Twenty-one Favorite Arias

Caruso, Enrico

album cover

The First Singing Superstar

In the liner notes accompanying this collection of Enrico Caruso's cherished arias, there's a story about the beginnings of his recording career. Possessing a tenor more robust than any other at the time, Caruso was already a sensation when a representative from London's Gramophone and Typewriter Company sought him out in 1902. His offer was for Caruso to sing ten arias in an afternoon (try getting an opera singer to do that today!), at a fee of a hundred pounds total—about fifty dollars per aria. Caruso agreed, but suddenly the home office wasn't happy with this arrangement, cabling the representative F. W. Gaisberg: "Fee exorbitant. Forbid you to record." Gaisberg defied his employer and recorded Caruso anyway.

The rest is history. Caruso (1873–1921) became the first major recording artist, and his approach to singing—a chesty bravado that sought to thrill rather than charm—became the ideal for subsequent generations. Caruso was a powerful voice, and also a singer attuned to the peculiarities of opera. He had exquisite breath control, smoothness in all registers, and a keen sense of character. This compilation, drawn from 78-RPM originals, begins with his iconic turn as Canio, the tragic clown of Pagliacci, singing "Vesti la giubba" in 1907. It's super-dramatic but somehow not excessive, a study in the careful management of volatile emotion.

It's a minor miracle that modern listeners can discern any subtlety in Caruso's recordings. All were made before the invention of the recording microphone in 1925, and they have undergone extensive "cleaning" via computer-aided audio restoration. Though the signal is at times muffled or otherwise marred, Caruso's clarion tone prevails—at times during the Act 1 excerpt from Verdi's Aida, it's possible to forget that this is a historical document, because there's such richness and dimension in the voice. That vocal tone is something to marvel at, and even the cool heads at the Grove Dictionary of Music are effusive when talking about Caruso: "The exceptional appeal of his voice was, in fact, based on the fusion of a baritone's full, burnished timbre with a tenor's smooth, silken finish. . .. This enabled him in the middle range to achieve inflections of melting sensuality, now in caressing and elegiac tones, now in outbursts of fiery, impetuous passion." Those traits survive on these recordings, which, even after all these years, still have the power to amaze.

Genre: Classical
Released: 1990, RCA
Key Tracks: Pagliacci: "Vesti la giubba." Aida: "Se quel guerrier io fossi . . . Celeste Aida." Otello: "Ora e per sempre addio."
Next Stop: Luciano Pavarotti: Amore: Romantic Italian Love Songs
After That: Plácido Domingo: Very Best Of.
Book Page: 148