Giuseppe
VERDI (1813 -
1901) Di quella pira from
Il Trovatore
CORDIFERRO-CARDILLO
Core ‘ngrato
Pietro MASCAGNI
(1863 - 1945) Siciliana from
Cavalleria Rusticana
Teodoro COTTRAU
(1827 - 1879) Fenesta che lucive
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 - 1924) Che gelida manina
from La Boheme
Umberto GIORDANO
(1867 - 1948) Amor ti vieta from
Fedora
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 - 1901) Celeste Aida from
Aida
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 – 1924 ) E lucevan le stelle
from Tosca
Gaetano DONIZETTI
(1797 - 1848) Una furtive lagrima
from L’elisir d’amore
Alberto FRANCHETTI
(1860 - 1942) Studenti, udite
from Germania
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 - 1901) Questa o quella
from Rigoletto
Vincenzo De CRESCENZO
(1875 - 1964) Tarantella sincera
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 - 1901) La donna e mobile
from Rigoletto
Gaetano DONIZETTI
(1797 - 1848) Chi mi frena in
tal momento? from Lucia di Lammermoor
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 - 1901) Di quella pira
from Il Trovatore
Georges BIZET
(1838 - 1875) La fleur que tu
m’avais jetée from Carmen
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 - 1924) Addio, dolce scegliare
all mattina from La Bohème
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 - 1924) Non ve l’avevo
ditto? from Madama Butterfly
Ruggero LEONCAVALLO
(1857 - 1919) Vesti la giubba
from Pagliacci
Amilcare PONCHIELLI
(-) Cielo e mar from La
Gioconda
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 - 1924) Recondita armonia
from Tosca
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 - 1924) O soave fancuilla
from La Boheme
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 - 1901) Di tu se fedele
from Un ballo in maschera
Camille SAINT-SAËNS
(1835 - 1921) Vois ma misere
from Samson et Dalila
Gioacchino ROSSINI
(1792 - 1868) La danza
Geoffrey O’HARA
(1882 - 1967) You eyes have told
me what I did not know
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 - 1901) Solenne in quest’ora
from La forza del festino
Jacques Fromental
HALÉVY (1799 - 1862) Rachel!
Quand du seigneur from La Juive
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 - 1901) Oh mostruosa colpa
from Otello
Teodoro COTTRAU
(1827 - 1879) Addio a Napoli
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 - 1901) La donna e mobile
from Rigoletto
Enrico Caruso was the
first opera singer to have his career
defined by the gramophone recording.
Unlike many later singers, in Caruso’s
case his relationship with the gramophone
record was a two-way one – the gramophone
companies needed him almost more than
he needed them. Caruso would have been
a super-star tenor even without the
benefit of his recordings. But those
recordings helped make a career reach
a level almost unheard of previously.
The fledgling gramophone industry needed
Caruso to help transform their scientific
novelty into a genuinely musical mass
medium. It was Fred Gaisberg’s genius
to recognise that Caruso’s voice was
perfect for the medium. Thanks to Gaisberg
we have a substantial number of recordings
of Caruso captured at his prime.
Naxos have issued these
in their complete Caruso edition, which
runs to 12 volumes with all the recordings
remastered by Ward Marston. This present
set seeks to capitalise on the success
of the Caruso edition. But there is
a significant didactic streak running
through Naxos; not only do they issue
talking books, but they now have a series
of CDs which discuss a particular work
in the context of a recording (taken
from their back catalogue). This Caruso
set is an extension of this; it is part
of a new series which seeks to put particular
artists into focus. Here, spread over
four discs, David Timson narrates the
story of Caruso’s life, interspersed
with thirty of his recordings. These
recordings cover the years from 1902
to 1920, a significant portion of Caruso’s
working life.
David Timson has written
the text himself and it is accessible
and informative, as far as it goes.
Though he endeavours to be balanced,
the restriction of the time available
means that he often rather skates over
the surface. To give you some idea of
the time restrictions on recording the
spoken word, the Naxos talking book
of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’
runs to three discs, even though the
book is significantly abridged; the
unabridged ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone’ runs to nine discs, and it is
not a long book. So it is no mean feat
to compress Caruso’s life into a series
of short bursts spaced between thirty
recordings spread over four discs.
Timson is too experienced
a person to allow the narrative to degenerate
into pure hagiography. Lack of time
means lack of depth and the story line
can become just a series of (usually
triumphant) events. Timson does cover
the more unsatisfactory events in Caruso’s
career such as the issue of his fees
which lead to bad receptions in some
countries; his obsession with his health
led to him performing when he was not
completely fit for fear of letting people
know that he was ill; his philandering
and the notable court case. But I would
have liked more exploration of the man
and less in the way of lists of engagements.
Timson rather emphasises the Americans’
over-adulation of Caruso and the list
of his triumphs can become wearing.
But then, I must admit that, this disc
is not really addressed to me; it is
an introduction to Caruso and
his art.
On that level, it works
very well. Added resonance is given
by the recordings, many recorded at
the very time the narrative is discussing
though, to fill in gaps, we also listen
to some discs out of context. There
is something fascinating about hearing
of Caruso’s activities in 1904 and then
hearing a recording he made at the time
- 100 years ago. There are gaps of course.
We have no example of his singing of
Bellini’s ‘Il Pirata’, the opera he
worked on to develop his bel canto style.
Instead, we must content ourselves with
the lesser ‘Fenesta che lucive’ by Cottrau.
There is also no record of his early
triumph in Cilea’s ‘L’arlesiana’ but
we do have something from Giordano’s
‘Fedora’ (another early triumph). There
is, not surprisingly, no record of his
one and only brush with Wagner (a ‘Lohengrin’
in South America). More importantly,
there was no recording made following
the triumphant premiere of Puccini’s
‘La Fanciulla del West’ at the Met (Ricordi
would not allow a recording in case
it affected the sales of the vocal score).
As he experimented with heavier roles
in his later career, the recorded legacy
is again patchy. We do have arias from
‘Samson et Dalila’ and ‘La Juive’, but
not from Meyerbeer’s ‘La Prophète’
(rather bathetically, the narrative
segues directly from discussing this
opera into a recording of Rossini’s
‘La Danza’). And there is just one tantalising
excerpt of him as Otello, a role that
he was planning when illness forced
him to stop singing.
What was a revelation
was the amount of contemporary opera
that Caruso performed. He created very
few roles, but sang in a remarkable
number of operas by Puccini and his
contemporaries such as Giordano, Cilea,
Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Franchetti.
It is remarkable how much the operatic
landscape has changed.
This is a fascinating,
illuminating and well-put-together set.
But I am not sure how often I will play
it. It is the sort of set to be loaned
out and shared, to encourage people
to come to know this amazing singer
better.
Robert Hugill
Enrico Caruso (tenor) 