A Short Biography

Enrico Caruso (baptized Errico Caruso) was born in Naples, Italy on the 25^th of February 1873 as the third child of seven. The family was extremely poor and the father an alcoholic.

Enrico received very little primary education - the family was struggling to pay the monthly school fee of 5 lire and his father - as opposed to his mother - wanted him to work for his own bread.

Caruso took up singing with passion at the age of 11. At the age of 18, he had a pleasing yet small voice with a baritonal timbre. In 1891, while singing on a rotunda at the pier, the young baritone Eduardo Missiano heard Caruso and insisted on taking him to his own voice teacher, Guglielmo Vergine. The Maestro's first judgment was discouraging: The voice was "too small and sounded like the wind whistling through the windows." Missiano insisted on a second hearing and eight days later, Vergine agreed to teach Caruso; in lieu of payment, Caruso was contracted to pay Vergine 25% of his earnings for "five years of actual singing."

The contract clause "five years of actual singing" came back to haunt Caruso. Vergine meant "actual singing" not as a calendar period but only performing days, meaning Caruso would be indebted to Vergine for almost the rest of his life. The case was taken to court and the judgment was found in Caruso's favour; the matter was concluded when Caruso paid Vergine 20,000 francs to terminate the contract.

PART II

From Dorothy Caruso's book: "Enrico Caruso: His Life And Death." - can be downloaded here.

Caruso tells his wife this story:

"When I was young, doing my military duty in Naples, I wanted to sing. My sergeant helped me to have an audition with Maestro Vergine. He was a great teacher. He heard me sing and said, "You have a voice like the wind in the shutters." I felt very bad, but he had a class of pupils and I asked if I could listen while he taught them. I spent my free time listening to the lessons. I sat in a corner and no one noticed me.

Then my brother took my military duty for me - very kind of him - and I spend more time in the class. My black suit had turned green, so I bought a little bottle of dye and dyed it and pressed it before I went. My stepmother cut my shirt fronts from paper, so I would look nice.

I had to walk very far every day to get there shoes cost money, so I sang at weddings and funerals to make a little. I remember the first pair of shoes I bought myself very pretty, but the soles were cardboard. Halfway to the Maestro's house came the rain. My beautiful shoes were wet. I took them off and put them by the stove to dry. They curled up and I walked home on bare feet.

At the end of the year the pupils had their examination. When all had finished I asked the Maestro if I could try too. "What! You still here?", he said, but he let me sing. "You have no voice", he said, "but you have intelligence, you have learned something."

He got me my first little engagement. He was very kind to me when I was young and poor."

PART III

Three years later - on the 15th of March 1895 - Caruso had his debut as an opera singer at a small theater in Napoli. The following two years he sung at various theaters in the south of Italy. In the summer of 1897 Giacomo Puccini was looking for a lead tenor for "'La Bohéme" in Livorno. Caruso auditioned for the role and Puccini was so impressed with the voice of young Caruso that he allegedly mumbled "Who sent you to me? God Himself?"

National acclaim came in 1898 when he created the role of Loris in Umberto Giordano's "Fedora". His debut at the noted La Scala in Milan was in "La Bohéme" in 1900. In 1902 he sang with Nellie Melba at Monte Carlo and then at London's Covent Garden, in Rome and Lisbon, and in South America.

Caruso's first record contract (with The Gramophone and Typewriter Company) was signed in April 1902. 10 arias were recorded at the Grand Hotel i Milano (within 2 hours...). Caruso was paid 10 pounds for each aria. They were released in May 1902 when Caruso made his debut at the Covent Garden Opera in Verdi's "Rigoletto".

With the help of the banker Pasquale Simonelli he travelled to New York in 1903 where he had his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in November the same year. For the next 16 seasons at the MET he had a total of 607 performances in 37 different operas.

PART IV

Caruso was the first gramophone star to sell more a million copies with his 1907 recording of 'Vesti le giubba' from 'Pagliacci' by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

While he was alive the Victor Talking Machine Company paid him around 2 million dollars for his recordings. After his death his estate has received more than 2 billion dollars in royalties.

The famous film from 1951 "The Great Caruso" with Mario Lanza has probably contributed to these royalties, but many arias have been used in films - e.g. the legendary recording from 1904 of 'Una furtiva lagrima' from L'elisir d'amore.

In 1921 - after years of failing health - Caruso travelled back to his hometown of Neaples with his wife Dorothy (whom he had married three years earlier) and their daughter Gloria - View video here. Here he died on Tuesday, the 2^nd of August 1921, just 48 years old, from complications accompanying a serious pleurisy.

The Italian King Victor Emmanuel III offered to have Caruso buried at The Church of San Francesco di Paola in Neaples which otherwise was reserved for the royal family. And there he was laid to rest on the 19^th of August as the king his was - the King of Tenors.

The city of Neaples stopped in its tracks, all over flags were flown at half-mast and signs with "LUTTO PER CARUSO" (MOURNING FOR CARUSO) had been hung up in the windows of the closed shops.

CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW

1873: Enrico (baptized Errico) Caruso is born in Naples on 25 February into a poor family, the third of seven children; receives primary education from his mother.

1883: Works as a mechanic during the day and attends a choir school in the evenings.

1888: Sings his first solo at San Severino Church, Naples. Death of his mother, Anna Baldini Caruso; his father, Marcellino, remarries.

1891: Takes voice lessons with Guglielmo Vergine.

1895: Sings the Tantum ergo at the vesper service in the cathedral of Caserta (2 January); opera début at the Naples Teatro Nuovo in Morelli's L'amico Francesco (15 March); performs leading tenor parts at several theatres in Naples, Caserta, Salerno and Cairo.

1896/97: Widens his repertory and improves the high notes by taking lessons with Vincenzo Lombardi. Creates the leading parts in Giordano's Il voto (10 November, 1897) and Cilea's L'Arlesiana. (27 November). Begins a ten-year relationship with the soprano Ada Giachetti (two sons, Rodolfo, born in 1898, and Enrico Jr., born in 1904, survive and bear their father's name).

1898/99: Performs at top theatres in Milan, Genoa and Leghorn, creates the leading tenor part in Giordano's Fedora at the Milan Teatro Lirico (17 November, 1898). Tours Russia and Argentine with an Italian opera troupe.

1900/01: Scala début with La Bohème conducted by Toscanini; also performs in L'elisir d'amore and Mefistofele and creates the leading tenor part of Mascagni's Le maschere (17 January, 1901), all conducted by Toscanini. Travels to Buenos Aires with a troupe led by Toscanini. Début at the Teatro San Carlo of Naples, where he is received rather coolly, causing him to vow never to sing in Naples again - he remains true to his vow.

1902: Sings in Monte Carlo and London (Covent Garden). Creates the leading tenor part in Franchetti's Germania (La Scala, 11 March) and Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur (Teatro Lirico, 6 November). Records twenty disk sides for the Gramophone and Typewriter Company (G&T) in Milan.

1903: Début at the Metropolitan Opera (in Rigoletto) on the first night of the new season (23 November); with the exception of 1906, he will perform on every first night of the Met season until 1920.

1904: Begins his lifelong recording career with the Victor Corporation, records ten disk sides in one afternoon (1 February). A concert tour through Europe takes him to Monte Carlo, Paris, London, Dresden and Berlin.

1905: Embarks on his first concert tour through the Unites States.

1906: Sings before an immense crowd in Washington (his audience includes President Theodore Roosevelt, to whom he is introduced). Performs in San Francisco on the eve of the great earthquake (18 April).

1907: Despite being indisposed, he sings the part of Radames in Aida in Budapest; his performance is met with little enthusiasm in Hungary, but receives great applause in Vienna two days later. Performs with Nellie Melba for King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at Buckingham Palace (8 June).

1908: Death of his father, Marcellino. Sings Radames in Aida at Toscanini's Met début (16 November).

1910: Concert tour with the Met to Paris; appears in Aida, Pagliacci and Manon Lescaut; creates the part of Dick Johnson in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (10 December).

1915: Performs on the first night of the Met season for the first time in Samson et Dalila by Saint-Sa'ns (15 December).

1918: Performs in two silent films. Marries Dorothy Park Benjamin (20 August, one daughter, Gloria, born in December, 1919). Performs together with John McCormack, Al Jolson and George M. Cohan for the war effort and sings Cohan's Over There before a vast crowd at New York's Central Park (19 September).

1919: Celebrates the 25th anniversary of his opera career with a gala at the Met (22 March); sings the part of Radames before 25,000 spectators at the bullfight arena of Mexico City (2 November); adds the last new role to his repertory - Eléazar in La juive.

1920: Opens his last season at the Met as Elézar (16 November); sings the same part at his very last performance (24 December).

1921: Contracts pleurisy (January); undergoes several operations. Together with his wife and daughter, he embarks for Naples (28 May). Dies in Naples (2 August).

LINKS TO BIOGRAPHIES

Biographies written about Enrico Caruso:

Dorothy Caruso (his wife): "Wings of Song - The Story of Caruso" - click here to download as PDF (3.2 mb).

Dorothy Caruso: "Enrico Caruso - His Life and Death" -  may be bought at Amazon - click here.

The book can also be downloaded as PDF here (5.6 mb).

Enrico Caruso Jr (Caruso's "illegitimate" son): "Enrico Caruso: My Father and My Family" - may be bought at Amazon - Click here.

Enrico Caruso Jr: "Enrico Caruso: Aria Collections With Interpretations" - may be bought at Amazon - click here.

Pierre V. R. Key/Bruno Zirato: "Enrico Caruso - A Biography" - may be downloaded as PDF here (5.7 mb).