During his career, Enrico Caruso made nearly 260 recordings and made millions of dollars from the sale of his 78 rpm records. While Caruso sang at many of the world's great opera houses including La Scala in Milan and Covent Garden in London, he is best known as the leading male singer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for seventeen years. Conductor Arturo Toscanini, who conducted some of the operas that Caruso sang in at the Met, considered him one of the greatest artists he had ever worked with.
Caruso was baptized in the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo on February 26, 1873, having been born in Naples, Italy, one day earlier. He began his career in Naples in 1894. The first major role that he created was Loris in Giordano's Fedora, at the Teatro Lirico in Milan, on November 17, 1898. At that same theater, on November 6, 1902, he created the role of Maurizio in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur.
In 1903, with the help of his agent, the banker Pasquale Simonelli, he went to New York City, and, on November 23 of that year, he made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto. The following year Caruso began his lifelong association with the Victor Talking-Machine Company; his star relationships with both the Metropolitan and Victor would last until 1920. Caruso himself commissioned Tiffany & Co. to produce a 24 kt. gold medal with his profile, as a memento (PER RICORDO) for his friends of his Metropolitan performances.
Caruso was one of the first star vocalists to make numerous recordings. He and the disc phonograph did much to promote each other in the first two decades of the 20th century. His 1902 recording of Vesti la giubba from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci was the world's first gramophone record to sell a million copies. Many of Caruso's recordings have remained in print since their original issue a century ago.
On December 10, 1910, he starred at the Met as Dick Johnson in the world premiere of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. His last performance at the Met was as Eléazar in Halévy's La Juive on December 24, 1920.
Caruso died in 1921, from what is thought to be complications of pleurisy, apparently not diagnosed in time to save him. He was 48. He is buried in Naples.
Caruso was portrayed by Mario Lanza in a highly fictionalized Hollywood motion picture, The Great Caruso, in 1951.
In 1987, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mamma Mia
Enrico Caruso Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
tu ca si' bella e tiene 'a voce d'oro.
Canta pe' mme, stanotte, pecchè si moro,
moro sentenno na bella canzone.
Canta na serenata 'e marenare
ch''a tantu tiempo nun se canta cchiù.
Mare! Stanotte, quanta varche a mare!
Pecché tu chiagne si 'a nuttata è bella,
e si' figliola, e tiene 'a voce d'oro?
Canta pe' mme, pe' mme ca' mme ne moro,
moro sentenno na canzone bella.
Canta, luntana mia, ca' si' turnata,
ca' si' turnata e nun te ne puó' ghí.
Canta, pecché te tengo 'ncatenata,
pecché tu sola mm'hê 'a vedé murí!
The lyrics of Enrico Caruso's song "Mamma Mia Che Vo' Sapé!" express the desire for a beautiful woman with a golden voice to sing a song for the singer before he dies. He pleads with her to sing a serenade that hasn't been heard in a long time, wondering why she isn't singing given the abundance of boats at sea that night. He questions why she is crying when the night is beautiful and she has such a talent for singing. He begs her to sing for him because he is dying and wants to hear a beautiful song one last time.
The song also speaks to the pain and longing of separation, as the woman mentioned in the song is far away and unable to come to the singer. He is chained to his fate, and she is the only one who can see him die. The lyrics evoke a sense of passion, desperation, and melancholia, as the singer longs for one more moment of beauty before his life ends.
Line by Line Meaning
Canta pe' mme, stanotte, na canzone,
Sing for me tonight, a song,
tu ca si' bella e tiene 'a voce d'oro.
you who are beautiful and have a golden voice.
Canta pe' mme, stanotte, pecchè si moro,
Sing for me tonight, because I am dying,
moro sentenno na bella canzone.
I am dying while hearing a beautiful song.
Canta na serenata 'e marenare
Sing a serenade of the sea
ch''a tantu tiempo nun se canta cchiù.
that hasn't been sung for a long time.
Mare! Stanotte, quanta varche a mare!
Sea! Tonight, how many boats on the sea!
Ma tu nun cante? Ma a che pienze tu?
But you don't sing? What are you thinking?
Pecché tu chiagne si 'a nuttata è bella,
Why are you crying when the night is beautiful,
e si' figliola, e tiene 'a voce d'oro?
and you're a daughter, and have a golden voice?
Canta pe' mme, pe' mme ca' mme ne moro,
Sing for me, for me because I am dying,
moro sentenno na canzone bella.
I am dying while hearing a beautiful song.
Canta, luntana mia, ca' si' turnata,
Sing, my faraway one, because you have returned,
ca' si' turnata e nun te ne puó' ghí.
you have returned and can't get away from me.
Canta, pecché te tengo 'ncatenata,
Sing, because I have you in chains,
pecché tu sola mm'hê 'a vedé murí!
because only you will see me die!
Contributed by Aiden V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@haroldgaffney246
This recording was made in Sept. 1920. Less than a year before his death. His health was failing and the recording equipment was by our standards primitive. Despite all this, the power and beauty of Caruso's voice is still unmatched
@rogeriocarabetti1804
O melhor tenor do mundo
@busterbeach
Listening to this and I am in heaven. Heavenly. Thank you♥️
@guycondroyer864
Je préfère l'immense Corelli
@sugarbist
Caruso seems to get better with time. For as I revisit him over the years, he seems to get better even though the recordings are the same. He was Amazing!
@silvanomoretti686
Cosa dire dopo aver ascoltato questo incanto : semplicemente meraviglioso. Grande Enrico.
@testtest-qb8sh
GOOD VOICE
@kennethridgeway1261
Wonderful. If singers listened to where his sound starts and finishes then they could sing with his line and brilliant diction.
@ALAINWILLIAM06
My great uncle heard Caruso at Covent Garden in London in 1906 in Bohemia, I think it was with Melba.He told me that the disc gave a pale figure of the beauty of his voice it was like velvet . in the early 60s, he gave me my first record of Caruso, a disk face with an angel on the other side "MAMMA MIA CHE VO SAPE"
@kennethridgeway1261
My granny also heard him at Covent Garden and said the sound was like a hundred angels singing.