Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso (born Errico Caruso; Naples,
February 25, 1873 – Naples, August 2, 1921)
was an Italian opera tenor of tremendous in-
ternational renown and a key pioneer in the
field of recorded music.
His enormous record sales and extraordin-
ary voice, celebrated for its beauty, power
and unequalled richness of tone, made him
the number-one male operatic star of his era.
Such was his influence on singing style, virtu-
ally all subsequent Italian and Spanish tenors
(and most non-Mediterranean tenors, too)
have been his heirs to a greater or lesser
extent.
Caruso’s musical career spanned the
years 1895 to 1920 but was cut short by a
serious illness which eventually killed him at
the age of 48. He remains famous while few
other early 20th century opera performers
are still remembered by the general public.
In the 21st century, many people might think
of this as a remarkable achievement in itself
because unlike modern-day singers, he did
not have access to a sophisticated marketing
and communications industry with the capa-
city to publicise his attainments instantly and
globally via the media. (He did, however, be-
come a client of Edward Bernays, the father
of public relations, during the latter’s tenure
as a press agent in the United States.)[1]
Biographers
[2][3] generally
attribute
Caruso’s global success (in addition to the
unique quality of his voice) to his sharp busi-
ness sense, and to his enthusastic use of
cutting-edge technology for its time—com-
mercial sound recording. Many opera singers
of an older generation than Caruso’s had re-
jected the phonograph (or gramophone) due
to various factors such as the low fidelity of
early discs, and their voices have been lost to
us as a result. Other veteran opera singers of
the first magnitude, such as Adelina Patti,
Francesco Tamagno and Nellie Melba, accep-
ted the new technology after seeing the swift
financial profits generated by Caruso’s first
recordings.[4]
Caruso made more than 260 extant re-
cordings for RCA Victor over an 18-