his recordings were made using the 'acoustic method' - singing in front of a large horn, connected to a recording diaphragm and cutting stylus, which cut a groove in a rotating wax disc. This had a restricted frequency response at the top and bottom of the spectrum, especially as far as the orchestra is concerned. Electrical recording developed in 1925, alas too late for Caruso. However, this set of recordings is made with the original Caruso sound track re-recorded in the 1930s over a modern orchestra. So not quite the original Caruso.
Do not under-estimate the impact Caruso had on recording history. as the sleeve note says "It is a moot point whether Caruso made the gramophone or the gramophone made Caruso" In his lifetime he earned nearly $2 million from sales of gramophones. This compilation includes operatic arias and crossover songs.
Fascinating information at The Enrico Caruso Page and Tenorland
Caruso was born in a seven story apartment complex in a working-class neighborhood in Naples, Italy. He was the 18th child out of 21, and the first to live past infancy, due to a cholera epidemic. His own survival through the epidemic was attributed to the breast milk of a âstrong woman of high birthâ who nursed him in place of his weak and sickly mother.
The historical context was back in 1904, very few people could afford to go to operas. they didn't have TV or radio back then, they had to make their own entertainment. Then the gramophone was invented and, suddenly, it was possible to have the world's greatest singer in one's living room. Something we all take for granted, but imagine what a revolution that was. Of course we have our hi-fis and SACD players and what-nots. They just had their gramophones.
And the voice? Well, I wouldn't recommend getting a Caruso CD if you don't have any other tenor aria CDs. You also have to get used to listening through the noise and hiss. Do I like the voice? Yes, very much. But I don't think that I could listen to this in preference to modern CDs. It's more for the phenomenon of listening to that voice, rather than for the sheer pleasure of sitting back and listening to a sumptuous tenor voice.
He smoked 60 cigarettes a day, and hung anchovy fillets round his neck as a talisman to protect his voice. He died of bronchial pneumonia aged 48.
And, by all accounts, he couldn't act.
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