Early life '', 1908 Enrico Caruso was born in
Naples in the via Santi Giovanni e Paolo n° 7 on 25 February 1873. He was baptised the next day in the adjacent Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. His parents originally came from Piedimonte d'Alife (now called
Piedimonte Matese), in the
Province of Caserta in
Campania,
Southern Italy. Caruso was the third of seven children and one of only three to survive infancy. For decades, it was widely reported that Caruso's parents had 21 children, 18 of whom died in infancy. However, based on genealogical research (amongst others conducted by Caruso family friend Guido D'Onofrio), biographers Pierre Key, Francis Robinson, and Enrico Caruso Jr. and Andrew Farkas, have proven this to be untrue. Caruso himself and his brother Giovanni may have been the source of the exaggerated number. Caruso's widow
Dorothy also included the story in her best-selling memoir about her husband, published in 1945. She allegedly quoted the tenor, speaking of his mother, Anna Caruso (
née Baldini): "She had twenty-one children. Twenty boys and one girl – too many. I am number nineteen boy." The Caruso family was poor, but not destitute. Marcellino Caruso, the tenor's father, was a mechanic and foundry worker. Initially, Marcellino thought his son should adopt the same trade, and at the age of 11, the boy was apprenticed to a mechanical engineer who constructed and maintained public water fountains. Whenever visiting Naples in future years, Caruso liked to point out a certain fountain that he had helped to install. Caruso later worked alongside his father at the Meuricoffre factory in Naples. At his mother's insistence, he also attended school for a time, receiving a basic education under the tutelage of a local priest. He learned to write in a strikingly handsome script and studied technical draftsmanship. At this time, he sang in a church choir, and his voice showed enough promise for him to contemplate a possible career in music. Caruso was encouraged in his early musical ambitions by his mother, who died in 1888. To help support his family, he worked as a street singer in Naples and performed at cafes and soirées. In 1894, his progress as a paid entertainer was interrupted, however, by 45 days of compulsory military service, which was completed for him by his brother, Giovanni. Caruso resumed his vocal studies upon being discharged from the army.
Early career On 15 March 1895, Caruso made his professional stage debut at age 22, appearing at the
Teatro Nuovo in Naples in the now-forgotten opera, ''L'Amico Francesco'', by the amateur composer Mario Morelli. A string of further engagements in provincial opera houses followed, and he received instruction from the conductor and voice teacher Vincenzo Lombardi that improved his high notes and polished his style. Three other prominent Neapolitan singers taught by Lombardi were the baritones
Antonio Scotti and
Pasquale Amato, both of whom would go on to partner Caruso at the
Metropolitan Opera and the tenor
Fernando De Lucia, who would also appear at the Met and later sing at Caruso's funeral. Money continued to be in short supply for the young Caruso. One of his first publicity photographs, taken on a visit to Sicily in 1896, depicts him wearing a bedspread draped like a toga since his sole dress shirt was away being laundered. During the final few years of the 19th century, Caruso performed at a succession of theatres throughout Italy until 1900, when he was rewarded with a contract to sing at
La Scala. His La Scala debut occurred on 26 December of that year in the part of Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's
La bohème with
Arturo Toscanini conducting. Audiences in
Monte Carlo,
Warsaw and
Buenos Aires also heard Caruso sing during this pivotal phase of his career and, in 1899–1900, he appeared before the
Tsar and the Russian aristocracy at the
Mariinsky Theatre in
Saint Petersburg and the
Bolshoi Theatre in
Moscow as part of a touring company of first-class Italian singers. The first major operatic role that Caruso created was Federico in
Francesco Cilea's ''
L'arlesiana'' (1897); then he was Loris in
Umberto Giordano's
Fedora (1898) at the Teatro Lirico, Milan. At that same theatre, he created the role of Maurizio in Francesco Cilea's
Adriana Lecouvreur (1902).
Puccini considered casting the young Caruso in the role of Cavaradossi in
Tosca at its premiere in January 1900, but ultimately chose the older, more established
Emilio De Marchi instead. Caruso appeared in the role later that year and Puccini stated that Caruso sang the part better. File:Enrico Caruso as the Duke in Rigoletto.jpg|Enrico Caruso as the Duke in
Rigoletto, 1904 File:The-Theatre-FC-December-1912.jpg|Caruso as Duke in
The Theatre, 1912 In February 1901, Caruso participated in a grand concert at La Scala organised by
Toscanini to mark the recent death of
Giuseppe Verdi. Among those who appeared with him at the concert were two other leading Italian tenors of the day,
Francesco Tamagno (the creator of the protagonist's role in Verdi's
Otello) and
Giuseppe Borgatti (the creator of the protagonist's role in Giordano's
Andrea Chénier). In December 1901, Caruso made his debut at the
San Carlo Opera House in Naples in ''
L'Elisir d'Amore'' to a lukewarm reception; two weeks later, he appeared as Des Grieux in Massenet's
Manon which was even more coolly received. The indifference of the audiences and harsh critical reviews in Caruso's native city hurt him deeply, and he vowed never again to sing there. He later said: "I will never again come to Naples to sing; it will only be to eat a plate of spaghetti". In March 1902, Caruso embarked on his last series of performances at La Scala. On 11 March, he sang under Toscanini in the world premiere of
Germania by
Alberto Franchetti, creating the principal tenor role of Frederico Loewe. A month later, on 11 April, Caruso was engaged by the British
Gramophone Company to make his first series of recordings in Milan, for a fee of 100 pounds sterling. These ten records swiftly became best-sellers. Among other things, they helped spread 29-year-old Caruso's fame throughout the English-speaking world. The management of London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, engaged him for a season of appearances in eight different operas ranging from Verdi's
Aida to Mozart's
Don Giovanni. On 14 May 1902, Caruso made his successful debut at Covent Garden as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's
Rigoletto. Covent Garden's highest-paid diva, the Australian soprano
Nellie Melba, sang opposite him as Gilda in their first of several appearances together during the early 1900s. In her memoirs, Melba praised Caruso's voice but considered him to be a less sophisticated musician and interpretive artist than
Jean de Reszke, the Met's star tenor before Caruso.
Metropolitan Opera On 23 November 1903, Caruso made his debut with the
Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The gap between his London and New York engagements had been filled by a series of performances in Italy, Portugal and South America. Caruso's contract had been negotiated by his agent, the banker and impresario
Pasquale Simonelli. Caruso's Met debut was in a new production of
Rigoletto with
Marcella Sembrich singing opposite him as Gilda. A few months later, Caruso began his lifelong association with the
Victor Talking Machine Company. He made his first recordings in America on 1 February 1904 in
Carnegie Hall, having signed a lucrative financial deal with Victor. Thereafter, Caruso's recording career ran in concert with his Met appearances, each bolstering the other, until his death in 1921. File:CarusoO.jpg|The medal that Caruso gave to
Pasquale Simonelli, his New York City impresario File:CarusoR.jpg|Reverse:
Euterpe, muse of music, with lyre In 1904, Caruso purchased the Villa Bellosguardo, a palatial estate near
Florence. The villa became his retreat from the pressures of the operatic stage and the grind of travel. Caruso's preferred address in New York City was a suite at Manhattan's
Knickerbocker Hotel. Caruso commissioned the New York jewellers
Tiffany & Co. to strike a 24-carat gold medal adorned with the tenor's profile. He presented the medal in gratitude to Simonelli as a souvenir of his many well-remunerated performances at the Met. In addition to his regular New York engagements, Caruso appeared in opera and gave occasional recitals in a large number of cities across the United States and Canada. He also continued to sing widely in South America and Europe, again appearing at Covent Garden in 1904–07 and 1913–14, and undertaking a tour of the UK, including
Scotland, in 1909. Prior to the outbreak of the
First World War, Caruso sang regularly in Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Belgium and Monaco. In 1909, Melba asked him to participate in her forthcoming tour of Australia, but he declined because of the distance and significant amount of travel time that such a trip would entail. , 1910/1911 Caruso and other members of the Metropolitan Opera visited San Francisco on tour in April 1906. The morning after an appearance as Don José in
Carmen at the city's Grand Opera House, a strong jolt awakened Caruso at 5:13 AM on April 18 in his suite at the
Palace Hotel. He found himself in the middle of the
San Francisco earthquake, which led to a series of fires that destroyed most of the city. The Met lost all of the sets, costumes and musical instruments that had been brought on tour, but none of the company members were harmed. There are innumerable stories about Caruso's experience in the earthquake, many of them contradictory, some of them implausible, and it has become difficult to separate fact from fiction. Caruso grabbed his autographed photo of President
Theodore Roosevelt and ran from the hotel into the street. Supposedly, he composed himself enough to walk to the
St. Francis Hotel, where he ordered breakfast. Charlie Olson, the broiler cook, served the tenor bacon and eggs. The disaster apparently did not adversely effect Caruso's appetite, as he cleaned his plate and tipped Olson $2.50. Eventually, Caruso was successful in fleeing the burning city, first by boat and then by train, using his autographed photo of the President as a form of identification. "Give me
Vesuvius" he said, when asked later about the experience. Caruso vowed never to return to San Francisco and he kept his word. In November 1906, Caruso was arrested and charged with allegedly pinching the buttocks of a woman in the monkey house of New York's
Central Park Zoo. Caruso claimed a monkey did the bottom-pinching and evidence was soon uncovered which proved the tenor had almost certainly been framed (the victim gave a false address, never appeared in court and knew the arresting officer who previously made similar charges against men in the monkey house). Nevertheless, Caruso was found guilty and fined ten dollars. The incident received extensive newspaper coverage and some members of New York's opera-going high society were initially outraged. However, the affair was soon forgotten and Caruso's popularity was unaffected. Caruso's fan base at the Met was not restricted, however, to the wealthy; he enjoyed an immense following among New York's half million Italian immigrants and middle classes, who eagerly paid to hear him sing and purchased his records. On 10 December 1910, Caruso created the role of Dick Johnson in the world premiere of Puccini's
La fanciulla del West. The composer wrote the music for Johnson with Caruso's voice specifically in mind. Appearing with Caruso were two more of the Met's star singers, the Czech soprano
Emmy Destinn and baritone
Pasquale Amato.
Arturo Toscanini, then the Met's principal conductor, presided in the orchestra pit.
David Belasco, author of the original play and Puccini himself were both on hand to personally supervise the production.
Extortion by Black Hand Caruso's immense popularity drew the attention of New York's
Black Hand extortionists. They threatened to harm him and his family, or injure his throat with lye if he did not pay them $2000 (US $65,000 in 2025). The tenor promptly paid their extortion fee and expected the matter to be closed, but his willingness to pay made them regard him as an easy mark. They subsequently demanded an even larger sum of $15,000 (US $489,000 in 2025) Caruso had no intention of paying a second time and he contacted the police. He was aided by New York City police detective
Joseph Petrosino who, impersonating Caruso, captured the extortionists. Two Italian men, Antonio Misiano and Antonio Cincotto, were charged for the crime.
Later career and personal life As he aged, the timbre of Caruso's voice gradually darkened and by 1916, he began adding dramatic tenor parts such as
Samson,
John of Leyden, and
Eléazar to his repertoire, while still singing lyric tenor roles such as
Nemorino and
Lionello. During 1915 and again in 1917, Caruso toured South America, with performances in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. He performed in Mexico City in 1919, where he sang operatic performances in a
bullring. In the spring of 1920, Caruso traveled to
Havana, Cuba where he was paid the enormous sum of US $10,000 a night (US$ in ). in ''
L'Africaine'', 1907 In 1917, the United States entered the
First World War. Caruso did extensive patriotic charity work during the conflict, raising money for many war-related causes by giving concerts and participating enthusiastically in
Liberty Bond drives. Caruso had shown himself to be a shrewd businessman since arriving in America. He put a sizable proportion of his earnings from record royalties and singing fees into a range of investments. Biographer Michael Scott writes that by the end of the war in 1918, Caruso's annual income tax bill amounted to $154,000 (US$ in ). From 1897 to 1908, Caruso had been romantically linked to an Italian soprano, Ada Giachetti. Although she was already married (Divorce did not exist in Italy until 1970), Giachetti bore Caruso two sons during their liaison: Rodolfo Caruso (1898–1951) and singer/actor Enrico Caruso Jr. (1904–1987). Giachetti had left her husband, manufacturer Gino Botti, and an existing son to cohabit with the tenor. Information provided in Scott's biography of Caruso suggests that she was Caruso's vocal coach as well as his lover. Statements by Enrico Caruso Jr. in his book tend to substantiate this. Caruso and Giachetti separated in 1908, after she began a love affair with Cesare Romati, the tenor's chauffeur. Giachetti's subsequent attempts to sue Caruso for damages were dismissed by the courts. Caruso was also engaged in a lengthy, sporadic romance with Rina Giachetti, Ada's sister. In 1917, Caruso met and courted a 25-year-old socialite,
Dorothy Park Benjamin (1893–1955). She was the daughter of
Park Benjamin, a wealthy New York patent lawyer and author. In spite of the disapproval of Dorothy's father, the couple wed on 20 August 1918. They had a daughter, Gloria Caruso (1919–1999). Dorothy wrote two biographies of Caruso,
Wings of Song: the Story of Caruso, published in 1928 and
Enrico Caruso: His Life and Death, in 1945; the latter book, which includes many of Caruso's letters to his wife, was a best-seller and served as the basis for the screenplay of the biographical motion picture
The Great Caruso (1951), starring tenor
Mario Lanza as Caruso. A fastidious dresser, Caruso took at least two baths a day and enjoyed good food and convivial company. He forged a particularly close bond with his Met and Covent Garden colleague
Antonio Scotti – an amiable and stylish baritone from Naples. Caruso was very superstitious and habitually carried several good-luck charms with him when he sang. He often played
cards for relaxation, especially the games,
Scopa and
Bazzica. An expert caricaturist, he made countless sketches of himself, friends, singers, musicians and even strangers. His wife, Dorothy, said that by the time she knew him, her husband's favourite hobby was compiling
scrapbooks of his caricatures and reviews of his singing. He also amassed valuable collections of rare coins, postage stamps, watches and antique
snuffboxes. Caruso was a heavy smoker of strong
Egyptian cigarettes. This deleterious habit, combined with a lack of exercise and the punishing schedule of performances that Caruso willingly undertook each season at the Metropolitan Opera (Incredibly, in his early Met seasons he sang as often as seven times a week) may have contributed to the persistent ill-health which plagued him the during the last year of his life.
Illness and death '', 1920 On 16 September 1920, Caruso concluded three days of recording sessions at the Trinity Church studio of the Victor Talking Machine Company in
Camden, New Jersey. The sessions produced nine discs, including the
Domine Deus and
Crucifixus from the
Petite messe solennelle by
Rossini. These were the final recordings he made. Dorothy Caruso noted that her husband's health began to decline during the late summer and autumn of 1920, just before he undertook an extensive North American concert tour. In his Father's biography, Enrico Caruso Jr. points to an on-stage injury suffered by Caruso as the possible trigger of his fatal illness. A scenery malfunction during a performance of
Saint-Saëns'
Samson and Delilah at the Met on 3 December caused a decorative pillar to fall and hit Caruso on the back, over the left kidney (and not on the chest as often reported). A few days before a performance of
Pagliacci at the Met (Pierre Key says it was 4 December, the day after the
Samson and Delilah injury) Caruso suffered a chill and developed a cough and a "dull pain in his side" near the area he had been struck by the pillar. It was initially believed to be a severe episode of
bronchitis. Caruso's controversial physician, Dr. Philip Horowitz, who gave the tenor questionable treatments for
migraine headaches and other ailments, diagnosed "intercostal neuralgia" and pronounced Caruso fit to appear on stage, although the pain steadily worsened and began to hinder his movements and voice production. Dr. Horowitz was later discharged by Dorothy. On 11 December 1920, during a performance of ''
L'elisir d'amore at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Caruso began spitting blood as a result of a mouth or throat haemorrhage and the performance was cancelled after the first act. Following this incident, an ailing Caruso sang two more performances (in La Forza del Destino and Samson and Dalilah
) and cancelled another (L'elisir d'amore'') at the Met before his appearance on Christmas Eve. On 24 December 1920, Caruso sang the final performance of his career in
Halévy's La Juive while suffering acute pain. Toscanini, in the United States on tour with the La Scala Orchestra, attended the performance and afterward remarked to Gatti-Casazza: "What is wrong with Caruso? The man must be sick. He looks very bad, I am anxious about him." Upon returning home after the performance, Dorothy was horrified by the colour of his complexion which she described as "a curious greyish-green". By Christmas Day, the pain in Caruso's side had become so excruciating that he began screaming. Dorothy summoned the Vanderbilt Hotel physician, who gave Caruso some morphine and codeine and called in another doctor, Evan M. Evans. Evans brought in three other doctors, and Caruso finally received a correct diagnosis:
pleurisy and
pneumonia. Caruso lingered between life and death during the early weeks of 1921. He lapsed into a
coma and at one point, nearly succumbed to heart failure. He continued to experience episodes of severe pain due to the infection and underwent a total of seven surgical procedures to drain fluid and pus from his chest cavity. The most serious of these operations occurred on 12 February, which required the removal of part of a rib. After a blood transfusion and two final surgeries in March, Caruso's condition slowly began to improve, and by late May he had recovered sufficiently to sail to Italy to further recuperate. According to Dorothy, while in Naples and Sorrento, he appeared to be proceeding with his convalescence and had regained about 25 pounds, but in late July, the tenor's fever returned and his condition began to deteriorate dramatically after that (it is believed that an unhygienic elderly doctor examined Caruso using an unsterilized instrument which may have caused the final infection). The Bastianelli brothers, eminent Italian medical practitioners, examined Caruso and recommended that his left kidney be removed. On 31 July, Caruso and his entourage left Sorrento for the Bastianelli's clinic in Rome, but by the time they reached Naples, Caruso was running a high fever and was gravely ill. The party checked into the Hotel Vesuvio, where Caruso was immediately put to bed and went to sleep that evening with a temperature of 104°. The next day, he began screaming in pain. Dorothy began a frantic search for a doctor, but most had left the city for the summer. After four hours, a doctor was finally located; he injected Caruso with
morphine to help him sleep. Caruso died the following morning at the Hotel Vesuvio shortly after 9:00 a.m. local time, on 2 August 1921. He was 48 years old. Although no
post-mortem examination was performed, the Bastianellis attributed the cause of Caruso's death to
peritonitis, arising from a burst
subphrenic abscess. The
King of Italy,
Victor Emmanuel III, opened the Royal Basilica of the
Church of San Francesco di Paola for Caruso's funeral, which was attended by thousands of people. Caruso was entombed at the Del Pianto cemetery in Naples; for several years, the singer's embalmed body was displayed in an open
sarcophagus, covered by a sheet of glass, for visitors to view. Dorothy Caruso had never approved of this Italian custom but his family had insisted on it. In 1929, after appealing directly to the Italian government, she was finally successful in having the sarcophagus covered and the doors to the tomb locked. == Voice and technique ==