Untitled

CARU S O
A ND THE
A RT O F S I N G I
IN CLU D IN G CA RU SO S VOCAL E! ERCI S E S
’
A N D HI S PRACT ICA L ADVI CE T O ST U D E N TS

A N D TE ACH E RS O F S I N G IN G
B!
S A LVA T O RE EU C I T O
( mac s
Ca/
’
c
Co a h a nd A cc o mp ani st, 1915-1 921 )
AND
BA R N E T J . B EYER
WI TH TE N P OR TRA I TS A N D F I VE CA RI CA T URE S
'
N EW ! ORK
FRE D ERI CK A . ST O KE S CO MPAN !

PU BLI S H ERS
PRE F A C E
I FEEL that it was the greatest ho no r of my
life when in 1 9 15 my distinguished friend
, ,
Enrico C aruso called me to N ew York to be

his coach and accompanist I had previously
.
served him in the s ame capacities during his

frequent visits to B erlin where our closer
,
friendship began in the year o f 19 09 In .
those days I always eagerly awaited C aruso s ’
arrival in B erlin not only because it was an

,
inspiration and a musical education to work

with the great master o f song but also b e ,
cause his very pr esence difiuse d sunshin e and

'
happin ess In fact it is difficult fo r me to

.
,
say whom I loved more C aruso the artist or

,
C aruso the man— both were so great .
During the years that I spent with C aruso

he often talked to me about his life his ,
struggles and his triumphs as well as about

, ,
his art He always spoke very modestly o f

.
his phenomenal achievement but he loved his,
art and often discussed its vexing problems .
V
vi P reface
F or he was much more than a magical voice

he was consciously an artist an artist whose
,
extraordinary vocal and dramatic powers were

in great measure the fruits of a thorough co m
prehension of his art Whenever he wished
.
to produce an eff ect he could contrive a means

,
to accomp lish it . He devised exercises

which are included in the book— that reveal a
remarkable insight into what is required to
make the singing voice agile and flexible .
An d the vowels he employed to blend and

color his tones demonstrate that even his tone
mastery was conditioned by his directing in
t elligence .
T wo consideration s have prompted me to

Write this book on Enrico C aruso s art : first
’
,
the desire to pay my tribute to the memo ry

o f a friend and a great artist ; and second the
, ,
hope that I could pass on to all who are con

cerned with t he art o f singing C aruso s ’
methods in breathing and producing tones his,
vocal exercises and his views on vocal tech

nique his ideals of singing as well as his p rac
,
tical advice to singers I have dwelt on his

.
life only in so far as it was closely related t o

his art and I have essayed to set down some
,
Prefa ce vii
of the recollections he was so fond o f telling .
Whenever I have quoted C aruso I have en

,
deav o red to recall as nearly as possible the

exact words he used . S F
. .
C ON T EN T S
C HAPTE R
R
P EF A CE
C A R U so
’
s D N E ARL! T RAININ G
B O! HOO A D
C R U O s U P WA RD C LI M R
’
A S
T H E C O N QU E S T O H F OLD WOR LD
T E
T H E C O N QU E ST O HF T N E W WOR LD
E
C A R U o T HE MA N
s
T H E S E C RE T OF C A RU S O s G RE A T B R EA H
’
T
I N G PO WE R
T N E PR O DU C TI O N
O
H o w CARU S O PRA T ED C IO
C A RU S O AN D T HE F O UND A TI O N o r VO C L A
T E C H NI Q U E
! S T ! L E A N D RE P E RT O R!
LI S T O F ILLU S T RA T I O N S
PO R RA ITS
T
En rico Ca ru so F ron tz sp ie c e
'
F AC I N G
PAG E
R d lfo in
o o L B hem a o e 4 4!
C nio i n P gli
a a a c ci 68
Rh d m e s i n A d
“
a a a 92
D n J
o os é in C m n ar e 1 10
Di k J
c ohn son in Th G ir l o f th G e e o l de n We st 13 4
C r uso S tu dy ing wi th M
a tro Fucito aes
S mson in S mson et D lil

a
“
a a a
E lé e i n L J uiv
“
az r a e
A B Reli f o f C rus
a s- e E lé e in a o as az r La J
uiv e
Mo d ll d by H ims lf
e e e
C A RI C A T U RE s
As Ca ruso V ewe d H
i im lf se
S ignor nd S igno r F ucit o

a a
Oth er Views o f Himself

CA R US O AN D T HE
A RT O F S IN G I N G
C H A PTER I
CARUS O S ’
HOOD AN D
B O! E ARL !
TRA I N I N G
E N RI C O CARU S O is d ead T he enormous
.
displacement caused by this lamentable hap

pening is not alo ne confined to the art istic
sphere but literally to the entire civilized world .
We doubt if there are mO re than a half dozen
public men on the globe to day whose demise

-
would so stir the universal imagination as has

the passing o f the incomparable tenor .
S o wrote the late James Gibbons Huneker ,
and the entire press of the country nay of , ,
the world voiced the same feeling o f grief and

,
veneration .
C aruso had won the hearts o f thous ands of

people in all walks o f life W e know of no
.
death in the ann als of song that roused so

much attention and shocked so many people
3
4 Caruso and t he A rt o f S inging
as when Caruso breathed his last In many .
l ands his heroic struggle t o stay death was fol

lowe d with great anxiety and when the news
,
was flashed the world over that C aruso had

fin ally succumbed that he was no more a wave
, ,
o f deep sorrow swept the myri ads who lo ve d
a n d admired him T here were t wo countries

.
where the great loss was perhaps felt more

than elsewhere : in Italy his native land to
, ,
which he remained loyal and where he was

worshipped ; and in A merica his adap t ed coun
,
t ry where h e was loved as a native so n

, .
’
T he story of Enrico C aruso s l ife is that of
his art : the t wo are inseparable T he private .
fortunes and the public career o f o ne o f the

greatest singers o f all time and t he greatest
,
tenor of his day are so closely interwoven that

,
t o all intents and purposes th ey are o ne H is .
life was song an d song was his life A nd y et

, .
,
unlike many singers C aruso was d eeply inter

,
est ed in many provinces o f art an d culture
quite beyon d the boundaries of musi c H e has .
so often been misrepresented as an artist whose

intellectual attainment was completely over
shadowed b y a phenomenal voice that o ne who ,
knew him as intimate ly as did the writer can

Caruso B o y hood
’
s a nd E arly T raining 5
no t insist to o
strongly upon the variety and
breadth o f his knowledge his keen insight his , ,
great activi ty hi s powers of observation and

,
Of memory A mere phenomenal voice coul d

.
no t have held that uni que place among singing
men . A ny man who wi th an art such as ,
’
C aruso s can so intensely move musici an s and
,
laymen alike is more than the fortun ate po s

se sso r o f a wonderful vocal instrumen t Cu .
ruso s intelligence and personality played no

’
small part in the achievements of a career

crowned with the laur el of world wide admira -
tion and reverenc e .
Enrico C aruso was born February 2 7 1873 , ,
in Naples that city o f blue skies and glowing

,
sunlight which contests with C onstant inople

t he claim o f occupying the most beautiful site
in E ur ope Marcelli no C aruso his fat her was
. , ,
a skilled mechanic of an inventive turn o f mind

who was employed in the M eurico fire import ’
ing establishment He and his wife A nna

. , ,
lived in the thi ckly populated working class -
quarter which surrounds the railroad station

where the tourist takes the train fo r P ompeii .
Little Enri co o ne o f a family o f three children

, ,
was a happy go lucky b o y full o f sun and

- -
,
6 Ca ruso and t he A rt of S inging
mischief He took to the water almost as

.
soon as he was able t o walk and up to the age ,
o f ten haunted the warehouse docks of N a
ples swimming f o r hours with other young

,
st ers of his o wn age and indulging in those
day dreams o f running away from home and

-
becoming a s ailor which are common to all

children in a seapor t city W hen he reached .
hi s tenth year his father told him that he would

,
either have to learn a trade o r go to school ,
and Enrico accepted the latter alternative as

the lesser o f two evils B ut his schoo l life was
.
a stormy o n e The b o y was unused to re

.
straint and it was quite natural that he should

,
play truant and find his way back to the semi

,
aquatic life o f the waterfront which he loved

so well Having learned the art o f self
.
defense in the strenuous sch ool o f the docks ,
he was well able to take care o f h imself when

difficulties arose between his fello w pupils and -
himself and he was often in trouble because

,
o f his readiness to accept a challenge He was .
noisy and lively and earned many a whipping

,
at home for neglecting his lessons and getting

into s crapes that grew o ut o f his boyish mis
c hiev o usness.
8 Caruso and t he A rt f S inging
‘
wished him to learn something practical ; but

he heartily disliked his work and could interest
,
himself in but a single phase of it — mechanical

drawing A nd even his mechanical drawing he
.
regarded purely as a stepping stone to higher -
artistic ambitions for by now he had made up

,
his mind to become a n artist His love fo r .
drawing and for c aricature —he drew more

caricatures than designs— dates from this time .
When Enrico was fifteen years o f age his

mother died ; and now that her wishes which ,
alone had induced him to continue at work he

loathed n o longer bound him he declared that
, ,
he was thro ugh with mechanical engineering

forever .
His declaration of independence had results .
His father strangely enough in the c ase o f an

,
Italian was entirely unmusical and was fixed

, ,
in his resolve that his son should learn some

trade o r profession o f practical and util itarian
value ; he had no sympathy with what he re
’
garded as Enrico s extravagant an d hair
brained ideas He himself was a mechanic
.
,
and as a mechanic he had done well LI et his .

/
I
son follow in the paternal footsteps B ut this .
was what Enrico was temperamentally unable

C a rus o
’
s B o y ho o d an d E arly T raining 9
to do When he told his father that he had

come to an unalterable decision to devote him
self entirely to art and to music the older ,
C aruso informed him in a rage that he could

take his choice of starvin g or becoming a me
c hanic ; and when the boy obstinately refused to
have anyt hing more to do with engineering in

any way shape o r form his father called him
, , ,
a di sgrace to the family and ordered him o ut

o f the house .
E nr ico did not hesitate to take his father at

his word . He was only fifteen but he was ,
already filled with that optimistic courage ,
which throughout his life deserted him only on

the rarest occasions that courage w hich he so
,
strikingly d isplayed during his last illn ess in

N ew York If he was to become a singer the
. ,
sooner he began the better T urning his back .
o n the home which had been denied him he ,
became a scugniz z o a Gavroche o f the N ea

politan streets singi ng for a few soldi or for
,
the pure jo y o f song wherever and whenever ,
opportunity off ered Known as A rrichet i .
”
ello he was occasionally allowed to sing
,
gratuitously in o ne or two o f the tiny theaters

near the old Piazza C astello and then after a , ,
10 Caruso an d t he A rt o f S inging
time regularly for a small recompense in a

, , ,
sailors cafe concert ne ar the Mole and the

’
-
I mmacolat e lla V ecchia the old port o f the ,
days o f the Bourbon kings in which at that ,
time the whole maritime lif e o f the city was

concentrated He also sang— f or o ne lira
. ,
twenty cents — at the long T uesday services o f
the Churc h o f S ant A nn a all e Paludi

’
His .
other assets aside fro m his voice were his nu

, ,
conquerable Optimism and his splendi d phy

sique although the former did not always pre
,
vent his going to bed hungry D uring this '

~
early period o f stress and struggle the fift een ,
year o ld boy who would be an artist was at

-
times forced to seek other less congenial work , ,
merely to keep body and soul together T hus .

,
o n one occasion he managed to obtain a posi

,
tion as o utrider in the stables o f the C ount of

B ari a position which his size and weight for
,
tunately prevented his holding for any length

o f time .
Yet he was gradually becomin g known as

the best boy singer in the city o f N aples He .
had made no more than a precarious living

singing in the café s and hostelries o f the wa
t erfro nt Now his increasing reputation se

‘
.
C a ruso B o y ho o d E arly T raining
’
s a nd 11
cured him more frequent and better paid

engagements in private houses and at church
festivals His voice too assumed a wonderful
.
, ,
quality and this merely led to his being more

,
than ever in demand .
O nce rumor has it when he sang in one of

, ,
the N eapolitan churches the then Prince of ,
Wales later King Edward VI I happened to

, ,
be present and was so impressed with his

,
voice and his singing that he had conveyed to

him an off er to go to England on liberal terms ,
an off er of which Enrico did not take adv an

tage F o r about two years the boy managed to
.
sing his way through life in this manner and ,
had progressed from what was literally a hand

to mouth existence to a position of relat ive
-
comfort with money flowing in plentifully

,
when— his voice broke !

N o matter what its beauty or quality the ,
boy voice is but a fleetin g possession N ature .
has fixed its term within limits which vary but

little and it is not until the vocal transition
,
which marks the change to puberty has taken

place that the singing voice develops under
,
new conditions Enrico had given hardly a .
thought to the evanescent character o f that

12 Caruso and t he A rt of S inging
clear and cryst alline bo y vo ice which had made

him a favo rite in a small way S uddenl y he
.
was deprived o f it When he attempted t o

.
sing he could produce only the shrill rough , ,
whistling sounds which fea ture the tran sition

period .
It is no wonder that the optimistic young

boy who at last had really begun to believe
,
himself justified in choosing music f o r a ca

reer even though he had been turned o ut o f
,
doors f o r so doing was dumbfounded The

, .
breaking o f his voice seemed to him a veritable

catastrophe o ne beyond repair
, Here he
.
was the idol of the frequenters o f the C affe

,
del Molo —where the Piedigrotta songs came

into being— and accounted the best singer in
the churches o f his home city and quite sud
,
denly he found himself voice less T he abrupt

.
interruption o f all his act ivities made him

feel almost that his voice had left him f o r
ever and fear that now his hopes and ambi
tions would never be realiz ed .
It was his second great sorrow H e shut .
himself up in despair and would see none o f

,
his m any friends B ut a youth of E nrico s

.
’
happy d isp o sitio n could no t despair forever .

C a ruso B o yho o d
’
s and E arly T raining 13
It was in the summer and one day he was ,
tempted from his retirement by some com

rades who wanted him to go sw imming with
them He forgot his voice and j oined them
.
,
and o n their way to the water he even sang , ,
sang and cro aked as well as he could and for ,
the moment thought no more o f it one way ,
or another .
O n his way home however he chanced to, ,
enter into conversation with Edoardo Mis

siano a young fellow who was a good amateur
,
baritone and the son of a wealthy family o f

N aples Missiano who had heard Enrico sing
.
,
at the B agni del Risorgimento told him that ,
he had a genuine tenor voice and off ered to ,
take him to his lodgings and t ry it out E n .
rico whose unhappiness over what had seemed

,
to be the loss o f his vocal powers had driven

him to contemplate suicide now felt the re ,
sur ence
g of all those doubts and despairs
which for a short time he had escaped He .
tried to evade Missiano s off er but the latter ’

,
insisted so vigorously that Enrico had per ,
force t o accompany him t o his rooms

, .
Missiano at once seated himself at the piano

”
and struck a chord S in g ! he cried to
.
14s Caruso and t he A rt of S inging
C aruso . D espairingly the youth attempted a

note but the sound he produced was so shrill
,
“
and feeble that he said almost in tears I , ,
”
can t do it ! It has gone ! Missiano how
’
,
ever persevered and having made C aruso

, ,
sing the scale up and down a few t imes co n

, , ,
v ince d himself that not only did the boy have
a voic e but that his voice was one o f unusual

,
quali t y .
In his j oy at his discovery he leaped from

the piano stool and lifted the despairing singer
-
“ ”
high in the air You fool you idiot ! he
.
,
cried Enrico thinking that Missiano was

.
,
mocking him felt his despair turn to rage

, .
He took up a heavy brass candlestick stand

ing near him and hurled it at the young
,
“
baritone with all his strength ! o u are .
mad called the latter as the missile ,
crashed into a large mirror and wrecked it .
“
! o u are mad t o thin k that yo ur voice is
gone ! It is wonderful and if y o u cultivate ,
”
it you will be the first tenor o f the cent ury .
’
If C aruso s self co nfidence and his belief
-
in his voice had no t been restored at this junc

tur e would he have abandoned his plans for
,
an operatic career ? It is possible and yet it ,

16 Caruso an d t he A rt of S inging
Tiber, he said hardly worth drawing o ut

,
.
M issiano was no t discouraged ; he made Ver

gine promise to hear his protégé again after ,
an interval o f five days and then employed

,
the intervening time in showing C aruso his

worst defect s and assiduously coaching him in
certain arias which seemed calculated t o show
h is voice t o the best advantage in so far as its
,
quality and character were concerned fo r it ,
was evident that concerni ng interpret ation

and nuance he had much to learn .
When Enrico returned to V ergine he sang

the S iciliana from Masc agni s C avalleria
“ ” “ ’
”
Rusticana then at the height o f its p o pu
,
“
larit y and the aria from B izet s I Pescatori
’
,
”
di Perle fo r the famous teacher who though , ,
still anyt hing but enthusiastic regarding the

tenor s future prospects declared himself will
’
,
ing t o accept him as a pup il and t o do what

he could t o make an o per asinger o ut o f him
. .
D id a teacher o f such reputation who se ,
pupils almost invariably made names for

themselves agree to train C aruso blindly on
, ,
a chance o f his succeeding ? C aruso himself

is authority f o r the statement that V ergine ,
when first he heard him regarded the C aruso

,
C aruso B o y ho o d
’
s a nd E arly T raining 17
throat as an indiff erent one Yet the contract .
which he insisted on C aruso s signin g a co n ’
tract which guaranteed that V ergine should

receive twenty five per cent o f all his pupil s
-
’
earnings during his first five years in opera ,
though it may have been a pure speculation ,
appears to have been a very definite expres

sion o f confidence in the actual financial pos
sibilit ies o f C aruso s voice once it had been
’
,
placed faceted and polished by training

, , .
T hat V ergine praised C aruso but little and ,
never gave him much encouragement while C a

ruso was studying with him may have had its ,
reasons Enrico was at that time no more t han

.
an optimistic b o y easily satisfied and pleased

,
with what he did V ergine with his contract

.
,
in mind would naturally try to make him co n

,
centrate intensively on his work and to that ,
end would no t wish him to think so well of

hi mself as to relax in his eff orts .
Enrico took the best possible care o f him

se lf and worked hard mentally and vocally , ,
at the exercises prescribed for him His .
progress was rapid and he had already begun

,
to look forward to the time when he might

hope to make his operatic d ébut when his ,
studies were abruptly interrupted .
T he universal military service law strictly ,
enforced in Italy as in all other C ontinental

countries compelled the budding tenor to give
,
up his solfeggi for soldiering He made no .
attempt to evade the c all of duty promptly ,
entered the army barracks and was enrolled

,
in the T hi rteenth Regiment of A rtillery then ,
in garrison at Ri eti in Perugia a picturesque

, ,
medieval town in the midst of a vi ne and

o live growi ng countryside whose fertility was
-
celebrated by both Virgil and C icero .
In Rieti Enrico was a happy soldier an d ,
soon became a favorite with his fellow artil

lery men When o ne o f his comrades was
-
.
sent to the guard house for some slight o f

-
f ense Enrico would ransom him by off ering

,
to sing fo r the offi cer o f the day any song the

latter especially wanted to hear His o ff er .
was seldom refused and as a result Enrico s

,
’
company held him in high esteem B ut so .
flagrant a laxity o n the part o f officers o n duty ,
and so open a violation o f regulations was ,
not to continue unchecked .
It was o n a lovely Easter Day all sunshine ,

C arus o
’
s B o y ho o d and E arly T raining 19
and blue skies that the storm broke which

,
suddenly ended Enrico s rOle as the savior of ’
delinquent cannoniers T he officers had given .
a banquet to the soldiers o f the regiment ,
Maj or N agliati the commander occupying

, ,
the place o f honor at the head of the table A t .
the conclusion of the dinner it was proposed ,
and unanimously seconded that in the Ma ,
“ ”
j or s honor Enrico should sing the B rindi si
’
“
from Cavalleria Rusticana Enthusiastic .
bravos and demands for an encore greeted the

conclusion of the song It was then that .
Maj or N agliati raised his hand for silence and

made a little speech short and very much to
,
the point which put an effectual damper on

,
the festive spirit of the occasion T he Major .
raked the regiment fore and aft and C aruso ,
in particular dwel ling on t he impropriety o f

,
his putting that voice at every one s beck and

’
call his un seemly use o f it to eff ect the release

,
of military prisoners from the guard house -

,
and the company s criminal folly in requesting

’
a singer to sing immediately after a meal .
A ddressing himself to Enrico in particular ,
he called him a fool and said that C aruso was

,
unworthy of the great gift he evidently held

20 C a ruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
in such light esteem In conclusion he de .
clare d that if any of the officers of his regi
ment again compelled C aruso to sing he ,
would have them put in irons regardless o f ,
rank and would have the singer puni shed as

,
well .
Yet o n the other hand it was this same

, ,
Maj or N agliati who coming across the young

,
recruit one morning as he sat befo re the bar,
racks polishing the brass buttons o f his servi ce

“
uniform coat and s inging open t hro at e -
from sheer j oy of living asked him what he ,
“
did in civilian life I hope to become an opera
.
”
singer mumbled the abashed private who
, ,
coul d not imagine why the Maj or wanted to

kn ow T hat very eveni ng he was informed
.
that the Maj or had hunted up a s inging

teacher f o r him a talented amateur musician
,
of Rieti For the remain der o f his two

.
months stay in the garris o n town— f o r C a

’
r
ruso s army life only lasted some sixty days

’
in all— he continued his interrupted studies

under thi s tuition His releas e fro m military
.
service came about in a perfectly natural way .
His father had remarried and Enrico s step ,

’
mother who had heard him sing and who

,
C aruso B oy ho od
’
s and E arly Traini ng 21
realiz ed t he possibilities o f his voice urged the,
father to secure an honorable discharge E n .
’
rico s father had not grown a whi t more
musical but he had been much impressed by
,
his son s progress and the favorable predi c

’
tions made with regard t o his future The .
discharge was easily eff ected thanks to his ,
younger brother s willingness to serve o ut the

’
rest o f Enrico s time as a substitute

’
.
A fter this short military in terlude Enrico ,
returned t o Vergine and continued to study

,
with him f or another six months He had .
studied with him some three years in all ,
when his teacher dismissed him with a soberly

phrased letter of recommendation and the ,
young tenor began t o cast about for operatic

engagements .
C H A PTER II
C US O S
AR ’
UPWAR D CL IMB
IN Italy where tenor voices o f lyric sweet
,
ness are to be found in profusion young ,
knights o f the high C do not as a rule have , ,
an easy time o f it Many a singer is tolerated

.
and even encouraged o n F rench and German

Operatic stages both small and large who
, ,
would be hissed o ff the boards in Italy Ca .
ruso however did not fail to secure engage

, ,
ments though none o f his earlier appearances

,
gave any indication o f the fame to which he

was to attain later .
He made his début in the T eatro Nuovo in

Naples where he appeared four times in the
,
title rOle o f an unimportant opera L Ami co

-
“
,
’
Francesco by Morelli Enrico received ten

, .
lire fo r each performance with a pair o f stage ,
shoes a suit of fleshings and a neckerchief

, ,
“
thrown in T wenty six years later the
.
-
artist who had been glad to accept a fee o f

ten lire for his first performance in grand
opera refused the
,
a performance o f
25
fered him for a series o f appearances in Lima ,
P eru In Morelli s oper a C aruso made no

.
’
v ery defini te impression o ne way or another ,

.
T he general opinion was that his voice ha d

a sympathetic quality o f tone but that it ,
was rather small and lacking in volume .
T his Op inion may h ave been more or less a re

sult o f Caruso s following Vergine s inst ruc
’ ’
tions to sing with restraint and not t o let out

his voice for V ergine s theories insisted that
,
’
the fo rt e was the bane o f the Operatic voice

and that stress woul d kill it .
A t any rate his negat ive virtues s ufficed t o

,
secure him another opportunity H e was .
engaged fo r the opera at C aserta in Cam ,
p ania a garrison town about twenty o ne miles

,
-
from Naples In C aserta he sang T uriddu

. ,
Camoens and— some prefer to consider this his

— “
real debut Faust in B o it o s Mefistofele ” ’
.
This was in A pril 1 895 and aga in C aruso

, ,
was paid at t he rate o f ten lire a night or ,
about t wo dollars But in C aserta his sing

.
ing attracted more favorab le attent ion ; fo r ,
much to Vergine s disgust he abandoned his

’
,
’ “ ”
maestr o s advi ce and let o ut his voice .
In the following year fortune treated him

Up ward C limb
’
C aruso s 27
somewhat more kindly He appeared at .
” ”
G enoa in T raviata and T rovatore and in ,
“ ” “
T ravi ata , F avorita
” “
and Gioconda in
,
”
the T eatro Fondo at Naples and in both cities ,
with some measure o f success T hese were . ,
p erhaps the first steps toward an increasing

,
recognition o f his artistic merits .
His engagement at the Fondo in Naples

was followed in the same year by o ne at
S alerno in whose opera house the season was
,
to be opened with a p erformance of B ellini s ’
“
I P uritani L ombardi the famous singing
.
,
teacher who was the conductor and who had

,
heard favorable reports regarding C aruso ,
suggested his name t o the management when

hi s leading tenor fell ill at the eleventh hour .
C aruso s earlier quas i failures in Naples

’
-
,
whether o r no t due to the vocal suppression

advocated by Vergine had led to his being
,
“
calle d the broken tenor but although one
o f the di rectors o f the S alerno opera men
t io ned this fact to L o mb ardi the latter did not ,
allow it t o influence him He sent fo r the .
youn g tenor offered him t he engagement and

, ,
fo und himself entirely justified by t he man

ner in which Caruso acquitted himself o f his
rO C aruso
s operatic market valu e was
’
le .
o n the increase and he himself was gaining
,
greater confidence in his vocal powers as well ,
a s greater artistic maturity in his interp re t a
tions .
Lombardi who gave him much disinterested

,
advice during this engagement in duc ed him ,
to ignore Vergine s instructions t o hold back

’
his voice and not let it o ut in all it s sonorous

strength H e encouraged C aruso to cultivate
.
a vigorous attack and a robust style o f vocali

z at io n and told him that when he confronted
,
an audience he should carry himself like a

toreador braving the natural skeptic ism o f his
,
auditors with a veritable onslaught o f tone .
T he memory o f this advice prob ably had its

share in developing that splendid vocal vigor
with which C aruso flung himself into his lat er
part s T here can be n o doubt but that L om
.
b ardi had a most salutary influence o n the

tenor Vergine had cramped and bound his
.
voice A s the tenor himself declar ed : H e

.
restraine d all my inclination t o color a note ,
dep rived me o f all power Of emphasis For .
three years I studied against my grain repres ,

Up ward C limb
’
C aruso s 29
sing nature in order to become a Vergine

”
product .
It was Lombardi who made clear t o C a

ruso that he need not assume a c old and
statuesque pose o n the stage singi ng his notes ,
prettily without distinguishing among them

with regard to intensity and color A s a pre .
c io us outcome o f his S alerno season under

“
Lombardi C aruso was able t o say : A great
,
light shone upon me and never again did I ,
sing against nature T hereafter I always .
sang with all the voice I had when the right

moment c ame and always with the color that
,
my heart told me should envelop my poet s ’
“
words F rom that night when I sang I Puri
.
”
tani in S alerno I was never again called the
,
‘
broken tenor .
’
O ther engagements followed in various ,
Italian cities and Vergine— no t fo r Caruso s

,
’
sake alone as will appear— urged him t o miss

,
no opportunity to sing in public and make

himself better known T his constant enco ur .
agement o f V ergin e s his insistence that C a

’
,
ruso sing a s often as possible had a very ,
genuine a fin ancial motive Whenever and

, , .
wherever C aruso sang his former teacher ,

promptly put in an appearance to claim the

twenty five per cent of the tenor s receipts
’
-
g uarante e d him by his contr ac t C aruso never

.
made any obj ection but the monotonous regu

,
larit y with which V ergine presented himself

at the tenor s performances was so noticeable
’
that it attracted the attention o f o ne manager .
H e mad e some inquiries o f C aruso ; and when

the tenor showed him the co ntract he pointed ,
o ut that accordin g t o its terms V ergine would

, ,
be entitled t o a quarter Of all C aruso could

earn during five y ears o f act ual singing! In
o ther words C aruso would be obliged to sing
,
steadily until he reached the age of fifty be

fore Vergine would have received his final
payment T his d iscovery led Caruso t o dis
.
cuss with Vergine the unfair terms o f the con

t ract and it is plea sant to know that when t he
,
matter was event ually referred t o the Italian

c ourts for set tlement C aru so was upheld an d
,
Vergine lost lire by a decision ren

dered in the tenor s favor ’
.
H is first real outstanding success Caruso

scored in the rfile o f Marcello in L eon ,
“ ”
cavallo s Op era
’
Boheme at t he T eatro
,
Lirico in Milan He had already in L ivo mo

.
, ,
32 C aruso and t he A rt o f S inging
and this his first success was the real begin

'
, ,
ning o f his artistic career A mong those who .
had heard him fo r the first time was Jules

“ ”
Massenet whose N av arraise he also sang
,
during the same season In his Memo ires“ ”

.
Massenet says : A mong my memories o f

“
Milan I have kept the recollection o f bein g

present at C aruso s début T he now famous
’
.
tenor was very modest then and when a year , ,
later I saw him wrapped in an ample fur

,
coat it was o bvious that the figure o f his salary

,
must have mounted c rescendo When I saw .
him I did not envy him his brill iant fortune

o r his un doubted talent but I did regret ,
that winter especially— that I could not put

his rich warm coat o n my own bac
,
T he impression C aruso had made on No

v emb er eighth was intensified by his appear
ance at the Lirico on the sixteenth as the

creator of the m i le o f Loris at the premiere o f
“
Giordano s Fedora ’
It was a part whose
.
exuberant melodic c haracter and dramatic

eff ect the young artist improved to the utmost ,
and after his singing o f Loris confession of

’
“
love the short Giordano aria A mor ti vieta
,
”
di non amar he was given a tremendous ova
,
Caruso U p ward C limb
’
s 33
tion and was called before the curtain four

,
times The following morning all the critics

.
”
agreed that C aruso had sung Fedora
e la F é d o ro— in a mann er t ruly golden
’ ’
.
H is position as an operatic tenor was now

assured though all his triumphs still lay be
,
fore him He sang in o ne Italian city after

.
another including Livorno and Genoa where

, ,
“ ”
he was heard in B izet s I Pescatori di P erle ’
at the Carlo Felice In fact the Milan ap .

,
p earances o f 1 8 9 8 mark a distinct milestone

in his development Th e impression he made
.
in them was instrumental in bringing about

his transformation from a purely Italian
singer into the great world artist and in re ,
leasing him from the narrower sphere o f the

Itali an operatic stage A n intelligent im .
p re sario looking
, for a new voice which mi ght
j ustify an intern ational career decided he had ,
found o ne in C aruso A s will be shown his .

,
confidence was no t misplaced .
Before we take up the second period o f

C aruso s career hi s development as an Oper
’
,
atic tenor of international fame some consid ,
erat io ns anent the natural and artisti c me an s
which aided him in his achievement may not

34 C a ruso and t he A rt o f S inging
be amiss T hat C aruso was endowed with a

.
remarkable physique with a powerful pair o f

,
bellows and with a wonderful vocal apparatus

,
is common knowledge Many physicians . ,
c ompetent and incompetent a like have di s ,

’
coursed at length upon C aruso s marvelous
vocal organism Yet after all c o mparatively
.
, ,
little is known about the precise workings of

the little reed like membranes which are called
-
the vocal cords or o f the other adj acent vocal

,
organs .
What we do kno w is that C aruso s natural ’
advantages alone could never have m ade him

the great artist he developed into T he physi .
ologists have a s a rule overlooked an all

, ,
important factor in the art of song— the men

tal factor T he voice o f C aruso light and
.
,
lyric in quality at the beginning prevented ,
from coming into its o wn by V ergine s theories ’
o f repression even in its later golden purity

,
and dramatic poignancy owed those subtler

infl ections which move the human heart— the
flawless sustained legato the exquisite mez za
, ,
voce the beautiful phrasing and expressive

,
declamation— to the great tenor s unremitting ’
hard work both mental and technical and to

, ,
C aruso U p ward C limb 35
’
s
his fidelity t o the ideals o f interpretation

which he never abandoned throughout his
career His great natural gift of an excep
.
t io nal voice was always the interpreting me

dium for a controlling artistic mi nd and his ,
apparently eff ortless singing was no t— as so

many erroneously believe — a freak of nature ,
but the result o f constant intensive devotion

t o the study not only of his rfiles but also of
, ,
the vocal exercises upon which his marvelous

techni que was based S ome of his o wn state
.
ments show how convin ced he was that the

most wonderful voice in the world is soulless
unl ess it be spiritualized by the intellectual
and emotional factors .
It was this firm conviction that counted

heavily in C aruso s progress as a vocal art ist ;
’
it was a doctrine which gave his art a solid

foundation to build upon C aruso fully com
.
prehended the secret that to learn to s ing

beautifully is an endless task .
With this secret and with what is now ao

,
knowledged to have been authentically the

greatest natural tenor voice o f the period
ready t o be revealed ; backed by tireless c on ,
scient io us study ; and equipped with a large

reperto ry o f teno r ré les ; with youth enthusi

,
asm and ideals t o lend wings to his ambition

, ,
E nrico C aruso was indeed superbly prepared

to embark o n his stupendous international
career in opera .
in B ologna It was in the latter theater that

.
“ ”
he first sang the m i le of Rhadames in Ai da ,
and established his confidence in his high C ,
which hitherto he had regarded with a trace of

distrust .
In 19 00 he sang in C ovent Garden Lon ,
don for the first time a ppearing as Des

, ,
“
G rieux in Puccini s Manon Lescaut his ’
,
beautiful voice winning frenetic applause from

the audience T he same year at the Milan
. ,
S cala then directed by Gatti—

, C asazza and
T oscanini he opened the season triumphantly
,
“ ”
with Puccini s L a B o heme ; and in 19 01
’
,
during the Carni val he sang again in the ,
same house creating the F lorindo of Mas

,
“
c agni s
’
Le Maschere T his opera despite .
,
the fact that it was p rpduced simultaneously

at seven o f the most important Italian Opera
houses— Rome Milan T urin Genoa Veni ce , , , , ,
V erona and N aples— o n January 1 7 o f that

,
year was a failur e though C aruso did much

, ,
to redeem the work by his convincing pres

e nt at io n of his part He also appeared .
in B o it o s M efist o f ele a nd in D onizetti s

’
,
’
L E lisir d A mo re
“ ’
and notwi thstanding
’
that two older tenors of established fame were

T he C o n quest o f t he Old Wo rld 41
still active on the operatic stage Of his native

land C aruso had by this time been generally
,
recognized by press and public as the fore

most o f Italian tenors .
In the autumn of 190 1 he sang at T reviso

”
and at B ologna in La T osca and again in ,
Milan for the C arnival of 19 02 both at the ,
Lirico where he created the tenor r61e in

,
“ ’
Cile a s A driana L eco uvreur and at La ,
“
S cala in F ranche t t i s Germania It was
’
in thi s year that he also sang at Monte C arlo ,
with Melb a— and was at once engaged for

four seasons— and at C ovent Garden Lon ,
“ ”
do n o n May 14 as the D uke in Rigoletto
, , .
T his Londo n a ppearance was a great suc

cess so far as the public was concerned ,
though the critics in general did not recogniz e

his possibilities T here had been but little
.
advance publicity t o herald his coming and ,
o ne London paper dismissed the performance
the next morning with the bald statement that

“
the part of the Duke was carefully sung by
M Caruso
. T hroughout this season his
.
singing wo n increasing applause at each o f

hi s appearances but at that time his name on
,
the board s never led t o a rush o n the box

office.
During t he winter o f 1 9 03 1904 he sang in

-
Rome and in L isbon and it was o n Novem

,
ber 23 19 03 that he made his début at the

, ,
Metropolitan Opera House in New York in ,
“ ”
Rigoletto .
His career in the U nited S tates— and it is

with the U nited S tates and the Metropolitan
O pera H ouse in particula r that he was most
c losely and intimately identi fied after his first
appearance in this country in 1903— is a story

in itself and in order no t to interrupt the se
,
q uence o f his European successes its co nsid ,
c ration has b een deferred till the following
c hapter .
D ating from his seaso n in 19 04 his p apu ,
larity in L ondon was immense and he sang ,
there every summer until the year 1 9 07 when ,
the management declined t o reéngage him ,
pleading that his fee was ex cessive T his . ,
however did not interfere with his appearing

,
in the B ritish cap ital in concert s— notably the

great C harity C once rt in Al bert Hall in 1908 ,
during which year he also tour ed the English

p rovince s —and at private entert ainments al ,
T he C o nquest f
o t he Old Wo rld 43
ways eagerly sought and drawing immense

audiences at all aff airs of a public character .
“
It was his Rodolfo in Puccini s La B o ’
”
heme which more than any other single rfile
, , ,
served to est ablish his popularity in London ,
though he also created the part o f Pinkerton

“
in Puccini s Madame B utterfly in that
’
city singing its music to perfection In 19 14

, .
C aruso did accept a London engagement ; it

marked his last appearan ce in that city and ,
“ ”
his singing in the last act o f T osca moved
a critic to declare that the mezza voce
he used t o present his legato passages thrilled
the soul as though the most glorious days o f
,
the past had come echoing back under a

cupola o f gold to remind us that never in our
lifetime could we hope to hear anything com
parable with that un ique tenor which can only
—
be s ummed up in one word Caruso ! ”
S trange t o say among the great music al

,
capitals of Europe Paris is the one in which

,
C aruso was least known for he sang there ,
no more than half a d oz en times usually at ,
gala performances In March 1 9 04 he took

.
, ,
the part o f Pinkerton in the creation of Puc

“ ”
cini s Madame B utterfly at Monte C arlo
’
but it was not until 19 05 as a member o f S o n

,
’
z ogno s Italian C ompany that he appeared at
,
t he Théat re S arah B ernhardt A lthough he .
was enthusiast ically received by the Parisian

public his other outstanding P aris appear
,
a nce s were few in number In 19 06 with

. ,
characteristic genero sity he interrupted a co n

,
c ert tour in order to sing at the T rocadero in
the cit y o n the S eine f o r a benefit concert

which had bee n organized by the elder
C oquelin o n behalf o f the A sso ciation o f Dra
matic A rtists T he F rench government ex
.
pressed its appreciation o f this action by mak

ing C a ruso a chevalier o f the L egion o f
H onor In 19 1 2 he was heard at the Chatelet
.
“ ” “ ”
T heatre in Ai da Pagliacci and Puccini s
, ,
’
“ ”
M anon L escaut ; and in the s ame year he
c reated the m i le o f D ick Johnson (R amerrez )
in Puccini s
’ “
Fanciulla del W est at the
”
P aris Opé ra .
In 1 907 he included L eipsic Hamburg and , ,
Berlin in a G erman t ournée and was every

where received with enthusiasm In Berlin . ,
in particular in 1 9 07 19 10 and 19 1 2 the

, , , ,
years o f his appear ances in that c ity German ,
critical opinion was unanimously agree d that

T he C o nquest o f t he Old World 45
no such powerful high and brilliant tenor

, ,
voice had ever been heard before ; and even

those ancients who had heard the greatest
art ists of a generation or more could no t re
call a voice which could have measured itself
beside C aruso s as regards perfected beauty
’
,
warmth and genuine golden tone T he tech

, .
nique o f his breath control— in which his sys

tem of rigorous vocal exercise played no un
important part— together with his histrionic
ability was accorded the greatest praise T he
, .
same critical opinion attended his appearances

in Munich in S tuttgart and in H amburg as
, ,
well .
In Vienna the V ienna of the Hapsburgs

, ,
the way fo r C aruso s coming had been pre

’
pared by the sensational accounts of his fan

t ast ic A meric an successes and their— to Eu ,
ro p e an minds— in credible financial rewards ,
f o r some two years prior to his first appear

ance at the Hofoper T his took place in .
1 9 05 and though he won a victory in the m

,
i le
“
o f the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto at that ,
t ime the r61e he sang best from a purely vocal

poin t of view it was as one Viennese critic
, ,
“ ”
declared a victory without conquest
,
.
Vienna did not really capitulate until he

sang there in O ctober 190 7 T hen he was , .
received with genuine enthusiasm was obliged ,
” “
to repeat his canzonetta in Rigoletto three
separate times and even to repeat the solo
,
at the beginning of the quartet an unheard ,
o f encore But he won the Viennese com

.
p let ely and finally with his impersonation of

“ ”
Rodolfo in Pucc ini s La B oheme ; for he ’
was the original living bo hemien o f Murger s

‘
’ ’
,
novel a fun maker full o f practical j okes and

,
-
,
wanton high spirits a child now laughing , , ,
now in tears A nd in his singing he was not

.
“ ”
merely a poet .
T he third r61e he presented to the V iennese

“ ”
audience s was that o f Rhadames in A i da ,
“ ”
c arrying them away in the Nile act in his ,
“
B flat maj or aria and in the duo Morir si , ,
”
pura e bella T he public feted him as a
.
singer and paid him an homage it had ao

,
corded few singers before him T he tumult .
at the box o tfice the storm on the galleries

-
, ,
the incredible activity o f the ticket specu

lators an d the scenes at the Op ernt ii rl the
, ,
exit o f the Hofoper where the famous singer s ,

’
horses would undoubtedly have been taken

48 Ca ruso and t he A rt of S inging
wished An d yet Ca ruso attained to even

.
greater dramatic heights in the fourth act o f

the opera when with a cry like that o f some
, ,
ravening wild beast he flung himself upon,
C armen It was at such moments that o ne

.
reali ze d that C aruso was not alone a model

singer o f be! canto b ut a portrayer o f human
,
character a creative artist o f the most pro

,
found emotional passion and power When .
C aruso sang in Vienna in 1913 before the ,
War he received
, a performance ap ,
p ro ximfl ely crowns an immense sum ,
for that city and shortly before the War seats

,
were prac tically sold at auction wherever he

appeared in A ustria or Germany .
It is worthy o f remark that no matter where

C aruso sang whether in Russia o r in Cuba
, ,
E ngland o r Mexico F rance o r G ermany , ,
Ital y o r the U nited S tates the manner in ,
wh ich his singing united p erfected tone and

genuine emot ion a technique beyond compare
, ,
and a gi ft for dramatic impersonation which

ha s rarely been equalled o n the operatic stage ,
wo n fo r him all his auditors irrespective of ,
their nationalit y .
CH APTER IV
T HE C ON QUE ST OF T HE N EW WORLD
T H E A merican dé but o f E nrico C aruso
would un doubtedly have taken place earlier
than it did but for the fact that Maurice Grau
,
resigned his post as impresario o f the Metro

politan Op era H ouse A fter negotiating with
.
C aruso fo r about a year Grau had persuaded

,
the tenor— then already famous in Europe but

practically unknown in A merica— t o sign a
contract to j oin the Metropolitan forces .
Heinrich C onried who succeeded Grau at the

,
Opera House and inherited this contract was ,
primarily a theatrical man and not a grand

opera manager and never having heard o f the
,
tenor w as at first not t o o eager to as sume the

,
responsibility o f bringing over a singer un

known t o him T here are many legends re
.
gardi ng Co nried s final decision to invite Ca

’
ruso to these shores o f which the most amusing

,
’
one is to the eff ect that the impresario s Italian
bootblack must share the honor having made ,
’
an appeal in the great tenor s favor As a .
51
52 C aruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
matter o f fact it was Maurice Grau s sound

’
judgment together with information freshly

,
’
gathered that overcame C o nried s reluctance ;

,
a nd Enrico C a ruso made hi s A merican debut
at the Metropolitan O pera House o n N ovem

“ ”
ber 23 19 03 as the Duke in Rigoletto
, , ,
Madame S embrich singing the m i le o f G ilda .
T he great audience that filled the Metro

’
politan that memorable night o f C aruso s
c areer h ad no t come to welc ome the new
tenor : the management had done nothing to
arouse curiosity about him Ma dame S em .
brich who had already become a great favorite

,
with N ew York opera audiences was warmly ,
welcomed ; so was the new conductor S igno r ,
Vigna B ut when Enrico C aruso entered

‘
up on the stage all he received from the audi

,
ence was a respectful silence T his cold re .
cep t io n would have dismayed many a singer ,
especially if he was accustomed to being lion

iz ed in the capitals o f Europe C aruso how .
,
ever did not permit the audience s indifl er

,
’ ’
ence t o ruffle him He was determined to win .
recognition He sang with great care intent

.
,
o n having his instrument under complete con

“ ”
trol B efore that performance o f Rigo letto
.
T he C on quest o f t he N ew World 53
was conc luded C aruso had conquered the

,
audience .
T he following day the critics hailed C aruso

as a great artist with a wonderful vocal organ .
T he in di ff erence of the audience when he had ,
first made his entrance now added glory and ,
dramatic interest to his triumph .
S trange to say wrote the P ost whereas

, ,
the new c onduct or Mr V igna was greeted

, .
,
with a round o f applause when he took his

seat in the lowered orchestral space where he ,
disappeared from sight not a hand was r aised ,
fo r Mr C aruso when he became visible on the

.
s tage
. N obody seemed to know him ; nor is
that str an ge for he is a young man— onl y
,
thirty years of age— and he was hardly known ,
even in Italy until five years ago Having

, .
established his fame at Milan and Genoa he ,
sang fo r two seasons in S t Petersburg and . ,
then went t o S outh A merica where his p o p u ,
larit y soon induced the manager to double the

price Of his seats In L ondon he subsequently
.
made a sensational success which led to his ,
engagement for N ew York Real tenors .

,
Italian o r otherwise are extremely scarce and

, ,
Mr Carus o is in demand in ev ery city which

.
has Opera ; we simply go t him because in N ew

York we have the h igh s alary crime — a
‘ ’
-
crime which has its advantages .
“
If Mr C aruso was received in silence t he
. ,
loud applaus e which greeted his first air ,
Q uest a o quella made ample amends A nd

,
.
the enthus iasm grew from act t o act culmi ,
nating in an ovation after L a donna é mo bile .
T rue he exaggerated its catchp enny e ff ect by

,
his vocal flourishes at the end ; but the changes

o f pace he introduc ed in the melody made it
seem less off ensive th an usual and his phras ,
ing here as in the other numbers was remark

, ,
ably artistic an d refined L ike some o f his

.
famous colleagues he was not at his best early

,
in the evening ; but as he warm ed up to his

task his voice was revealed as a genuine teno r
o f exc ellent q uali ty which it will be a pleas
,
ure t o hear again T o hear him s ing duos wi th

.
”
Mme S embrich was a rare treat
. .
N o t yet had C aruso reached those heights

o f perfection in the mastery o f his v o ice and
in the subtlety o f his interpretations which

w ere later to m ake him suprem e in the realm
o f song But the vital qua lity o f sincerity
. ,
56 Caruso and t he A rt of S ing ing
arts His voice is purely a tenor in its quality

. ,
of high range and of large power but inclined

, ,
to take o n the white qualit y in it s upper

‘ ’
ranges when he lets it forth In mezza voce .
it has expressiveness and flexibility and when ,
so used it s beauty is most apparent Mr . .
C aruso appeared l ast evening cap ab le of in

t elligence and of passion in bot h his singing
and his acting and gave reason to believe in
,
”
his val ue as an a cquisition t o the company .
T he musical critic o f the S un was impressed

by C aruso s finer qualities as a v ocal artist
’
.
He said in part
“
Mr C aruso the new tenor made a thor
.
, ,
oughly favorable impression and will pro b ,
ably grow into the firm favor o f this public .
He has a p ure tenor voice o f fine quali ty an d

sufli cient range and power It is a smooth .
and mello w voice and is with o ut the typical

Italian bleat Mr C aru so has a natural and
. .
free delivery an d his voice carries well with

o ut forcin
g H e phrased his mus ic tastefully
.
and showed co nsiderable refinement of st yle .
“
His clear and pealing high tones set the
bravos wild with delight but connoisseur s o f ,
T he Conquest o f t he N ew World 57
singing saw more promise fo r the season in his

mezza voce and his manliness .
C aruso had scored a success but one that ,
fell far short o f the great enthusi asm he was

afterward to arouse Profound as was the im
.
pression he had made little did the people who

,
heard him sing that night realize that the new

tenor was soon to become o ne o f the pi llars
o f the Metropolitan O pera House nay its , ,
mainstay for nearly a generation F o r C aruso .
introduced at the Metro politan a new stand

ard o f vocal art a singing so rich and vibrant
,
in its delivery that it seemed to o vershadow

the art o f all those master singers who had
-
preceded him in that famous house o f music .
T here were memories of great voices at the

Metropolitan when Enrico C aruso arrived ;
there may have been voices of greater power ;
there may have been voices of greater agility;
but none had possessed the infinite gradation s
o f tone color nor the poignant utterance of
,
C aruso s glorious organ Even at that time

’
.
he carried his voice with great skill through

o ut a wi de compass and sang each tone from ,
the lowest to the highest with a purity and

,
roundn ess that captivated his auditors T he .

voice he had brought t o the Met ropolitan was

a tenor o f fine texture b o th velvety and o p u
,
lent in quality ; but it was the warmth and

magnetism o f his to nes that moved his hearers
and co mpelled their enthusiasm A t all .
’
events after his déb ut C aruso s art was closely
,
watched no t only b y all the New Yo rk critics

but by the general public as well .
The many adm irers the new tenor had won

at hi s first perf ormance were very eager to
“ ”
hear his Rodolfo in Puccini s L a Boheme ’
,
which he was scheduled t o sing a few day s

later But the sharp weather which some
.
times visits New York in late November

brought them disappointment C aruso had .
contracted a severe cold and could no t appear .
H is s udden indisposition caused the manage

ment o f the Metropolitan a good deal o f nu
easiness ; they felt that here was a popular
tenor upon whom they could not rely The .
new impresario H einrich Conried soon

, ,
learned however that E nrico C aruso was an

, ,
art ist who disliked t o disappoint his au diences .
I n fact altho ugh no t in fit vocal condition t o

,
sing Rhadam es Ca ruso consented to app ear

,
“ ”
in A i da just a week aft er his début and the ,
T he C onquest o f t he N e w World 59
plaudits that were showered on him were more

enthusiastic and tumultuous than they had
been at his first appearance .
“
The greatest interest
”
said the Times , ,
“
Was felt in Mr C aru so s assumption of the
.
’
p art o f Rhadames and though he evidently

,
had no t recovered from the troubles that put

so sudden a check upon his career her e after
his first appearance he m aterially deepened

,
the favorable impression he then made H e .
was clearly singing with circumspection and

care especially in the first act of the opera
, ,
an d seldom ventured t o put forth the full

power o f his v oice But in the very manner
.
in which he did this he proved the remarkable

mastery he p o ssesses over his organ and the ,
skill o f his vocal technique the manifold re ,
sources he possesses to make every eff ect

count even again st t he most unfavorable in
,
fluences .H e san g with s ome evidences o f

eff ort when he did sing with his full power .
With all his reserve however the quality the

, , ,
flexibility and the expressive ca pacity o f his

,
v oice b eaut ifie d everything he did H is action .
was forceful and authoritative so far as ,
forc e and authority come into the purview of

60 Carus o and t he A rt o f S inging
Rhadames experience T here were passion

’
.
and conviction in his interpretation o f t he
hated lover and everywhere the marks o f the

,
a dept in stage cr aft It was an admirable per

.
formance and commanded not o nly the en

thusiast ic plaudits o f the cooler portion s o f the
audience but also the frenz ied bravos o f his
,
‘ ’
c ompatriots who were present in large num

,
bers A fter the third act there were scenes

.
o f tum ul tuous enthusiasm .
The musical writer fo r the P ost was im

pressed by C aruso s style and refined phras’
“
ing H e wrote : A nd last no t least was the
.
, ,
Rhadames o f S ign or C aruso whose singing o f ,
Celest e A ida was followed by a great outburst

o f applause ; and he deserved it Reports .
from abroad did not exaggerate the merits o f

this t en or He is what h as so long been locked
.
for— a successor t o C ampanini and more t oo , , .
While his voice is no t so reliable as Cam

p anini s it is infused with more ardor and has
’
,
more dramatic p o wer while being equally ,
”
beautiful in quality when at its best .
The critic o f the S un was no less impressed

’
by the qualities o f C aruso s singing In his .
“ ”
review o f the perform an ce o f A i da he s aid :
T he Conquest o i t he N ew World 61
Mr C aruso the new Italian tenor confirmed

.
, ,
the good impression he made at his début He .
saved himself a good deal in the early part o f

the opera which was wise in View o f his recent
,
indisposition but this gave him an o p po r

,
t unity t o show the resources o f his art in

C elest e A ida H e sang the air quietly but
.
tastefully and with good eff ect In the N ile .
scene he let himself o ut and made the bravos

wild with delight .
In the T ribun e C aruso s song art was also

,
’
“
praised T he critic wrote : The latter (S ignor
.
C aruso ) was plainly still su ffering from the in

disposition which worked such shipwreck in
the representation of La B ohéme last F ri‘ ’
day n ight and Rigoletto o n S aturday after

,
‘ ’
noon . B ut his skill in overcoming the dr aw

back helped to a keener appreciation o f his
knowledge o f the art o f singing and invited ,
still greater admi ration f o r the superb beauty

o f his voice T he pleasure which his singing
.
gives is exqu isite scarcely leaving room for

,
”
curious shortcomings touching his limitations .
A few days later C aruso sang the m i le of

“ ”
Cav arado ssi in T osca He displayed the
.
same skill as a v ocal artist and as an inter

preter Of character which he had disclosed in

his first t wo appearan ces at the O pera House .
He sang the music o f the young revolutionist

with warmth and color and the famous aria
,
E luc evan le st elle brought forth rounds and

rounds o f applause But C aruso had not yet
.
revealed to A merican opera goers all o f the -
vocal artistry and eloquence that he had

at his command T hus far he had been
.
heard in but o ne m i le t o which he had

— “
done full justice the Duke in Rigoletto ,
which he had sung with a charm grace and , ,
nonchalance that captivated his hearers .
“ “ ”
In Ai da and T osca he had not been
quite himself because he dared not give full
,
sway to his golden voice B ut by the time he

.
made his fourth appearanc e he had completely,
regained his vocal powers and he infused into

his song such art and beauty that he was un
stintedly accorded the supreme pl ace among
singing men .
“
Mr Caruso wrote the T imes showed
.
, ,
yesterday afternoon for the first time since he

has been in this country the supreme beauty
o f his voice and the perfection o f his s t yle
when he is at his best He took the part of

.
64 C arus o a nd t he A rt o f S inging
In that same season (19 03 19 04 ) C aruso -
”
appeared in four other operas : I Pagliacci ,
Lucia di Lammermoor and

“ “ ” ”
La T raviat a , ,
L E lisir d A mo re
“ ”
A s C ani o in Pag
’ ’
.
liaoci he evinced his versatile genius ; his im

”
,
personation of the tragic Pagliaccio— a spe cies

of strolling clown who is often a comedian a ,
singer and a pantomimist— made known that

,
he was no t only a great singer but an actor ,
o f fine intelligence too It was a perform .
ance instinct with musicianship as well as with

unusual histrionic ability T o this work o f .
L eo ncav allo s the only genuine masterpiece

’
,
the composer was destined t o give to the

world C aruso brought a personality o f such
,
power and magnetism that he and the opera

were from that time on inseparable C aruso . ,
by his great acting and singing made the m i le ,
“ ”
o f C anio his o wn I Pagliacci had been
.
sung at the Metropolitan O pera House before

C aruso became a member o f that company ,
but no one before C aruso had given full ex

pression to the vo cal and dramatic possibili
C ani T rue C aruso himself had not ,
eminence as a singer and

creator o f character that he was t o achieve
T he Conquest o f t he N ew World 65
after more years o f diligent work the high

,
tide o f art which finally made his interpreta

tion o f C anio a marvel of the operatic stage .
But the fire and passion the sardonic humor

,
and bitter irony and the tragic note which he

,
breathed into the ri fle even at his first appear

ance in it at the Metropolitan did much to
enhance the dramatic significance of the opera .
It was after C aruso had infused into the pul

“ ”
sating rhythm and melody of Pagliacci the
eloquence o f his glorious voice and the vitality
o f his dramatic style that L e o ncav allo s great
’
work attain ed in A merica the popularity it

deserves .
A s A lfredo in La T raviata , C aruso

scored another success He sang his airs in
.
a masterly manner and seemed to put the

charm of novelty into whatever music he chose
to interpret No aria that he sang sounded
.
antiquated o r colorless so marvelous were the

,
e fl ect s of his magic art Even the puppet

’
.
heroes o f the old operas C aruso could trans

form into real beings with emotions and pas
sions ; and as a result of this rev ivificat io n their
utterance in song acquired a new interest It .
“
is thus that C aruso made Edgardo in Lucia
di L ammermoor seem real and human L ike .
”
wise as N emo rino in L E lisir d A mo re
“ ’ ’
, ,
C aruso put so much feeling and pathos into

the music o f the futile an d ungraceful lover
that it became o f vital significance t o t he audi
ence H e enraptured his hearers with his
.
heart felt and delicately nuanced rendering o f

- -
the famous airs U na furtiva lagrima an d

Quant a e bella Flowery and o ld fashioned
.
-
melodies took o n a new glamo u r when C aruso

ennobled them by his fluent delivery and re
fined style and he san g these two with a
,
genuine lyrical beauty which never degener

ate d into wh ining sentimentality E ven in .
their most feeble moments his singing im ,
parted t o them vi rility and body An d as for .
the rhetorical passion with which mo st of the

o ld arias are replete the stirring appeal of
,
’
C aruso s ringing tones made even that a ff ected
ardor convincing .
The element in the song art which mad e his

rendering o f the o ld arias so remarkable was
an unusual technical equipment His voice .
was not only extraordinarily flexible so that ,
the tone gradations between a pianissimo an d

a fortissimo were infinite in variety but it was ,
T he C on qu est o f t he N ew World 67
just preeminent in its agility T his per

as .
f ect io n o f vocal technique made it possible for

C aruso to sing the florid passages o f the arias
with a brilliance which evoked the versatile
artists o f the golden age o f song N o such .
fio rit ura singing had been heard from a tenor

voice Indeed C aruso executed t he flo urish
.
,
ing runs and cadenzas so brilliantly and with

such clean cut agi lity that his audience re
-
mained breathless at his vocal artistry T hese .
were the qualities in C aruso s sin ging— the ’
warmth and magnetism o f his tones the com ,
pelling expr essiveness o f his sty le the great ,
suppleness of his delivery and his unusual ,
dramatic powers— that foretold after his first ,
season at the M etropolitan O pera House a ,
great A merican career .
It is curious however that in the course of

, ,
the S outh A merican engagement at B uenos

A ires which C arus o filled during the same
year he was given quite a cool reception The
,
.
opera subscribers there were disappointed

when he appeared in B o it o s M efist o f ele ”’
,
and even requested the management not to

renew its contract with him for the following
year But by the time the following year had
.
arrived Caruso had so firmly established him

,
self in the favor o f his A merican audiences

“ ” “ ”
with L a Gioconda Lu crez ia Borgia
, ,
“ “ ”
Les H uguenots U n B allo in Maschero
, ,
as well as with the operas in whi ch he had ap

pear ed the first season and was now in such ,
de mand both in A meri ca and Europe that

, ,
B uenos A ires did not have an opportunity to

hear him again for twelve years It was no t .
until 19 15 when the new Colon Opera House

,
in that city had b een complet ed that the man ,
agement succeeded in reé n a in

g g g C aruso ; and
it no w had to pay him francs for ten
performances instead o f the
, francs he
had previously received fo r an entire season .
’
During Caruso s second season at the Met
ro p o lit an his popularit y with t he public
grew
tremendously On the night when he sang all
.
the seats were sold and there was always a

,
Hong lin e o f standees waiting to secure tickets

f o r the p erform an ce B efore the second sea
.
s o n was over C aruso was n o longer merely a
f avorite opera singer : he had become a p o pu

lar idol No singer at the Metropoli tan had
.
ever fired the public imagination as C aruso

had done F o r the great maj orit y o f people
. ,
T he C o nquest o f t he N ew World 69
he and the Metropolitan O pera House had

become o ne Even the Wagner enthusiasts
.
,
who would have been overj oyed t o have so

glorious a voice to reveal the music of S ig
fried S igmund and T ristan to the world re
, , ,
luct ant ly admitted that C aruso made irresist i

ble whatever music he sang .
O n March 5 19 06 C aruso appeared for the

, ,
first time at the Metropolitan as Don J o sé in

“ ” “ ”
C armen . T he theatre was crowded ,
wrote the musical critic of the S un ,
S ignor C aruso was singing Don Jo sé for the

first time here and making his second appear
ance in F rench In these days when N ew
.
,
York is no longer opera mad but C aruso mad , ,
this was sufficient occasion for the audience

and its enthusiasm It may be said at the out
.
set for the comfort o f the tenor s admirers

,
’
,
”
that he put another success to his credit .
S uch is the popularity that C aruso had won

toward the end o f his third season in N ew
“ ”
York Prior to his appearance in Carmen
. ,
he had sung in four other operas for the first

time at the Metropolitan ; he had opened the
“ ”
season with La F avorita ; the following
“ ”
week he had added La S onnambula ; and
later in the season F aust and Marta His .
beauti ful cantilena singing found a most suit

“
able outlet in Doni zetti s melodious La ’
”
F avorita and the musical s ignificance o f
,
“ ” ”
La S onnambula an d o f Marta awoke
”
under his masterly vocal art In F aust .
C aruso s singing was no table but he was sing

’
,
ing in French for the first time so that he did ,
not attain his usual high level in Goun od s ’
opera Moreover C aruso had already set up

.
,
so high a standard that his audiences would

“ ”
have nothing short o f perfect ion F aust .
left some dissatisfaction among the more ar

dent o f his admirers .
S o the announcement that Caruso would

sing Don J o sé occasioned much discussion as
’
to the tenor s qualifications to sing French
Opera The opera goers who lacked co nfi
.
-
’
dence in C aruso s powers were destined t o be
di sappointed His D o n J o sé was a triumph
. .
Vocally and dramatically the tenor gave an ,
exceedingly finished performance that deeply

stirred the audience In C aruso s interpreta
.
’
tio n Don J o sé became the truly tragic lover

,
that he is no t merely a stage puppet ; there

,
was remarkable acting in his p ortrayal o f the

72 Ca ruso an d t he A rt of S inging
the scope o f his repertory he would have

achieved unique success in many other r61es .
A t one time there were rumors that he might

“ ”
appear in Lohengrin now we can o nly
speculate about what wondrous music w ould
have been poured out had Enrico C aruso
chosen to sing Lohengrin or T ristan .
It is difficult to divide Caruso s career into

’
periods when he sang either lyric semi dra ,

-
matic or dramatic m
, i les It was only at the
.
very beginning o f his career that he confined

himself t o parts written primarily f or the
lyric tenor ; for after he had gained a foothold
in the world of opera he essayed to sing rOles
,
which required dramatic vocal power A l .
though C aruso never sought power for its o wn

sake he steadily cultivated the intensity o f his
,
voice with a view to attaining the necessary

vocal pow er to be able to sing dramatic r61es
with c ase F o r he knew full well the danger
.
o f straining the vocal organs T hat was why

.
he did not attempt f o r example S amson o r

, ,
Eleazer until he felt that the power of his

voice had been sufficiently developed to do
justice t o these two might y rfile s C aruso had
.
“ ”
always wished to sing Verdi s O tello ; but
’
,
T he Co nquest o f t he N ew World 73
season after season he postponed appearing

,
in it so that he might still develop the vocal

,
resources essential for that great part H ow .
many tenors in the annals o f Opera have b een

so conscientious about their art ? F or it was ,
with Caruso a straight question o f art ; he was

,
well aware o f the fact that there can be no

beautiful singing when the vocal organs are
strained o r forced .
G enerally speaking the first period o f his

,
career at the Metropolitan may be called his

lyric one His r61es were more o r less the
. , ,
essentially lyric parts in the repertory operas

which had made him famous in Italy and in
the other principal countries of Europe But .
C aruso aspired to more than the honors o f a

purely lyric tenor He was t o o devoted t o
.
the art he loved to wish to forego the great

dramatic m i les o f the operatic repertory ré les ,
he was no t only vocally but also histrionically

, ,
so uniquely qualified t o present T hus in .

,
what might be called his second period he be ,
gan to add the more dramatic charact eriz a

tions to what in the end was to be a magnifi
cent repertory o f more than seventy m i les
some of which he never sang though he had ,
74 C a ruso an d t he A rt o f S inging
acquired and perfected them since he was ,
never averse t o studying a new part .
The perfected control o f so large a reper

tory including some o f the most difficult
,
rfile s in all opera testifies to the wide r ange ,
o f his conception H is ambition successfully

.
,
realized to shi ne in the more dramatic and

,
heroic ré le s of opera led through di ligent ,
practice to the development o f that pow

,
e rf ul tone of his middle range which in

A rmide
“ “ ” “ ” ”
Les Huguenots
, Le Prophete , ,
“ ” ”
La Juive and I Pagliacc i — though his
,
C anio in the last named opera was a part -
which he sang during all three of his periods

— aided him in secur ing such brilliant e fl’ect s
o f declamation It was in connection with
.
this middle range o f his voice that he once

“
s ai d : In a legato phrase the cello in p art icu ’
lar when well played is almost identical with

, ,
the human voice It often inspires the tones

.
o f my middle range and I often lead up ,
those tones just as the cellist does on his A ’
”
string .
T he quality o f C aruso s voice broadened

’
considerably and became more intense with

the passing years ; but it never lo st the golden
T he C onquest o f t he N ew World 75
timbre which distinguished it from every other

tenor voice T hough as he tended more and
.
,
more to the dramatic he sang such rOles as

,
the Duke o f Mantua and Rodolfo less often ;

though a new method of attack more vigor ,
o u s and spontaneous
(at time s well nigh ex -
plosive ) marked the transition to his last p e

rio d -
inaugurated let us say by hi s won
, ,
“
derful S amson in S aint S aens S amson e t
’
-
D alila nevertheless the ringing brilliancy ,
the rounded glory o f the tones of his upper

,
range did not desert him .
T his last period o f C aruso s artistic activity

’
reveals him at his greatest Here the ma .
t ured perfected artist made deliberate choice

,
of those r61es of heroic scope and possibility

which not even his glorious voice could infuse
with dramatic conviction without the brain and
the actor that had studied its perfect blending
with the stage presentation o f the character
portrayed W as there ever a more striking
.
picture to be found on the operatic stage than

his S amson despoiled of his strength the
, ,
mock of the Philistines blind and chained to

,
the treadmill ? In his John of Leyden in Le ,
”
Prophete the madness of the anabaptist
,
76 Carus o an d t he A rt o f S inging
King of S ion his depraved and bloodthirsty

,
character was actually forgotten when C a

,
ruso in the fourth act portrayed his demoni ac

, ,
renunciation o f his mother in a manner at

once so grandiose and so maj estic that one was
almost inclined to believe in the pretender and
“ ”
his mission A nd in La J uive
. the over
whelmingly dramatic conception of revenge
personified by C aruso as E lé az er in the lat
’
ter s aria in the second act and the emotional ,
tenseness o f the great aria of the fourth act ,
in which he asks God s guidance was some ’

,
thing no other tenor o f his day could equal .
It is characteristic o f C aruso s attention to ’
detail that while he was studying the mi le of

Eleazer he coached with one of the foremost
Yiddish actors o f N ew York in order to make
himself letter perfect in every inflection Of
-
Jewish orthodox manner and custom de

manded by the part .
Certain operas which C aruso created at the

Metropolitan O pera House will alway s be as
so ciat e d with his name and that less because
,
o f the works themselves than f o r what he made
o f them by his sing i ng o f his own m

i les T here .
“
was his N adir for example in Bizet s Les
, ,
’
”
P é cheurs de Perles T hough there is but
.
T he C on ques t o f t he N ew Wo rld 77
little incident in this operatic tale o f the loves

of two Cingalese pearl fishers for the priestes s -
Leila and though its music— in spite of its

,
charm and originality— is not so very charac

t erist ic o f B izet s genius C aruso by the man
’
, ,
ner in which he handled the few scenes of real

dramatic force gave the score an unexpected
,
unity and significance A nd all who think .
that C aruso s stage victories were won with

’
o ut e fl o rt would change their views if they

’
knew how he worked to c reate the title rfile

“ ”
Charpentier s J ulien (F ebruary 2 6
’
of ,
1 9 14 ) It is a question whether taken purely ,
as a rOle C aruso ever gave a finer and a more

,
sincere interpretation one based on harder ,
study o r greater mental and vocal toil T hat .
“ ”
Julien c o uld not maintain its place in the
repertory was no t the fault o f the tenor .
“ ”
A fter C aruso had appeared in C armen in
1 9 06 he sang seven other new réle s at the
,
Metropolitan during the two remaining sea

T he first Opera
1
sons of Co nrie d s regime ’
.
1
19 06 0?
D ec 5 Fe dor
a
J an 11 —“L’A fr i ca i ne
J
.
an 18 Man n Le o sc ut
a
d
.
F eb 11 . . Ma ame B utt rfly e
19 07 08
-
Nov 18. . A dr i n L
a a eco uvreur
I ri s
”
D ec 6 .
I ! Trov tor
”
F eb 26 . . a e
78 Ca ruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
which was revived for him during S ignor

G atti Casaz z a s administration o f the Metro
-
’
poli tan was M assenet s M anon February 3

“ ” ’
, ,
” “
1909 ; and the last one was L a Juive on ,
November 22 19 19 During this period o f , .
ten years C aruso lent the prestige o f his art

“ ”
to thirteen rOles including La Juive and ,
“ ”
Mano n Had the management not called
.
upon C aruso for frequent rep etitions of many

o f the favorite operas no doubt he wo uld have ,
added more new r61es to his repertory at the

1908 -09
F eb 3 —“Ma n n” o
Apr 3 —“Ca a e ia R
. ,
. . i cana v ll r ust .
1909 10
-
J an 22.
“
G e ma ni a
.
” -
r
19 10 11
-
N o v 14 A rmide
—
. .
a d el We c ull st
“ ”
Dec 10 . Fan i .
19 11- 12
19 12 13
-
19 13 - 14
F eb 26.
— Julien
.
“ ”
19 14-15
19 15 16
-
N ov . 15 —“S a. mso
. n et D a i a ll ”
19 16 17
-
Nov 13 —
. .
“
Le s Pach e urs de Pe rl es
”
19 17- 18
J
an 12 —“L e a od ol tt
7 — Lo P
. .
F eb .
“
. e e
”
roph t
Ma r . 14 - L A mo re de i Tre Re ”
“ ’
.
19 18 19
-
Nov . 15 —“La F
. . or za s o
de l D e t i n ”
19 19 20
-
N ov 22. ,
— La “
J
u i ve ”
80 Carus o a nd t he A rt of S inging
and sincerity rarely found on the operatic

stage A ll Opera goers who heard him sing
.
-
F ayez do uce image o r U n réve heard thes e

,
t wo gems o f M assen et s re created

’
-
.
In his last t wo crea tions at the Metro

“ ”
politan in La F orz a del Destino and in
,
“
L a Juive both operas especially revived
,
fo r C arus o the vocal artistry and the dra

,
matic utterance impressively revealed a great

singer still at the zenith o f his powers A s .
“ ”
D on Al varo in La F orza del D e stino wh ich ,
Caruso sang here for the first time o n Novem

ber 15 19 18 his vocal art moved so profoundly
, ,
the late James Gibbons Huneker that he

wrote in the T imes the following morning:
“
T here is one word with which to charact eriz e
Caruso s singing— glorious T hat p ianissimo
’
.
whisper when lying o n the couch in A ct III

showed us the master of artistic vocalism A .
lovely legato and o f a sweet sonorousness

,
.
H e interpreted the r61e as it should be inter

p re t e d r o
,
bustly He was.the impetuous so l
dier the ard ent lover A stirring impersona
, .
tion .
“
A s Eleazer in La Ju ive C aruso achieved ,
a great dramatic interpretation— perhaps the

T he C o nquest o f t he N ew Wo rld 81
greatest o f his operatic career W e have .
alr eady mentioned the painst aking care with

which he studied this rOle so that he could
,
portray the character faithfully and sincerely .
A nd he succeeded .His make up was a mar -
vel o f imaginative conception H e did more .
than merely depict an old orthodox Jew ; he

discovered E lé az er s very soul T here was
’
characterization in every gesture and in every

infl ection of the voice S mall wonder that his
.
impersonation was hailed as a wonderful dra

matic and musical achievement O n the day .
following the first performance (N ovember

22, the musical critic of the S un paid
C aruso thi s richly deserved tribute
“
Enrico C aruso who began life as a lyric
,
tenor aerial of tone and prone to the youthful

,
passions of operatic heroes is now a full ,
fledged tenore robusto battling with the

,
agonies of fatherhood the subtleties of p o

,
lit ical plot and the plangent utterances of

,
F rench recitative. N o one who is familiar

with the achievement o f the most popular
singer o f this time would expect to be told
that he met all the requirements of such a rOle
as E léaz er N o r would any o ne of the mil
.
lion devoted admirers of his voice care .
T herefore he commands the respect an d ad

mirat io n o f all who regard operatic creations
as o f more import in art than their inter
p re t e rs f,o r he has again and again shown him
self a sincere seeker after genuine dramatic
results His J ulien his Renaud in A rmide
.
,
‘
,
’
’
and his John of Leyden in T he Prophet ‘
brought him honor and his E léaz er in L a

,
‘
’
J uive will be remembered as o ne o f his high
est flights .
H e conceived the part in earnest study and

he sang and acted with an art as far removed
as possible from that of his more familiar Ital
ian r61es Th ere was dignity in his declama
.
tion and beauty in his cantilena His chanting in .
the second act was a lyric utterance of exqui

site character while his delivery o f the pealing
,
a ir o f the fourth act might have excited the
envy o f Nourrit himself .
“
The revival o f La Juive was worth while
‘ ’
,
if only t o add this impersonation to Mr Ca .
’
ruso s successes ; and if the Opera retains a
hold on the public interest it will owe most of
its fortune to the artistic eff ort o f the famous
tenor .
T he Co nq uest o f t he N ew Wo rld 83
O n March 22 19 1 9 E nrico C aruso sang at

, ,
a special gala performance at the Metro

politan O pera House celebrating the twenty
,
fift h year of his career the proceeds of the

,
performance going to the Metropolitan O pera

C ompany Emergency F und A t this silver.
jubilee celebration the Mayor and other

prominent N ew Yorkers paid tribute to C a
ruso s artistic achievements
’
B y way of .
tokens o f gratitude C aruso received a testi

,
monial o f recognition on an illuminated parch

ment from thirty — five families holding boxes
“ ”
in the Golden Horseshoe a great gold ,
medal from the management an A merican ,
flag from the City of N ew York and numer ,
o us gifts from his c o lleagues .
During eighteen years in all one might say ,
up to the very day o f his death— for he had

arranged with S ignor Gatti C asazza to return
-
for the season of 19 21 19 22 only a few days

-
before he sailed for Italy in May 19 21 ,
Enrico Caruso was the t eno re asso lut o o f the

Metropolitan O pera House T hough on sev .
eral occasions legitimate alarm had been felt

about the condition o f his throat his suprem ,
acy w as uncontested to the last and he died ,

as he had lived the unchallenged holder o f the

,
leadership he had so deservedly won .
T he full and free mastery o f so many dif

f erent r61es naturally prompted the question ,
often asked C aruso as to which he liked best

,
.
“
H e always denied a preference : I have no
” “
favorite rOles he said and I think no real
, ,
artist should have them T he singer who se .
lects ré les o f a certain ty pe and kind an d ,
want s t o sing no others is not a great artist , .
”
He is a specialist .
A s has been the case with some o f the great

est artists C aruso though he may not have
, ,
suff ered from stage fright in the ordinary

“ ”
sense o f the word was usually intensely nerv

,
“
o us , keyed up before his performance H e
,
”
.
“ ”
often sp oke of being scared to death and ,
o f feel ing unable to sing until he had reached
his dressing room an d donned his costume .
(Before appearing o n the stage he would

vocalize for about five minutes ) On one o c .
casion he even exclaimed : W henever I sing

“
I feel as if some o ne were waiting t o seiz e my

position t o destroy C aruso ! A nd I must
,
fight to hold my o wn .
”
S peaking o f a performance o f L a Juive
T he C o nquest o f t he N ew World 85
in Brooklyn he declared
, The moment I :
appeared on the stage and beheld the audi

ence among them B o nci I realized that I had
, ,
to sing— and then a miracle happened S ome .
unseen power seemed to unlock the compart

ment within me which holds my voice and I
sang I sang with all the power within me
. .
! o u see we artists must struggle desperately

,
t o get to the top and once there we must hold

, ,
o n with all the strength we have F o r once .
we slip the j ourney down is fast Yet once

, .
,
in the proper atmosphere my voice appears , ,
and then it is up to me to make the most

”
o f it
.
With the exception of a few more o r less

private engagements C aruso contrary to the
, ,
usual custom of opera singers for a long time ,
refused to appear o n the concert stage It .
was not until May 19 17 that he consented t o

, ,
“
try a few concerts T he Cincinnati S ym
”
.
phony O rchestra was engaged and concerts ,
in C incinnati T oledo and Pittsburgh were

, ,
triumphantly successful T hereafter he made .
concert tours in 1 9 1 8 1 9 19 and 1 9 20 visit

, , ,
ing a number of A merican cities ; and in the

fall of 1 9 2 0 his most extensive tour took him
as far west as Denver T his tour opened in

the Montreal A rena o n S eptember 2 8 where , ,
he sang to an audience o f over seven thousand

people and estab lished what is considered the
,
world s record f o r concert receipts in a single

’
night a total o f
,
Despite his great and abiding popul arit y ,
and the fact that whenever he came before an

audience he gave it his best C aruso had few ,
illusions He knew that the great public is

.
fickle and that the most sincere and beautiful

,
work o f an artist especially if that artist like

, ,
himself he placed o n a lonely pinn acle of

,
fame does not always receive due ackno wl

,
e dgment He never tired o f work however

.
, ,
and he always attributed his great achieve

ments to his untirin g industry .
O nly a few months before his death Caruso

epitomized his own rules o f success : S uccess
is due to real work along one s natur al call ’
ing W ork work and still more work makes

.
, , ,
the fine singer Laziness in preparatory work

.
”
makes the failure .
CH APTER V
CARUS O T HE MAN
T HE stage personality o f C aruso his

ofl- ,
richly human character with its inherent manly

qualities was such as to endear him to all who
,
came in contact with him F o r his musical .
and artistic temper went hand in hand with an

accessibil ity to every generous emotion— a
natural normal capacity for enjoyment in his
,
family life and in the company of his numer

o us friends .
T wo sons Rodolfo and Enrico— o f whom

,
the first served as a soldier in the Italian army

during the Great War— had been born to
C aruso o f his un ion with A da Giachetti a ,
singer associated with him in opera at T reviso

and B ologna T his union was however not
.
, ,
a happy o ne In A ugust 19 1 8 C aruso mar

.
, ,
ried Miss D orothy Park B enj amin the daugh ,
ter o f a well known N ew York lawyer and

-
,
in this marriage— his little daughter Gloria ,
whom he idolized was born about a year later

,
89
90 C a rus o and t he A rt o f S inging
— he found the happiness previously denied
During his eighteen years in this country

C aruso had become no t only thoroughly
.
A mericanized but a representative and very

,
popular figure in Am erican life especially in ,
the life of N ew York C ity A merica had .
whole heartedly accepted him as her own

-
.
Whenever he appeared in public every eye was

fixed on him C rowds beset him on the streets
.
,
in railway stations in the lobbies o f theaters

, ,
in fact whenever he appeared outside hi s

rooms in the Hotel Knickerbocker where he ,
lived until that hostelry— much to his regret

was converted into an office building and he
took up his residence in the Hotel Vander
bilt His summers save when engagements
.
,
o r the War precluded he usually spent in his

,
beautiful Villa B ellosguardo at Lastra S igna ,

-
,
a village near Florence B ut the greater part .
of his time was spent in New York and it was ,
New York that was most intimately associated

with his public and domestic life from the
night of his successful début in 1 9 03 at the , ,
Metropolitan O pera House .
By 1 9 19 he had become so thorough a New

92 C arus o and t he A rt of S inging
helped carry him in the palanquin in which

“ ”
he entered in A ida and who took care never
,
to dump him upon the stage all knew him

“ ”
,
as a self sacrificing amiable friend and his

-
, ,
greatest jo y was t o help young beginners o ut

o f their d ifficulti es In o ne performance o f
.
“ ”
Rigo letto when a small delicate Gilda was
, ,
appearing fo r t he first time and in her excite

ment could develop no more than a trembling
soft tone C aruso as her partn er in the duet
, , ,
toned down his o wn voice t o suit the girl s ’
lesser tonal fulness and thus restored her con

fidence refusing t o take advantage o f her mo
,
mentary lack of a bigger volume o f tone .
Incidents o f this kind were numerous in his
humorous outbreaks in which he was

T he
accus tomed to indulge when he received a cur
tain call at the close o f an act and which h ave
,
been censured by those who were ignorant of

what really called them forth were in reality ,
no more than the expression o f h is overpower

ing relief at having once more triumphed over
the initial doubts and artistic nervousness
which prec eded his every public appearance .
It was his c ust om after t he Christmas per

Caruso t he M an 93
f o rmance at the Metropolitan t o play S anta

C laus passing o ut go ld pieces from a large
,
pouch t o all members o f the company and to

every o ne connected with t he stage T hough .
in phys ical agony at t h e last performance he

— “ ”
ever gave L a Juive o n Christmas Eve o f
19 20— and though in his e ff orts to sing o n the
stage he had burst the plaster bands with

whi ch his chest had been tightly wr apped he ,
did not forget his old custom but at the first ,
opportunity sick as he was began passing o ut

, ,
his gold p ieces as usual .
His generosity was unparalleled as is ,
proved by t he estate he left small in propor ,
tion to his immense earnings N o deserving .
appeal left him cold He gave and gave and

.
,
gave unweariedly wherever he felt that he

,
was alleviating misery aiding an artist in his

,
struggle t o climb the heights o r even merely ,
bringing a little happiness into lives ordi

n arily drab and colorless He was the first
.
to put his name and always fo r a s izable

,
sum t o any contribution list which reached

,
him at the Opera o r elsewhere He was al .
ways ready t o sing at a benefit concert for any

94 C aruso and t he A rt of S inging
worthy cause and was liberal in his services

,
f o r patriotic obj e cts during the War .
O ne night a wi gmaker was at work in his

dressing room at the O pera and saw C aruso
-
,
take a roll o f bills from his pocket and throw

it o n the table while he changed his costume .
“ ”
I wish I had one o f those said the man ,
wistfully .
“
What would y o u do with it if y o u had ? ”
asked the tenor .
“
W ell said the wigmaker I d take my
”
,
“
,
’
wife o n a trip to see her mother .
“ ”
Here s o ne said C aruso as he peeled a
’
, ,
$500 bill from the roll and handed it t o the

man .
His heart was as big as his voice N O more .
sincere tribute to his personal qualities could

be adduced than that paid him by Edward
S iedle tec hnical di rector o f the Metropolitan
,
O pera House Co mpany S peaking fo r the

.
people behind the scenes the electricians the , ,
scene shifters the stage hands property men

, , ,
costumers and doormen he was the embo di ,
ment o f kindness good humor and friendli

,
n ess. E ven the least o f the workmen felt

his kindness A s he passed e ach o ne there was
.
96 C a rus o and t he A rt o f S inging
’
art T o the close student o f C aruso s work as
.
a c aricaturist this statement will appear far

from extravagant For there are few artists
.
practicin g caricature who can equal C aruso ,
and still fewer who are his superiors T he re .
markable quality in C aruso s draftsmanship ’
was his capacity to make every line so sig

nificant that it revealed a specific trait o f the
person he was depicting T here are many .
moods expressed in the numerous caricatures

he left and some of his sketches are bitingly
,
satirical ; but as a rule C aruso stressed the

broad human side o f his subj ects B y far the
, .
greatest number of his drawings concern them

selves with the comic aspect o f frail humanity ,
and in the many humorous sketches of himself '
C aruso laughed as heartily— if not more

heartily— at his own frailties as he laughed at
the frailties o f his friends or o f contemporary
notables in art and politics or of the anony
mous subj ects that caught his clear eye .
T he character sketches C aruso drew of four

ex presidents of the U nited S tates— Grover
-
Clevela nd T heodore Roosevelt W illiam H

, , .
T aft and Woodrow Wilson— show how com

,
plet ely he had grasped the salient traits o f

s USO VI
CAR EWE D HmsELP
98 C arus o an d t he A rt o f S inging
laughed as he looked at the humorous co nt o r

tions the great tenor put him into N o r did .
C aruso neglect the fair prima donnas o f

the Metropolitan Madame F arrar Madame. ,
S embrich Madame A lda Madame Eames

, ,
C aruso was very daring indeed when he , ,
closed his eyes to their irresistible charms in

order to record their foibles T he conductors .
are all represented too in that remarkable , ,
collection o f caricatures Mahler C ampanini .

, ,
and T oscanini are caught in their most char

a ct e rist ic moments N o r did he neglect his
.
favorite composers He made very striking .
character sketches o f V erdi S aint S aens ,

-
,
C harpentier Leoncavallo and Mascagni

, , .
C aruso s gr eat skill in his avocation then

’
, ,
was overshadowed only by his greater skill in

his vocation American newspapers were
.
’
quick however to see the value o f C aruso s
, ,
second art and one editor once o ffer ed him

,
large sums to draw exclusively fo r his paper .
“
But C aruso replied : I make enough money
”
singing .
In the summer of 19 20 he s ent some o f his

leisure in modeling a st riking i ead o f himself
“ ”
g
as Eleazer in La Juive and said that it was ,
Ca ruso t he M an 99
the first time in ten years that he had done

any modeling in clay His last previous e ff ort
.
in this branch of his avocation had been the

wonderful bronze caricature of himself which
he kept on his piano Enrico C aruso was
.
c ertainly blessed by more than one fairy !
A man o f many hobbies once C aruso took

,
t o somethin g he pursued it with enthusiasm .
A t o n e t ime he became interested in rare old

coins and before much water had flowed
,
un der bridges he was an ardent collector .
His particular interest attached itself t o

a ncient Roman Italian and A merican gold
, ,
coins Within a com paratively brief period

.
he had succeeded in amassing a large and

valuable collection which included many of
,
the rarer A merican gold pieces— old C ali

f o rnia issues such as the 18 5 1 C alifornia $50
octagonal gold slug issued to commemorate
,
the gold craze and the oblong KOhler C ali

,
f o rnia $20 gold piece of 1 850 When he .
“ ”
bought the t wo silver dollars called Gloria
”
and Metrica issued in 1 8 9 7 C aruso was
“
, ,
delighted to find that one of them bore the

name o f his little daughter .
A nother hobby was composition or perhaps

‘
,
1 00 Caruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
—f orC aruso made no pretensions t o being a

c omp o ser— it should be called melodic inven
tion H e was accustomed to read a great
.
n umb er o f new songs wi th me and going over ,
them we would select such as might seem

worth while studying for one purpose or
another S o metimes he would invent a melody
.
himself an d he had a real gift for finding a

,
t uneful air o f a lyri c character which lent

itself easily and naturally t o a good harmonic
background Various of these songs have
been published and have won favor H e also .
gave generous encouragement t o those o f his

friend s who composed and he had sung a song
,
“ ”
o f my o wn S oltanto a te
, which I wrote
,
f or him a number o f t imes in concert and

, ,
had even ma de a record o f it— which has not

as yet been issued— before his last illness .
But the birth o f his daughter Gloria cast

a ll his other hobbies in the shade and even his
‘
beloved caricatur es held only a secondary in

t erest f o r C aruso after her advent The .
cradle songs he sang her would have earned

him thousands o f dollars on the stage fo r like ,
the artist he was he sang as well f o r her at

,
home as fo r any audience at the opera .

C aruso t he M an 10 1
S ome once said of C aruso : The O ld

o ne
World gave him fame the N ew Wo rld an ,
income T his o f cour se is not exactly true

.
, , .
T he N ew World in particular the U nited

,
S tates gave him more than anything else

, ,
something which C aruso warmly appreciated

it gave him sympathy understanding aff ec , ,
tion It adopted him as one of its national

.
characters ; it made him an A merican He .
c ame to regard the U nited S tates as his home ,
and it was in New York that he gave his hos

tages to fortune and took his chief j oy in the
daughter presented to him by his A merican
wi fe .It is perhaps fo r these re asons for all ,
’
that they are uncommercial that Caruso s ,
European appearances tended as the years ,
passed to become more and more incidental

,
.
It w a s not that he loved Europe less possibly , ,
but that he loved A merica more .
’
T he details o f Enrico C aruso s illness ap ,
parent recovery and unexpected death are

,
but t o o well known On the evening of No .
v e mb er 3 0 19 20 while he was singing t he

, ,
mi le o f S amson at the Metropolitan a descend ,
ing p illar o f the scenes injured his head ; at

102 Caruso d t he A rt
an o f S inging
the P agliacci performance o f D ecember 8 ,
he severely strained his side in his exit ; on

D ecember 12 in L E lisir d A mo re at the
,
“ ’ ” ’
B ro oklyn A ca demy o f Music he burst a ,
minor bloo d vessel in his throat H e spent .
S unday quietly in bed and his con dition so,

“
improved that he sang in La Forza del Des
”
tino at the Metro politan on Monday night ,
with wonderful virilit y and buoyancy o f voice .
But a performance o f L a Juive on D ecem

“ ”
ber 24 was his last and supreme effort .
Following two operations— his illness was

diagnosed as pleurisy— he seemed fo r a time
to be well o n the road to recovery when o n , ,
February 1 6 he suffered a serious relapse

, .
His son Enrico J r attending a military

, , .
,
school in Culver Ind , was summoned to his

.
,
bedside oxygen was administered and the

, ,
las t rites o f the Roman Church were given

him at midnight G reat throngs crowded
.
ab out the bulletin boards ; wires and cables

a rrived from all parts o f the worl d ; and the
P resident of the U nited S tates calle d up from

Washingto n on the long distance telephone to
inqu ire as to his condit ion His will t o live
.
triumphed and by March 1 he was able t o

,
10 4 C aruso and t he A rt o f S inging
place he held in the general estimation T he .
great artists who were his colleagues his in ,
timate friends the thousands who had enj oyed

,
his glorious gift of song were united in a com

—
mon grief His art was international fo r all
.
t hat N e w York considered him peculiarly her

own — and the whole world mourned an ir
reparable loss in his passing O n the morn .
ing o f A ugust 4 a requi em mass was cele

,
b rat e d in the C hurch o f S an F rancesco di

Paolo in N aples and in the afternoon his body
,
was removed in solemn processional His .
obsequies were royal Had he been able to

.
see through the crystal of his casket he could ,
have realized the love and fidelity o f his com

patriots T he Q ueen o f England and his
.
friends in New York had supplied the flowers

heaped o n the hearse which was drawn ,
through the streets by six horses an aeroplane ,
escorting it in the skies while cordons o f SOI

,
diers o f the Italian army paid military honors

to the cortege and held back the immense
,
throngs who crowded the square S peeches .
were made by the Prefect of N aples as the

representative o f the King o f Italy and the
Government and by others and then the
, ,
1 06 Caruso and t he A rt of S inging
him happy t o know that others might derive

benefit from the results o f his own ex perience
,
and that the truths of voice training and voice

d evelopment which he learned as the result
o f years o f hard and intensive work might
,
s erve t o lead others along the paths he him
self t ro d
.
The S ecret o
’
f C arus o s
G reat B reat hing Po wer

his art although the fact is that his marvelous

,
voice itself was to a great extent the product

of ceaseless and untiring observation and ‘
analysis as well as of constant search for

,
means o f improving his mastery o f the organs

with which nature had endowed him .
T here are still a few in timates who remem

b er that C aruso began with a voice which was
by no mean s the m iracle that for more than
a quarter o f a century packed the opera
houses o f New York Buenos A ires H avana
, , ,
and Mexico to say nothing of occasional eu

,
gagement s in London Berlin Paris and else

, , ,
where o n the C ontin ent T he miracle t o which

.
we are no w referring is the phenomenal vocal

capacity which even the public that recog
n iz e d the wide scope o f his song art took f o r
granted It cann ot be doubted o f c ourse

.
, ,
that C aruso had been provided by nature wi th

a remarkable vocal instrument and with a
powerful pair o f bellows ; nevertheless we
know from our long association with the great
artist— and C aruso himself often expressed
his own convi ction of the fact— that it was his
genius fo r work which made the utmost o f his
endowment both as regards the physical or
S ecre t f C aruso s B reathing Po wer
’
o 11 1
gans and those native emotional an d mental

resources upon which his final artistry drew
so heavily Work does not mean unguided
.
labor : nothin g could be more ruinous t o the

vocal organism T o the genuine artist work
.
can only mean intelligent direction pains ,
taking study and infinite patience T hese are

, .
the quintessential elements in any enduring

su ccess.
From the physiologi cal point of view the ,
larynx the pharynx the mouth chamber the

, , ,
nasal passages togeth er with the trachea

,
(wi n dpipe ) and lun gs form the organs

, of
respiration and at the same time are called

,
upon fo r the pro duction and perfect render

ing o f tones thus constituting the vocal o r
,
gans T his machinery is to be found in every

.
human body with a conformation more or less

,
favorable to th e production o f tone ; but into

C aruso s body nature h ad marvelously intro
’
duced an amaz ingly equal perfec tion o f each

o f the vocal organs with the result that no
,
human voice has been able to produce tones

of reater richness and poignancy T he
g .
diameter of C aruso s larynx as a vocal organ

’
1 12 Caruso and t he A rt o f S inging
accorded so precisely with the di ameter re

quired for its functioning as an organ o f res
p irat io n that while its singi ng function ad
,
mirably served the upper ranges of his voice ,
the breathing function bestowed upon him

those ample rich and powerful tones T he
, , .
lateral amplitude of his lary nx by permitting ,
a maximum dilation of the glottis accounted ,
for extraordinary respiratory powers .
Enrico C aruso s un usual vocal mechanism

’
was certainly the medium which enabled him

to achieve his complete mastery of the diffi
cult art o f singing ; without this physical en
dowment he woul d not perhaps have attained
his unrivaled position in the world o f pure
song O n the other hand had C aru so failed
.
,
to use these marvelous organs correctly in ,
t elligent ly we can say unhesitatingly that he

,
would have gone the way of many another

obscure singer o f strong physique blessed with
a remarkable instrument— after a brief period
in the limelight a sudden b anishment to the
,
land of disappointed tenors A telling point .
to recall in this connection is that among the

students o f the S cuo la Vergine —where C a
ruso received his first serious vocal training
breath without which all his other great gifts

,
or att ainments would have been o f no avail .
All who are interested in the art of singing

k now the troubles young singers— and often
those already engaged in concert and Opera
work— meet in their search for a correct
method o f breathing In their wanderings
.
from one maestro to another they are some

times told t o breathe naturally and the breath
will take care of itself T hey set to work
.
breathing as naturally as nature will allow

“ ”
them and find this method excellent for
their daily speech ; but once they begin to sing ,
a cramped feeling comes upon them their tone ,
production is poor their phrasing choppy and

, ,
ofttimes they struggle desperately to stick t o

pitch A ll these troubles seem t o be the re
.
sult of lack o f motive power o f a gasping for

,
“
breath It is evident that their natural
.
method did not help them very considerably .
N o w what was the secret of C aruso s great

’
breathing power ? What method o f breathing

—for we have seen that some method for man
aging the breath is essential— did C aruso in
voke that he should have enj oyed such ample
reserves o f breath ? C aruso employed (and
S ec ret o f C aruso
’
s B rea t hing P o wer 115
perhaps rediscovered ) the method which the

great Italian masters o f be! canto had taught
he drew in retained and exhaled his breath
, ,
in a mode different in no way from the man

ner always prescribed by the masters of
beautiful singing— diap hragma tic int erco st al
brea t hing W e use the words diap hragma t ic
.
and int ercost al advisedly : in the normal hu

man body the diaphragmatic and costal
methods of breathing are always used to
gether the o ne assisting and supplementin g
,
the other .
’
During E nrico C aruso s artistic career there
were many would b e singers who besieged him
-
for an opinion or some advice regarding their

voice or their system o f singi ng I would be .
called in to examine them and hence would ,
hear many interesting expositions and disser

t at io ns in the course o f which C aruso ably
,
demonstrated that for a singer there can be

only o ne eff ective mode o f breathing A s a .
matter o f fact all these students had either

,
pursued a bad system of respiration in so far ,
as singing is concerned or had practiced ,
their system incorrectly and consequently had

,
failed to obtain a long and well regulated air -

1 16 C arus o an d t he A rt f S inging
o
pressure without which there can be no good

,
tone production or vocal mastery .
C aruso always addressed those who sought

the mysterious secret o f his breathing power
in some such words as these
“
I perform the act o f respiration or breath
ing just as you do with only two movements
, ,
namely inspiration and expiration which

, ,
means the drawing in and the letting out of

the breath .
W hereupon C aruso without any stiffness

, ,
woul d place his body in an erect position with ,
one foot a bit in advance o f the other as if to ,
take a step (It is important to note here

.
that his entir e body was completely relaxed

no portion o f it rigid ) T hen he wo uld .
slightly contract (draw in ) the muscles o f the

abdomen and inhale calmly and without haste .
A s a result o f this deep and slow in spiration

o f air his diaphragm an d ribs would expand
,
and his thorax (chest ) rise A t this point of .
the demonstration C aruso always called the

student s attention especially to the dia
’
phragm explainin g that when it assumed this

,
position it constituted the principal agent fo r

sustaining the column o f air which could be
118 C a ruso and t he A rt f S inging
'
a degree that he was wont to give those stu

dents who came to him a little demonstration
o f his power He would have them press a
.
closed fist with all their strength against his

relaxed diaphragm ; then suddenly through a ,
voluntary contraction o f hi s diaphragm he ,
woul d violently fling Off that pressure o f the

fist.
T here is one other factor indeed highly im

,
portant which we must stress in connection

,
with C aruso s great breathing power— the

’
mental factor C aruso could inhale slowly

.
and steadily so ample a breath that he was able

to exhale at very great length not only b e ,
cause the physiological process o f expiration

is longer than that o f inspiration but also b e ,
cause C aruso had succeeded in adding to his

auto physiologi cal control the volitional con
-
trol which comes from the brain By dint of .
a vigilant mental eff ort— though always with ,
o ut any physical strain— C aruso governed

the expiratory flow of the breath with such
mastery that not a particle o f it escaped with
out giving up its necessary equivalent in tone .
Besides C aruso emitted for each musical

,
phrase or even for each note j ust enough

, ,
B rea t hing P o wer
’
S ecret o f C aruso s 1 19
breath to produce that phrase o r note mu

sically and no more T he remainder o f his
, .
breath he kept in reserve which made the ,
enchanted hearer feel that the master was still

far from the limit of his resources that he had ,
retained ample motive power for whatever t he

oc casion shoul d require T hat is the reveal
.
ing sign o f all great art and it is in a mann er ,
o f speech the bedrock of all great singi ng

, .
T herefore the secret o f C aruso s priceless

’
,
gift his great capacit y for respiration al

, ,
though partly due to the amazing perfection

o f his vocal apparatus was also and perhaps
, ,
mainly due to his power o f concentration

,
upon the study o f himself and o f the natural

means at his disposition T his ability in C a.
rus o —the power to transform every particle

o f breath into tone and the power to control
the breath so that no more o f it need be used

f or the good production of a note or phrase
than was absolutely essential— should be the
goal o f every s inger In fact we believe we
.
,
can justly say that without this principle

there can b e no great singing .
Enrico C aruso strongly advised the student ,
in respiration exercises to practice breath ing

,
120 C arus o and t he A rt o f S inging
through the nose and through the mouth at the

same time although o ne should depend chiefly
,
upon inhaling through the nose because that ,
is the more spontaneous and the more natural ,
as well as the more eff ective method In any , .
case the act of inhalation should be visible t o

,
a spectator solely through the raising of the

thorax and not after the practice o f many
, ,
misguided singers through the lifting of the

,
shoulders T his latter movement the singer

.
would never be obliged to make were he to

use the intercostal diaphragmatic method o f
respiration .
T his method moreover enabled C aruso to

, ,
keep his organs o f respiration sound and

armored them against all weaknesses A t the .
same time thanks to the aid o f his mental con

,
trol he was never at a loss to sustain to the

,
end a lengthy musical phrase was never under ,
the necessity o f cutting it short o r of finish

ing it o ff pitch or by a forced prolongation .
T he foregoing discussion should be sufficient

to demonstrate that the singer must not put
his principal dependence o n any other ty pe
o f respiration— o n for instance either the
, ,
clavicular or the abdominal Wh enever one .

1 22 Carus o and t he A rt o f S inging
he certainly will not move them musically by

so painful an art .
Whenever Enrico C aruso witnessed the t o r

t ure such singers inflict on themselves though ,
he never failed o f sympathy for the victim ,
he was uneq uivocal in his condemnation o f the

method He would exclaim : Why the p oo r
.
“
,
fellow is violatin g the first prin ciple o f art

the concealment o f the artist s effort Why ’
.
doesn t he learn how to breathe ? It is im

’
possible to sing artistically without a thorough

mastery o f breath control Why don t sing .
’
ers stop to think and work intelligently ?

,
T hey woul d soon realize that all great art is

the product o f reserve restrain t ; without ,
these vocal technique is imperfect and im

, ,
”
perfect techn ique means imperfect art .
T he abdominal method o f breathing or the ,
method that draws most o f its force from the

abdominal muscles is ineff ective both because
, ,
it constitutes a relaxation of the visceral o r

gans and also— and this is the c hief objec
,
tion— because the diaphragm receives no sup

port in the act of expiration W ith the .
diaphragm unsupported it is more difli cult t o

,
control the emission o f the air from the lungs .

S ecre t B rea t hing P o wer
’
o f C aruso s 1 23
F urthermore, in relying chiefly o n his ah

do minal muscles for inspiration the singer ,
c annot fill his lungs to their full capacity .
T he a im in any search for a method of

breathing is twofold : first the most eff ective,
manner o f getting the lungs completely full

o f air which is the motive power o f singing ;
,
secondly the most eff ective mann er o f co n

,
trolling the emi ssion o f the air from the lungs

so that every particle shall be transformed
into tone In both Of these processes Enrico
.
C aruso was able to achieve phenomenal suc

c ess because he employ ed the intercostal dia
p hragmat ic method o f respiration but it must ,
no t be forgotten that to his sound method he
brought a high degree of mental concentra

tion which kept his powerful bellows under
,
complete control .
F o r the control o f the breath C aruso p rac ,
t iced the following exercise— run ning the

whole chromatic scale up to C and sometimes ,
up t o C sharp — in one single sustained breath .

1
EXER C I S E II
h se x i s s as w ll
1
T e e erc e th oth rs wh i ch wi ll fol low
e as e e
a re al so us ful for t h pu pos of i n r s ing t h gility and
e e r e c ea e a
fl xib i l ity of t h vocal org n s
e e a .
C H A PTER VII
TON E PR OD UCT ION
I
T O NE A TT A C K
IN the preceding c hapter we endeavored to

get at the source o f C aruso s great breathing
’
power We observed that remarkable as was

.
,
the vigor o f his constitution the final secret ,
o f his wonderful breath control lay in his in
t elligent management o f his respiration His .
manner o f i nhalation to be sure supplied him

, ,
with ample motive power ; but this reservoir

of power would have been of indifferent
e ff ect had he failed to make use o f every
par t icle of the outgoing column of air It .
was this perfect control over the emission

o f breath , so that no air should be exh aled
unproductively that enabled Caruso to attain
,
his unique mastery of tone production .
A good tone production o f course must , ,
take account o f other essential elements .
T here must be relaxation for instance a com

, ,
127
12 8 Ca ruso and t he A rt o f S inging
p let e absence of strain of any sort B ut the .
o ne indispensable condition the principle ,
which can never be disregarded without mak

ing the tone unsatisfa ctory is the rul e that ,
the emission o f the singer s breath and the ’
attack o f the tone must take place simultan e .
o usly .T his is the first secret of a beautiful ,
round musical tone S hould the singer allow

, .
any air to escape before he attacks the tone ,
then the result will be a breathy sound rag ,
ged and disagreeable F urthe rmore once the

. ,
att ack o r beginni ng is poor the rest o f the ,
tone will be harsh and unpleasant or at best ,
it will be veiled or cloudy .
A s regards the connection bet ween breath

ing and tone attack a great deal has been ,
written about the cup a di glo tt a coup de ,
glo tt e o r stroke o f the glottis

, T his device .
may be described s imply as a clucking sound

produced by the forceful contact o f the air
c olumn aga inst the closed vocal chords In .
order t o bring such a contact about the singer ,
is requeste d to act exactly as if he were to

utter a slight cough It is the au dible stroke
.
o f the glottis and it is supposed t o prevent

,
t he singer from emittin g air before the ton e

habitual perseverance in the method o f intel

ligent experimentation and study H e was
.
almost unmercifully critical of himself per ,
p et ually on the watch f o r possible flaws ; nor

was he ever satisfied with his work until his
ex acting ear had given him its approval .
In his tone attack C aruso succeeded in co

ordin ating in to o ne a ct the flying together o f
the vocal chords and the emission o f the
breath The two movements coincided so pre
.
c isely that there was never any eff ort any ,
strain o r forcing back o f this act He breathed

.
with great ease and he strove t o produce his

,
tones with the same ease It is a ski ll which

.
is extremely difficult to achieve ; but this way

lies the ro ad o f great singing .
It must not be thought that we are attempt

ing t o set down rigid rules drawn from C a
,
ruso s art an d so codified that they may be

’
servilely followed by everybody C aruso

.
,
there is no doubting would have been the first

,
t o condemn strongly such a procedure He .
always contended that every individual is pro

v ided with a distinct vocal instrument and ,
that every instrument demands and deserves

distin ct and intelligent care in its cultivat ion .
T one P ro ductio n 13 1
The great tenor was much too genuine an

artist t o let himself he hampered by the dog
matic precepts formulated by theorists many ,
o f whom unfortunately know little o f the

, ,
’
singer s art He had no use at all for vague
.
and incomprehensible theories In fact so in .

,
dividual a matter did C aruso consider his art

that he would often question the value o f any
method that seemed too generally applied .
T he singer l ike every other artist must take

, ,
f o r his first and foremost study his o wn

vehicle of expression— the vocal organs na
ture has provided him with— and thus essay
to discover what are his proper vocal resources .
C aruso did exactly this He studied his vocal

.
apparatus his vocal capacity and his tem

, ,
p era ment ; these he sought to develop to their

full power and utmost perfection A t the .
same time he took infinite care— and in this

fact very pro bably lies the fund amental secret
O f C aruso s art— not to abuse by any sort o f
’
,
strain or forcing the gifts nat ure had he

,
stowed o u him .
We know that C aruso even in his great ,
moments never forced his breath in an e ff ort

,
t o gain m o re power It is equally tru e o f his

.
tone production How to turn all o f the mo

.
tive power o f his breath into pure tone with

o ut straini n
g his vocal orga ns—that was the
q uint essential problem for C aruso A nd here .
again he had recourse t o his thorough knowl

edge Of his vocal in strument a hard won ,
knowledge which was at once so detailed and

so precise that it enabled him to achieve a tone
control adequate to render all the gradations ,
inflect ions and nuances o f which the human

,
voice is capable .
II
T O NE O
F RM A TI ON
O n the subj ect o f the natural means which
a id an d favor a goo d emission o f to ne C aruso ,
expressed himself as follows :

“
F o r a good product ion o f tone there are
t wo elements to be considered ; the first ele
ment is int ernal the second ewt ernal T he
, .
internal element concerns the muscles o f the

throat which act in sympathy with the facial
,
muscles ; the external concerns the position

which o ur body assumes while the tone is being
emitte d It is necess ary therefore thr ough
.
, ,
study a complete c ahn ness U nless he is .
calm how can he h0 pe to control his will ?

,
Moreover a calm mind facili tates the task of

,
c ompletely relaxing the vocal organs .
It is evident that in making these remarks

’
C aru so had in mind the practicing o f voc aliz z i ,
o r vocalizes as they are called in English
exercises o r passages to be vocalized An d .
there is no more valuable practice fo r begin

ners o r even f o r singers already a goo d way
a long the road of vocal a rt By vocalization
.
is meant singing upon vowels and no t upon

words— whether upon o n e o r more vowels or
upon one or a series of notes does not matter, .
It is onl y o ne part o f the operation of utter

ance f o r it does not involve articulation
, .
N o w p ure vocaliz ation is obtained by brin g

,
ing into play those muscles o f the vocal o r

g a n ism— a nd no o t her s— which are essenti al
to t he production o f the vowel at the moment

being sung T hough the action of the unnec
.
essary muscles might not destro y the actual

vowel sound it woul d destroy the possibility
,
o f goo d tone production— the quality of the
tone thus emitted is usually throaty or“ ”
“ ”
veiled . A ll this evil the mi sguided singer
To n e Production 13 5
brings down on his head the moment he at

tempts to gain power by forcing o r straining
his vocal organs T his evil is by no means
.
peculiarly characteri stic of poor singers ; poor

pianists and poor violinists also frequently
attempt to strain and force their resources in
a n e ff ort t o gain more power than nature h a s
put at their disposal F o r them however the

.
, ,
pernicious procedure is not so dangerous ; they

can be corrected by a good master before any
real harm has been visited upon their fingers
or their wrists. It is not so with the singer .
The vocal organism is t o o delicate an in st ru

ment to endure a great de al o f strain or f o rc
ing and the penalty fo r even a little abuse
,
“ ”
o f this kind is a cracked voice .
C aruso then did n o t force his tone produc

, ,
tion as tenors un fortunately are wont to do ;

,
as a consequence b e emitted tones that were

always pure and o f a harm o nious and co m
pelling beauty S o much for his production
.
of sin gle tones When he vocalized on a pas

.
sage o r o n a series o f tones whether at a slow

,
o r a rapid tempo he always sought to do it

,
with the same case with which b e emitted

o ne tone . In pro gressin g from o ne tone to
another he did not change the sound of the

vowel sung o r the quality o f the production .
A t the same time he permitted none o f his

breath to escape unproductively that is be , ,
tween one tone and the other — the secret o f ,
pure legato singing .
T he factors which enter into the production

o f a tone vary according t o its pitch its in ,
tensity that is to say its volume— o r its

-
,
timbre S ome o f these factors o f course the

.
, ,
singer consciously manipulates and co ntrols :

they have to do with such matters as the air
blast the position o f the head and o f the
,
tongue the shaping of the mouth and so on

, , .
But there are other fac to rs— as notably the , ,
tension and relaxation o f the vocal chords in

the regulation of pitch— which are brought
in to play unconsciously and can be guided by
nothing except the singer s tone perception
’
.
By pitch is meant the degree o f acuteness

or o f graveness in a tone the degree being,
determined by the number o f vibrat ions (per

second ) that produce it the greater the num
ber of vibrations the hi gher the pitch o f the
tone the fewer the number o f vibrations the
,
ear and his pitch perception was unusually

,
k een We cannot recall a single occas io n

.
when his intonation was not absolutely pure .
T here were t imes when owing t o som e indis

,
“ ”
p o sition ,his voice was o fl ’
c olor when his ,
tones failed t o come forth with their usual

magical beaut y o f quality ; but there was never
a time wh en they were o fi pitch
’
.
F o r his prec ision o f intonation he could ,
o nce more bestow part o f his thanks o n his

,
remarkable breath control since breathing is

,
naturally a great factor in the regulation of

p itch ; but however accurate the ear with which
he began and however great the assistance
,
given by his breath control it was the infinite

,
pains and care with which C aruso practiced

that made him the master o f pitch as it made
him the master o f the other phases o f the vocal
art. T here c an be no art without talent but ,
it is intelligent painstaking an d p ersevering

, ,
practice that makes perfect art .
EXER C I S E III
T o ne P ro duction 13 9
C aruso at times used the above exercise for

the perfecting o f precision of pitch It is also .
excellent for the blending of the vowels and

the mastery o f the breath control .
T he intensity o f a tone is the power o r

energy with which it is produced Intensity .
is the basis o f nuance and dynamics in vocal

art ; without it singing becomes deadly mo
,
no t o no us and ceases to be an art A cco rd .
ingly it is o f vital importance f o r the singer

to comprehend thoroughl y what regulates the
various degrees o f intensity in a tone H ere .
again the principal part is played by t he mo

tive power the column o f air which is supplied
,
by the lungs T he singer can scarcely aspire

.
t o control the intensity of his tone unless he

h as learned h o w to control his breath A nd .
by t he same sign in order t o dev elo p the in

,
tensity o f his tone he must develop his breath

,
power The singer c an never escap e from the

.
motor o f the vo cal arti st— the breath .
It is at once mos t int eresting and most en

co uraging t o know ho w gr adual was the de
v elo p men t o f Ca rus o s vocal organs H is first

’
.
serious teacher ,Guglielmo Vergine though ,

140 Caruso and t he A rt f S inging
o
he ecogniz e d that C aruso p o ssessed a fine

r
instrument never suspected t o what a richness

,
and power this voice which was then rather

,
thin could finally be developed We h ave

, .
alread y taken note o f the fact that the stu

dents o f Vergine looked upon their fellow
pupil as a t enore vent o —a thin reedy tenor , .
S o we must recognize as irresistible t he natu

ral conclus ion that C aruso s development even
’
,
though it enj oyed the initial advantage o f the

very ex ceptional anatomic qualities o f his
vocal o rgans attained its ultimate perfectio n
,
thro ugh the practice o f vocal exercises under

the guidance o f a wise system Moreover it . ,
should be noted that in C aruso s case the de ’
ve10 p ment o f intensity w as constant an d pro
g ressive : starting as a t eno re vent o he re ,
vealed himself first a s a lyric tenor and then

, ,
as a d ramat ic tenor an d a re al o ne
-
We say .
a re al o ne bec ause unlike inn um erable sin ers

,
g
who are possessed by the d ramatic amb it ion ,
C aruso had the ability t o attain his ambition ,
no t onl y through his method o f interp ret ation
but also through t he genuine energy and

p ower o f the vocal resources he ha d b uilt up .
2
14- C arus o and t he A rt of S inging
to draw their characteristic tones from their

instruments which may be good bad o r in , ,
diff erent in their manufacture One woul d .
expect to find violinists pianists o r even per

, ,
formers o n such standardized instruments as

those o f the tympani family producing a
greater gamut o f timbres than are possible
t o singers who make their tones inside them
,
selves Here the basis of tone quality far

.
,
from being a matter o f skillful o r clumsy

manufacture o f instruments out o f a p ro fu
sion o f fine o r coarse materials is at bottom ,
a phys ica l c ondition V ocal tone must depend

.
considerably o n the general vocal organism

with which nature has provi ded the singer .
T he anatomical ca use for varying timbre in

the voice is merely the varying adaptation of
the position o f the resonance cavities to the
functions of the glottis .
A violin may be a C remona a S tradivarius

, ,
o r the m achine turned varnish laden chi ld o f

,
-
a fu rniture factory consecrate d to nothing
finer than quantity production ; a piano may

be b uilt by artists for the fingers o f a master
o r assembled by day laborers f o r th e instala
tion of a mechanical player ; but human b eings

T o ne P ro duct ion 1 43
are human beings and throats are throats

, .
T his fact would seem at fir st gl ance to set

, ,
narrower limits to the range o f vocal t irnbres .
Yet we know the reverse to be the case .
Voices differ as no hand made instruments -
can A nd no t only is there a variety of the

.
comparatively simple physical instruments na

ture bestows o n singers but it is also true that
,
artistic c ontrol and wise manipulation o f the

vocal resonators can alter the tone quality or
color o f a given voice by such fin e gradations
as to make it almost a series of instruments .
C aruso for instance was able to bring those

, ,
resonant vocal organs from which issued his

extensive rich and powerful voice so c o m
, ,
p le t ely under t he control of his will that the

slightest modification in the movement of his
lip s an d cheeks accompanying the swiftest
,
transition in the emotions and passions repre

sent ed gave him tones of infinite color and
,
o f in exhaustible o f ever renascent melodious

-
,
beauty T his is t he way in which t he vocal

.
artist m akes the timbre o f his voice t he

vehicle for his musical personality The man .
is the voice but he is more than the vocal in

,
strument he received at birth : he is the master

o f all his vocal resources .
We c an only sp ec ulate as to what another

s inger— less intelligent less self critical less
,
-
,
persevering—might have m ade o f C aruso s ’
natal equipment : what we can know beyond

ca vil is that it was C aruso s mastery o f thi s ’
equ ipment which produced tone colors so

finely wrought and spread over so wid e a
,
range o f delicate nuances that he was unex ,
c elled and became unique in the world o f

, ,
song T his is the real reason why his voice

.
continues to survive as if in the spirit within

, ,
the min d s of all who heard it although his ,
phy sical instrument has been silenced forever .
III
REG I STERS OF T H E V I CE O
S peaking generally t h e nomenclature em
,
ploye d in the vo cal art is so vague as to be

inadequate fo r exact denotation A goo d part .
o f the vagueness ri ses from a c ertain hab it o f
naming vocal divisions o n subj ect ive rather
t h an obj ective grounds o r rather o f det er

, ,
mining class names by physical sens ations

C aruso and t he f S inging
'
1 46 A rt o
seven regi sters ; whether the artist sings in the

lower middle o r upper r ange o f his vocal
, ,
compass ; he must needs bear in mind o ne all

important principle : hi s tone product ion must
be sound throughout and e very note h e sings
,
must be beautiful Let the s inger take heed

.
to apply intelligently the princ iples that make

f o r goo d tone production and the question of
regi sters will aff ord him litt le worry .
C aruso never let the compli cated and thank

less matter o f registers disturb him He knew .
that there was only o ne vital goal t o strive f o r

— the pr o duct ion o f beaut iful t on es O n this .
goal he focused all his musical intell igence ;

toward it he concentrated all his mental and
spiritual energy .
It is strange indeed that so many modem s

shoul d have gone astray in th is matter o f
registers The early Italian singing masters
.
had already penetrated the subj ect with ad

mirable insight Th ose o ld masters had the
.
good sens e t o keep in plain view the one sig

nificant obj ect— b eautiful s ingi ng T hey did .
not put the cart b efore the horse by t heo niz ing
befo re they experi mented T hey did not force.
arbitrary preconceived notions o n their pu

,
T on e P ro duction 147
pils O n the contr ary they were guided in

.
,
their formulating o f vocal principles by the

achievements o f the great vocal artists o f their
time .
The singing mast ers o f the past recognized

two registers which they described as w as
,
i — that is full voice and

p e na and vo c e fin t a
feigned (art ificial disguised) voice T hese

, .
are the two registers which are at present so

“ ” “
often described as chest voice (o r c hest
“ ” “
tones and head voice (o r head
T he head tones are also sometimes referred
“ ” “
to as falsetto tones T he so call ed ches t
.
-
tones are often subdivi ded for t he sake of ,
“ ” “ ”
convenience into lower and me d ium reg
,
ist ers A ny further classification o f registers

.
,
whatever its appeal to the theorist can be o f ,
no practical benefit to the student and it can ,
eas ily confuse him at a time when his Whole

attention should be concentrated o n tone pro
duction t o the exclusion o f sc ientific and
, ,
pseudo scient ific divisions o f the scale

- .
’
If the behavior o f the singer s vocal mem
branes knows any change at all throughout
the entire range o f hi s voice it t akes place ,
when he passes from the chest register t o that

of head In the case o f t he voic e that has

t he .
be en badly trained o r has no t been trained

,
at all the change in the phy sical pro cess o f

,
tone production is invariably accompanie d by

a sensation o f strainin g and o f tension in the
larynx and its adj acent parts T he real

singer the o ne who has had a good schooling
, ,
is revealed precisely by the evenness and

facility with which he passes from o ne register
to the other Once more the vocal artist must
.
remember that he does not sing wit h his

throat but t hrough it ; that tone is produced
by the breath the vocal motor as it comes into
, ,
contact with the vocal chords ; and that the

other vocal organs acting as resonators , ,
merely vary the quality o f t he t one C areful .
breath control the sine qua no n o f beautiful

,
singing will help him considerably over the

,
thorny road of equalizing his entire vocal

ran ge .
When the tones are fed and properly sup

ported by a column o f air un der complete con
trol ; and furthermore when due precaution
, ,
is taken that there b e no strain or forcing in

the production ; then the voice attains through
o ut its range a b eautifu l e uality wh ich all
q
with infini te care The purity and ease o f

.
production in the upper range depend t o a

great extent o n the manner in which the
lower tones leading up t o it are sun g I f the .
lower tones are produced correctly and an ,
even poise is maintained in ascending the scale

the higher tones wil l benefit by the support
of the lower ones— e specially by keeping the
throat well open— and thus avoid the pinch
ing quality often present in the highest tones
”
o f a s inger s range
’
.
N o r was C aruso ever an advocate o f the

thread like tone unsupported by plenty o f
-
,
“
breath and taken with the so called head -
voice . It is not only cold and colorless but ,
it destroys equalization Even his falsetto .
tones which he seldom used were supporte d

, ,
by sufi cient breath which gave them body,
an d m ade them sound like mez za voce tones .
H ere was another important contribution to

the remarkable homogeneity o f his entire
range .
A s we have said in an earlier paragraph ,

’
C aruso s art consist ed o f far more than his
wonderful inst rument ; his great industry ,
which he always applied intelligently con ,

T one P roduct ion 151
tributed its large share to make him the fore

most vocal artist o f his time A nd to no phase
.
o f his art did he devote more attention than
to the e qualization of the voice O ne o f the

.
means toward attaining the perfection he

sought and achieved in the equalization of the
voice was long practice of the following exer
cises in vocalizing A (ah ) should be quite
.
open with the mouth extended in a horiz ontal

,
oval ; and the exercise should be sung with

great naturalness and abandon Gradually . ,
as C aruso reached t he upper range the open ,
vowel A would insensibly merge into the

vowel O which continued steadily to become
,
darker in color or rather to change into the

,
vowel U precisely as is here graphically

set down
EXER C I S E VI
152 C aruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
EXER C I S E VI a
EXER C I S E VI "
EXER CI S E VI !
"
EXER C I S E VI
"
EXER C I S E VI
Here we must direct the attention of the

student t o the correct manner o f practicing
these exercises reminding him that Caruso
,
”
said
“
, with comp let e aban don o f the th roat .
The gradual blending o f the vowels A O U , ,
should therefore take place without any

change in the position o f the throat during
1
the whole time required f o r their emission .
S Ch pt r I !
ee a ( C uso
e
“
d th
ar F oun d ti on of Vo l
an e a ca
T hxi qu ) fo r fu rth r d t i ls n th pronun i tion o f th
ec i
”
e e e a o e c a e
vowels .
15 8 C aruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
and that to rest content on what his public

may regard as perfection is to die as an artist .
I dwell on this conv iction of Enr ico Ca

ruso s on his exacting attitude toward his own
’
,
art because it is intimately connected with his

,
manner of practicing and his habits of work

ing S earching and fearless self criticism ac
.
-
,
c ording to C aruso is an essential principle

,
which the vocal artist must needs accept ; it is

the mainspring o f uni nterrupted progress ; it
leads the artist to the genuine bel canto C a .
ruso went much further in his emphasis upon
the important principle o f effective self

criticism He said .
“
T he very talent of an artist is revealed in
his ability to detect and understand his short
comings and especially in his courage to ac
,
”
knowledge their existence .
N 0 one could have been a severer critic of

C aruso s great art than was C aruso h imself
’
.
He worked with tremendous concentration ,
and his acute c ar was ever to descry the slight

est flaw in the tone production in the quality , ,
o r the interpretation o f a musical passage It .
was this infinite care this minute attention as

,
well to the details as to the larger problem s

H o w C a ruso P ract iced 159
which confront the vocal artist that in due

,
time made C aruso the complete master of his

instrument and of all its manifold resour ces .
In addition to his great love for his art ,
C aruso brought a ma gnificent high minded -
ness and a deep sense of responsibility to his

“
profession . A n artist in order to be worthy
,
o f the place he has won for himself in the

”
world o f song Caruso repeatedly remarked
,
“
to me must continually strive for a higher
,
perfection If he is content with the achieve

.
ment o f the moment he either recedes or he

, ,
is superseded by another artist o f more

exalted ideals .
But to infer that C aruso derived his artistic

ideals from a struggle f o r place in the field
o f song would be to insult the memory of a
great artist A ll who had the good fortune

.
to be his friends know that he deeply loved

his art that he was unsparing in his endeavors
,
to advance it N o t that the spirit of the

.
sportsman was lacking ; for it was the sports

man in C aruso that roused his ambition to hold
the supreme place among singers a positio n,
for which he battled with such untiring energy .
T his is a very di ff erent matter from the ambi

tion which covets success fo r its own sake and

fo r its worldly emoluments T hat is the win .
at any cost ambition

- -
which we customarily
associate with the professional sportsman the ,
spirit which cultivates pull which exploits ,
fair and irrelevant advantages which is no t ,
scrupulous as to the rule of the game because ,
its gaze is fixed on rewards instead o f on ex

c e llence C aruso s ambition on the other
’
.
,
hand was o f the sort we recognize and ap

,
plaud in the amateur sportsman whose motto ,

“ ”
is May the best man win and whose a rdent
, ,
vow is By all that I have in me I mean to

, ,
”
be that man T o such a man unea rned suc
.
cess must be as bitter as unr ewarded excel

lence .
A ccordingly Caruso was never a vict im o f

,
the mean temper which degrades opponents

in order t o enj oy the cheap triumphs o f a
pett y r ivalry It is well known that he was
.
generous in a dvice and assistance t o his fellow

artists When he was singing with an artist
.
o f little v ocal power h e would modulate his

,
sonorous vo ice that he might not overwhelm

the less fortunate singer On one occasion . ,
“ ”
during a performance o f L a B oheme at t he
162 C a ruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
do better than lead a life o f moderation fo r ,
the fit condition of his vocal organi sm is en

t irely dependent upon his physical well being -
.
What C aruso had steadily in mind was that

the singer must not let his manner o f living
overtax the system whence he draws the mo
tive power for his singing .
C aruso himself however had no fixed hour s

, ,
when he retired o r a rose It frequently o c

.
c urred that he got up early the morning fol
lowing a night on which he had sung ; on the

other hand there were times when he got up
,
very late although he had not sung a note the

,
previous night H e possessed a temperament

.
which was for some reason or other averse

, ,
to rigi d regularity A t all events whether

.
,
the hours which C aruso reserved fo r work and

sleep were o r were not as regular as they
should have been he saw t o it that his body
,
received all the necessary rest and exercise .
T hat C aruso was always full o f play is

notorious ; in fact it was his almost boyish love
,
o f play w hich prevented a great many people
from understanding his real character It was .
only natural that many of his pranks good ,
natured as their victims knew them to be ,

H o w Caruso P racticed 163
shoul d have been misrepresented by the j ee l

o us and the envious and have finally reached
the public in such c olors as made them seem

Spiteful so that they added their share t o the
,
obstacles which prevented many who admired

Caruso the singer from understandin g Ca
ruso the man T his is o ne of the disadvan
.
tages o f life in t he lime light a handicap

.
-
,
familiar t o all whose careers bring them

promin ently before the pubhc In C aruso s .
’
case its inj ustice is evidenced by the universal

love almost the idolatry in which the great
, ,
singer was held by all who had the good luck

to know him personally .
The fact is that C aruso s sense of humor

’
was as wholesome as it was keen It afforded .
him a cheerful and unfailing outlet f o r his

overbubbling energy and that the energy he
,
invested in fun did not merely waste itself

through the safety valves of the moment is at
tested by his remarkable caricatures Lightly .
as these were tossed o fi they are so effective

'
in their penetration an d so trench ant in their

wit that they will live long as evidence that
singing was not t he only art to o ffer Enrico
C aruso a career . In the whole series of his
16 4 C a rus o and t he A rt o f S inging
caricatures however you will search in vain

, ,
fo r anything mean or ill tempered T hey bite -

.
but they never snarl ; and good nature laughs

in every line o f them T he hand that dashed .
them o ff was no doubt ready enough in prae

tical j okes but it was incapable o f spite
, .
S o active was C aruso both mentally and ,
physically that he coul d remain idle for

,
scarcely an instant o f the entire day He .
seemed to take an interest in all that went on
about him T he pulse of life was indeed in his

.
veins ! Although he had no precise hours set

a side for his daily vocal work o n days when ,
he was to sing however he would rise early

, ,
and carefully prep are himself vocally and ,
o therwise for the occasion

, .
On rising C aruso first drank the inevitable

,
c up o f coff ee so dear to all Italians

, T hen .
he proceeded to spray his throat— as he laugh

ingly said p ulire lo st rumen t o t o cleanse the
, ,
instrument— with a steam atomiz er A fter .
thoroughly spraying his throat he continued ,
with his toilette W hile he was thus getting

.
’
ready for his day s work I would be at the ,
piano playing for him the score of the opera

,
he was t o sing that night A s he heard the .

careful and intelligent plan without which he

would sing no role ; in large measure it aided
him t o make his interpretations expressive and
convincing ; it contributed t o the authority
and it may almost be said t o the inevitable
, ,
ness of his characterizations .
C aruso frequently commenced the morn

ing s vocal work by practicing vocali zes for
’
about ten minutes and thi s he usually did

,
whether or not he had a performance that day .
During those ten minutes hi s whole being was

intent on his work ; his concentration was so
great that nothing seemed to escape his acute
ear.
S ince the absolute control o f the breath is

the basis of pure bel canto C aruso would b e
,
gin with his t wo exercises for breath control ,
those reproduced in the chapter o n breath

ing as Exercises I and II (pages 1 17 and
124 ) T hese vocalizes he sang in the manner
sho wn in Exercise VI in the chapter o n tone
,
production (page advancing chro mat i

cally up to C or C sharp (The student how
.
,
ever should no t go beyond B flat or B ) For

, .
developing the agi lit y of the voice C arus o ,
“
also practiced E xercises VII and VII using ,
H are Ca rus o P racticed 16 7
”
the same vowels as Exercises VI V I C aruso -
.
sang each exercise in full voice in a single ,
respiration and he saw to it that all the air

,
emitted from the lungs was duly transformed

into tone .
S o much for breath control practice B ut .
breath control tone production and vocal , ,
equalization are closely related ; the achieve

ment of success in one phase o f vocal art is
dependent upon the successful manipul ation
o f the others S o C aruso used these exercises
.
as well as Exercises I V an d V in the chapter ,
o n tone production (page 14 1 for tonal color

ing and quality T he vocalizes fo r volume or .
intensity Exercises I V and V he also p rac

, ,
ticed in full voice Caruso sang the sustained .
G of Exercise I V with much power ; it had

a penetrating ring ; and he held it fo r a con
side rab le length of time F o r this sustained .
tone work too he sometimes practiced E xer

, ,
cise III which is excellent both for the at

,
t ainment o f accurate pitch and the develop

1
ment of equalization in the vowels .
T here was always method and plan in what

B for
e p p r i g t h st g wh th r t t h p r or t
e a ea n on e a e, e e a e O e a a
a co c rt C ruso usu lly s ng hi

n e a rci s s in t h followi g
a a s exe e e n
ord r
,
e : ( 1 ) VI , (2 ) I V (3 ) V , , (4 ) I I , (5 ) VI P .
168 C arus o and t he A rt o f S inging
ever Caruso did ; he never worked listlessly ,
prompte d by the desire t o get through with

his routin e H e had set before himself an
.
ideal an d he direct ed all his powers toward

,
a chi eving it He in fused into his ex ercise s

.
th e vital spirit that animated and made sig ,
nificant the final product o f his labor

, E ven .
when he vo cahz ed he aimed at much more

,
than what is normally sought b y s ingers ,
namely flexibihty and power

, He used the .
vocaliz e s with such skill and intelligence that

they prepared hi s voice fo r the role he was
sche duled to s ing that night Was he t o ap
” ”
pear in Rigoletto or in L a Favorita in ,
“ ’ ’ “ ”
L E hsir d A more o r in L a Boheme ,
operas which demand of the tenor dexterity

and grace C aruso would strive to secure
, ,
through modifying the manner of his practic

ing the lyric lightn ess and flexibility sui table
,
t o those roles B ut if he was scheduled t o ap

.
“ ” “ ”
pear in S amson et Dah la in P agliacci , ,
or in
“
La J ”
uive works in which the tenor
,
rfiles are primarily dramatic C aruso endeav ,
ored to make his mann er o f vocaliz ing fortify

his voice with the ne cessary power and dra
matic ring which these roles require .
“
consider mere exercises is it any wo nder
,
that he finally reached the utmost height in

vocal art ?
From among the details I have relate d
!
about C aruso s p rocedure in practicing his

’
vocaliz e s the young vocal student must take

,
chief pains to remember the all important fact -
that Caruso practiced them with in finite care

and great mental concentration H is h ard .
work addressed itself not only to retaining the

vocal mastery which he had achieved but also ,
and perhaps even more intensely to perfect
ing what he had acco mph shed S o the exer .
cises which C aruso used should commend

themselves excellently to all singers who wish
to improve their breathing power their tone ,
production and the tonal quality of their

,
vocal mechani sm A s regards voices o f lower

.
ranges these vocalizes can easily be made

,
suitable by lowering the ini tial notes .
I have said that C aruso usually vo cahz ed

f o r ab out ten minutes in t he morning before ,
he began working on his scores T he young .
vocal student must not think however that , ,
he is thereby advis ed to rush through the

vocaliz es in the brief period o f ten m inutes .
H o w C aruso P ra ct iced 171
O n the contrary it is of the utmost impor

,
tance that the exercises which C aruso used ,
for the purpose of v o cahz ing be practiced ,
w ith earnest attention and long patience .
S pecial care should be bestowed o n the tone

attack which must be clean and clear never
, ,
breathy and ragged W hen he is vocalizing

.
,
the young singer must constantly bear in

mind the suggestions o ff ered in the chapters
o n breathing and tone production If he can .
n o t do this it is much better not to practice

,
the exercises at all F o r bad singing is ruin

.
o us to the voice whereas silence cannot hurt

,
the vocal organs and is often as a matter of

, ,
fact beneficial Whatever the student does

, . ,
he must never tire his voice by practicing t oo

long at a stretch T he vocal organism is a
.
delicate instrument and it will not tolerate

abuse without sho wmg ill effects .
B efore we enter upon the discussion o f C a

ruso s method of practicing his rfiles arias
’
, ,
s o ngs (by old or mod ern masters ) or what ,
ever musical work he happened to be studying

or reviewing we must take into consideration
,
at least two of the traits which were invaluable

in his art : his splendid vitality and the con ,
s ummate ease with which he sang F o r with .
o ut the possession o f these t wo valuable as
sets Caruso could not— and most assuredly

,
would not— have worked so unremittingly .
He would have ruined his vocal organism .
A t times he could work as long as t wo hours

,
at a stretch without showing the least signs

of fatigue a phenomenal procedure indeed
, , ,
in a vocal artist B ut C aruso seemed to be

.
indefatigable both mentally and physically

, ,
and he frequently ceased working onl y when

his rendition o f the musical text satisfied him
vocally and artistically .
C aruso always sang in full voice and by full ,
voice is meant the natural power o f the vocal

o rganism .However in order to save his
,
vocal organs and especially when he was

,
learning a new r61e or studying any other

,
musical text that was unfamiliar to him he ,
sometimes whistled or b ummed the vocal part

while I played the accompaniment .
A great deal has been said ab o ut the value

o f humming as a vocal exercise It may help .
certain singers to develop their nasal re so na

tors the correct use of which is extremely im
,
portant fo r tonal coloring O n the o ther hand

. ,
tongue j ust as they are kept when in a state

,
o f repose or while sleeping ; the lips are to be
lightly unit ed T hus the tone vibrations will

.
neither be de adened by obstruct ing muscles

nor forced thr ough the nose by the str ain ; in
stead they will resonate within the nasal cavi
ties and make the notes round and beautiful .
S uppose for a moment that C aruso had been

unable to sing without e ff o rt o r strain His .
singing would not only have l acked the rich

ness and p urity o f delivery which it attained ,
but he could never have indulged for any

length o f time in his prolonged manner o f
study without seriously aff ecting his voice .
T here were times when he refused to rest sing ,
ing a passage or phrase over and over again ,
each time with another vocal modulation or

c oloring until he go t the expression and
,
quality that satisfied his exacting musical

taste .
O nce C aruso felt that he had grasped the

true musical significance o f the work he was
studying he invoked all his powers to trans
,
late that significance in to eloquent expression .
In this proceeding during which there effec

,
H ow C aruso P racticed
t ivelyemerged his infinite capacity to take

pains C aruso revealed the fact that within 1118
,
being vibrated the vital quality of sincerity

the hallmark o f the gr eat artist.
C H A PTE R IX
CAR US O A N D T H E F OUN DA T ION OF VO CAL
TE CHN IQUE
AN interesting story is told of Caff arelli ,
the wonder singer o f the eighteenth century ,
whose extraordinary voice and masterly art

enchanted all who heard him just as C aruso
captivated the audiences of our time with his
glorious organ and marvelous singing When .
C aff arelli presented h imself before Porpora ,
the greatest singing master of his time the ,
Maestro agreed to teach the gifted young boy

provided he would promise to follow all the
instructions of his teacher Young C affarelli
.
gladly made the promise T hen Porpora gave

.
his pupil a sheet o f exercises and kept him at

it uninterruptedly T he story runs that when
.
ever C aff arelli complained the Maestro re

,
minded him o f the promise he had made A t .
the end o f five or six years Porpora dismissed

“
his pupil with these words : G O my son I , ,
have nothing more to teach you You are the .
”
greatest singer in the world .
179
Whether this story is false o r true we must , ,
of course take it with a grain o f salt Por

,
.
pora sent forth the greatest singers of his,
t ime b efore C aff arelli he had produced F ari

h -
nelli— and he must thoroughly have under

sto o d the fundamental principles o f vocal art .
He knew that in order t o become a great

singer it is necessary t o ac quire perfect mas
t ery o f the vocal organism ; whi ch mean s a
complete command of the airblast o f tone ,
production Of pitch and o f the sustained as

, ,
well as o f the florid style o f singing In t he .
vocal music o f the eighteenth century the sus

t ain ed airs required a highly fl exible voice ,
and the fiorit ure passages and runs an organ

o f great agiht y Porpora was well aware of
.
these facts for he h imself was a prolific co m

,
poser who wrote among many other works

, ,
at least thirty six operas which abound with

-
airs o f tremendous vocal diffi culty .
T o his teaching Porpora brought a con

cep t io n of sin ging worthy o f a great master
art begin s where techni que ends T his ex .
plains the sheet Of exercises before which Caf

farelli was kept hard at work for a number
o f years A nd when the master said to his
.
its runs and trills practically does not appear

,
in modern Operas ; it is no longer emplo yed

a s a means o f musical expression by the mod
ern composer . Nor do c adenzas o r fio rit ure

passages appear often in modern songs But .
,
aside from the fact that the repert ory o f the

pres ent day singer must comprise the master
-
pieces o f the past it is more than ever true

,
that if he wishes to be ranked as a vocal artist

Of the first magnitude it is essent ial that he
,
have the utmost vocal cap acity including the ,
flexibility and agility o f the florid s inger in ,
order to be able to render perfectly the dra

m atic style i n the works o f modern composers .
It I S a mistaken notion that the latter require

little voc al technique that a beautiful voice
,
is all that is necessary A s a matter of fact

.
,
the intervals and progre ssions in mo dern com

positions possess difficult ies that overtax and ,
in a brief period ruin voices which lack the

,
n ecessary techn ical foundation .
I n setting down in this chapter the exer
cises with which C aruso used to build up his

vocal technique we are no t Off ering singers a
,
systematic voca l method If this were our

.
F o undat ion of Vo cal T echnique 1 83
purpose we sho uld simply be adding one

,
more collection o f solfeggi to the numerous

collections already in existence T hese exer
.
cises are principally intended fo r singers who

wish t o perfect their technique and for teach
ers of singing who wish to benefit by the sug
gestions of the great est vocal a rtist o f his
age and o ne o f the greatest o f all time N o.
singer who practices these exercises must think

for a moment that C aruso s vo cahz es are re
’
produced here with any intention that they

be used as a short cut to attaining perfection .
C aruso would have abhorred the idea as down

right impostur e T here are no short cuts in
.
art The ease or d ifficult y with which a singer

.
gradually masters his instrument depends en

t irely o n his aptitude o r o n the talent which
nature has bestowed on him .
It is amazing that singers should think it

possible in a very short time t o achieve per
feet ion in the difficult art o f singing whereas
,
vio h nist s o r pian ists take it for granted that
th ey must work for years before they can

hOp e to gain even a partial comman d of the
mechanical difficulties o f the vio hn o r t he
18 4 Caruso a nd t he A rt of S inging
p iano Is it because singers do not actually

.
see t he mechanism o f the vocal organs that

they believe the hum an voice can be used
e fl ect ively without arduous s t udy ? T here are
’
no tricks o r secrets wher eby the voc alist can

magically be turned into a great artist over
night C aruso was well aware Of this truth
. ,
and be impressed it upon the minds o f all

who sought his advice If C arus o preac hed .
anything at all it was the gospel Of work

, .
Misgui ded work or work in the wrong direc

,
tion however will not only be futile but act u

, , ,
ally harmful S ingers will do well therefore

.
, ,
when they are practicing the exercises which

the great tenor habitually used t o have in ,
mind C aruso s suggestions o n tone produc

’
tion .
For the value which the singer can derive

from these vocaliz es will be in proportion t o
the care with which he practices them He .
must evoke all the concentration at his co m

mand so that he may give the necessary at
,
tention to the position o f the body and the

head— both should be erect but relax ed—to
t he breath c ontrol t o the tone attack and t o
, ,
the tone production N o r must he forget to

.
1 86 C a ruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
the p ronunciation o f the vowels for if their ,
roundness or natural be auty is in any way

distorted by unnecessary effort the muscles ,
o f the throat and the mouth get strained the ,
steady flow of the breath is disturbed and as , ,
a consequence the p urity o f the tone cannot

,
but be destroyed .
C aruso usually practiced this exercise as ,
well as the others in full voice though there

, ,
were times when he preferred to sing them in

mezza voce ; it was all a matter of what Obj ect
he had in view —whether he had to sing for ,
example a lyric o r a dramatic rdle Wh en

, .
he was schedul ed to sing a dramatic r61e he ,
“
always vocalized in full voice and by full ,
”
voice is meant his natural vo cal capacity .
EXER C I S E II
1
fi
—
-b ‘
_
- J
fl
fi p - “ j
- r
-
. .
n . u n . n u n
In practicing this exercise the singer must

aim to make the vowels homogeneous through
o ut the di ff erent tones : that is while he is ,
F o unda t ion o f Voca l T echnique 1 87
progressing from one tone to another the ,
vowel sun g should retain the same placement

or production and the same intensity F ur .
t hermo re not only must the value of each

,
vowel remain the same throughout the eight

tones o n which it is sung but all the five vowels ,
must be alike in placement and in intensity .
EXER C I S E III
f:
(
l
_o
— I — 0
A
T here
can be no beautiful singing without
a perfect tone attack If the tone is not issued
.
with sureness and decision it will be ragged ,
and breathy with a tendency to leave the

,
pitch T he above exercise will aid the singer

.
to perfect his tone attack and will aff ord him

practice in the various intervals This exer .
cise may be sung in all the keys .
EXER CI S E IV
E XER C I S E V
EXE R C I S E VI
EXER C I S E VII
E XER C I S E VIII
19 0 Caruso and t he A rt f
o S inging
E XE R C I S E XI II
E XER CI S E X V
EXERC I S E XVI
F oundat ion o f Vo cal T echnique 19 1
EX ER C I S E XVII
EXE RCI S E XVIII
EX ER C I S E ! I !
n — \ fi ‘
I
EX ER C I S E X X
EXER C I S E XXI
The preceding eighteen vocalizes (E xer

c ises IV XXI
) C aruso practiced from time
-
t o time in order to maintain at its high level
the remarkable agility and suppleness o f his

voice H e did not always sing the exercises
.
consecutively as they are here set down but ,
Often practiced them as they occ urred to him .
A s they are reproduced here the exercises ,
are f o r tenors and sopranos ; but they can eas
EXER C I S E XXII
i v
. do l -
Ad d
ed a a. m. a wa y A,
EXER C I S E XXIII
J
a w
E X ER C I S E XXIV
19 4 Caruso an d t he A rt o f S inging
P ortamento is the carrying o f the voice

v ery smoothly from o ne t o ne to another It .
is a highly eff ective and expressive embellish

ment in the art o f singing when it is used co r
rect ly and with good taste O n the other
.
hand let the portamento be used poorly an d

,
indiscriminately and it becomes atrocious to

,
the musical ear In gliding from o ne ton e

.
to the other the singer must bewar e not t o

stop at any o f the intervening tones ; the glide
must be smooth and uni nterrupte d N or .
shoul d the singer employ the portamento t oo
frequently fo r it may aff ect the evenn ess and

,
clean delivery o f his legato singing C aruso .
used the portamento with exquisite taste ; it

infused life and expressiveness into his phras
ing By means o f it he Often brought o ut the
.
very character o f t he music he was singing .
S ung with Caruso s maste ry this embellish

’
,
ment becomes o ne o f the most stirring we have

in mus ic .
E XE R CI S E X XVII
F o undat io n o f Vo ca l T echnique 19 5
Messa di voce (the art o f swelling out and

diminishing the volume of a sustained tone in
o ne breath ) is an ornament of song that was
held in high esteem by the great masters Of

the past ; and it is quite worthy o f that esteem ,
for it adds color and elo quence to sustained

singing .But if it confers great beauty upon
singi ng it s technique can be mastered only
,
after long practice and diligent work T he .
singer must attain a notable perfection in the

production of simple sustained tones before
,
he attempt s to sing messa di voce ; for this

device in order to be eff ective requires a
, ,
highly flexible voice .
T here are no secrets fo r the acquirement

of a beautiful messa di voce ; it is f undamen
tally a matter of perfect breath control (T he .
singer must ever return to his motive power

— the breath C aruso s messa
’
di voce was
) .
marvelous in its eff ects— as in the last phrase

C armen j e
“
o f the flower song in C armen , ,
t aime— because h e had complete command of

’
his airblast .
Nowadays comparatively few s ingers are

able to deliver a beautiful messa di voce for ,
the mere reason that they have not acquired

19 6 C a ruso and t he A rt o f S inging
the principles of tone mastery It is pitiful .
t o watch a singer wi th a flushed face a strained ,
n eck , a nd a rigi d j aw attempting to s ing
messa di voce He imagines that he has only

.
t o exert pressure on his vocal organs and an ,
increase in tone will follow He is soon disillu

.
sio n ed ; his tone n o t only fails to increase but ,
is so stifled by the tightened muscles that it

actually decreases in volume T here can be .
no beautiful messa di voce unless the vocal

organs are relaxed— the throat and the mouth
should remain as in a state o f repose— and the
tone is emitted without strain or eff ort .
EXER CI S E XXVIII
EX ER C I S E XXIX
T hesetwo exercises which may be sung in

,
all the keys the singer will find useful as an

,
a id toward making the voice both agile and
flexible C aruso employed them at vari ous

.
tones no matter how impassioned o r dramatic

, ,
were so subj ect to his vocal mastery that they

were never forced or strained and therefore
remained mellow and pure Had no t his glo .
rio us voice been silenced by a premature

death there is no doubt but that Enrico C a
,
ruso would have c o ntinued for years to come

t o pour o ut his magical music .
In yet another province o f the singer s art ’
C aruso was a great master— d iction His .
purity of diction was in the main the result

o f the purity with which he emitted his tones .
T he art Of the singer may be likened to an

extremely delicate mechanism which may be
manipulated effectively if all the component
parts are perfect ; with one part imperfect ,
however the entire mechanism must fail to

,
give satisfactory results F aulty diction on

.
the part o f singers is usually caused by de

f ect ive tone production Wh en the vocal o r
.
gans are forced into rigid contortions they ,
can by no means be expected to possess elo

q uen ce o f utterance .
’
C aruso s vowels were open and pure full ,
and resonant because he pronounced them

,
F o undat io n o f Vo cal T echnique 19 9
with ease and freedom ; and this case and free

dom came from the remarkable suppleness
and flexibility o f his vocal organs He had .
no mysterious secrets ; while innumerable less

successful singers were seeking far and wide
for tricks that would enable them to utter the
vowels clearly and musically C aruso remained
,
loyal to the prin ciples of the great masters o f

bel canto Here again as in the other do
.
,
mains Of vocal technique it was patient study

, ,
directed by an alert musical intelligence and

an artistic sensitiveness that finally led C a
,
ruso not only to the perfect equalization Of

the vowels but to the mastery of all the gra
dations of tonal coloring inherent in them .
Caruso di d not set down any hard and fast

rules f o r the correct pronunciation of the
vowels except perhaps those princ iples to
,
which the vocalist must give heed in order t o

secure good tone production T he exercises
.
which we have here reproduced f or the flexi

b ilit y of the jaw will aid the singer in pro
no uncing the vowels with more roundness and
eloquence since the rigidity of the j aw is in

,
great measure responsible for the havoc that

is made Of their natural beauty T he j aw .
should remain relaxed so that it will droop

loosely ; in this position as in the case Of the
,
emission o f tones the j aw will not obstruct

,
the blending o r the pure utterance o f the

vowels .
N o r is there any radical di ff erence in the

underlying principle fo r the clear and distinct
enunciation o f the consonants ; the less eff ort
the singer exerts the better will be his artic
,
ulat io n .In fact all the evils Of the singer

,
are wrought upon him by the employment of

unnecessary e ff ort C aruso s faultless artic
.
’
ulat io n was due to the flexibility o f his lips
and tongue and to the fact that he ende av

,
ored never to overemphasize the enunciation

of the consonants A n excellent exercise for
.
the flexibility Of the tongue and lips (and also

for the distinct enunciation of the r ) is : T ra ,
tre tri tro tru ; and B ra bre bri b ro bru

, , , , , , ,
(Italian p ro no unciat io n )
The singer should remember that the tight
e ning o f the articulating organs by undue
stress will always tend to disto rt the clarity

and distinctness o f his diction T he art icu .
“”
lation of the consonants said Caruso must, ,
be eff ected in the simplest and most natural

2 06 C aruso and t he A rt f
O S inging
should not be rendered through the same

vehicle— the method which yields the best
artistic results O bviously the singer must
.
aim to interpret whatever he sings— whether

it be the works of seventeenth and eighteenth
century composers or the compositions Of
present day musicians— with the same skill
-
and expertness lest he be adjudged inco mp e

,
tent The breath control and the tone pro

.
duction must needs be managed with the same

mastery when o ne is singing a recent comp o
sit io n as when he is performing an o ld mas
t erp iec e O therw ise from the point of view

.
,
of technique the rendering will be imperfect

, ,
a nd an imperfect technique mean s at the very ,
best an immature art S O it is not with the

, .
method Of singing that style is concerned .
N o r can it with justice be app lied to any ex

ternal mannerisms of a singer A n affecta .
tion though paraded with pomp deceives no

, ,
o n e ; if the insincerity does no t revolt us it at ,
all events leaves us cold .
N o style is that vital quality Of sincerity

,
which comes from the inmost recesses Of the

’
artist s nature T hat is what the great
.
F renchman meant in his brilli ant and pro

from the innermost depths o f the singer s b e

’
ing O therwise it will remain insignificant

.
and unconvincing T hat is why every attempt

.
to imitate another s style is ineff ective no

’
,
matter how well the imitation may be carried

out Imitation is the very antithesis of style
. ,
and the musical ear can easily detect the one

from the other T he imitation n ever fails t o
.
ring false for it lacks the vital S park with

,
which a genuin e style v it ah z e s a work o f art

to make it quiver wit h hfe B ut what the .
singer must chiefly bear in mind anent the

question of style is that music more perhap s ,
than any other art rest s on contrasts and not

,
on similarities A ccordingly the style of a

.
,
singer is the more distinctive and compelling

’
as it reveals with greater emphasis the singer s
unique individualit y .
SO much for the larger asp ects o f the sing

’
er s style as a manifestation o f his intellectual
,
and emotional constitution B ut just as the .
style o f a composer varies in melody in har ,
mony and in rhythm according to the mood

,
he wishes t o express— whether it be jo y ,
sorrow passion religious fervor or banter

, , ,
S ty le and Rep ert o ry 209
so the singer must needs vary his style in

order to attune it to the character o f the music
he is to sing Monteverde Pergolesi and
.
, ,
C arissimi cannot be sung in the same style as

Verdi Puccini and Leoncavallo ; nor can the
, ,
latter be interpreted in the same manner as

B izet Wagner o r D ebussy
, , T o be worthy
.
o f the name of artist the singer must so mold

,
his style as to make it appropriate to the co m

poser whom he is interpreting and further , ,
more he must adopt his style so that it will

,
reveal the character of the particular work

he is rendering His singing must be faithful
.
to his mood but his mood must reflect the

,
mood o f the composer and of the composition .
Caruso was a great interpreter at his great ,
est when he was hv ing out upon the stage the

life of t he character he was representing A nd .
although all that he did bore unmistakably t he

impress o f his own inimitable person al ity he ,
could so fashion shape and model his own

, ,
style that each of his diverse interpretations

was instinct with individuality One need .
only compare his singing of L a donna e

mo bile or the R aco nt o di R odo lfo with his
singing of S tradella s Piét a S igno re o r Of
’
.
Halevy s Rachel : qua nd da S eigneur la grace

’
t ut élaire— t o mention only a few o f the many

’
superb phonographic record s o f C aruso s great
art— in order t o be co nvinced no t only o f the
larger attributes o f C arus o s style which made
’
,
his art unique but Of its un usual variety in

,
expression its flexible representation o f his

,
moods as they responded to the significance

o f the music he was sin ing
g T here is grace . ,
lightness and abandon in his rendering o f L a

,
d on/h a é mo bile and a delic acy o f phrasing

,
which enhances its musical value ; the senti

ment and pathos in the R ac ont a di R odo lfo
exhibit a very different aspect o f his person
ality and the ardor and impassi o ned eloquence
,
with which he intones S tradella s fervid plea ’
and H alévy s dramatic air demonstrate t he

’
wide versatilit y Of his style .
C aruso occup ied himself little with co nsid

erat io n s o f style from an h istorical p o int o f
view He was always amused when he heard

.
people speak o f a seventeenth century or an

eighteenth century manner o f s inging O n .
such occasions he would laughingly say

“
Didn t artists sing with their vocal organs
’
”
in those go o d Old days ? Yet it must not be
2 12 Ca ruso and t he A rt of S inging
servilely the so called traditional interpreta

-
tions .
Nothing is so deadly to the art of song as

monotony and monotony is bound to make it s
,
appearance in the singer s attempt t o eff ac e

’
the emotions which inwardly guide his utter

ance What interest except the historical
.
, ,
can attach to a traditional rendering that is
devoid o f the personal magnetism o f the

sin ger ? If he is an artist at all it is his soul ,
that gives new vitality and life t o the musical

work he is interpreting discovering beauties
,
that may have escaped the comp o ser h imself .
Besides entirely too much is being said lately

,
o f the compos er s intent ions wh ich usually

’
,
prove t o vary with the tast e o f the speaker

who propounds them Whatever the int en
.
tions o f a composer may have been hi s work ,
must not be ma d e insipid an d lifeless devoid ,
o f nuance rhythm and pl an

, , T his should be.
the prevail ing principle in the style o f the

vocal artist ; and it was this ideal that Caruso
accepted as his o wn .
T he repert ory and the style Of E nrico Os

ruso were clos ely related : his reperto ry fash
io ned and developed his style and his st yle ,
S tyle an d R ep erto ry 2 13
widened the scope Of his repertory B ut both .
his style and his repertory can b e traced to o ne

source— the evolution Of his vocal powers It .
was this harmony in the diff erent domains of

his artistic achievement as a singer that b e
stowed upon C aruso not only his p reemi
nence but also his uncommon endurance .
T hrough o ut his brilli ant career C aruso

never attempted to sing a réle an aria or a , ,
song th at in his judgment was beyond his

, ,
vocal capacity or that was unsuited to his v o

cal organism A nd this in spite of the fact
.
t hat his was a voice Of unusual range and

power N o r did his great dramatic talent af
.
f ect his decision in the matter of choosing a

m i le He foresaw the inevitable consequences
.
o f indulging in parts tha t lie vocally speak

,
ing beyond the singer s abiht y— the untimely

,
’
ruin o f the voice It was his firm c o nv iction

.
,
founded on his thorough understanding of the

mechanism o f the voice that the vocal artist
,
can express his ideas and sentiments ade
q uat ely in song only wh e n he can sing with

ease without laboring over technical diffi cul
,
ties
.
F o r C arus o his song and his dramatic art

,
2 14 C aruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
were not merely closely interwoven : they were

forged into one entity Every one of his
.
vocal phrases was developed o ut Of the char

a cter represented , o ut Of the situations in
which that character participated A nd to .
every character C aruso gave a soul because ,
C aruso had completely assimilated his nature .
A s C anio he was a peasant a rustic among

, ,
other peasants ; as C av arado ssi he was a child

with the soul of a hero ; as E lé az er he was a
religi ous visionary inspired by the God o f his
people A n d in every characterization C aruso
.
made his voice play its legitimate part in that

perfected unity of portrayal which he had ,
first of all established a s his ideal

, .
It is true that he was aided by the fact that

his voice was of as captivat ing softness and
rounded fullness in lyric passages (a male
voice even in phrases Of most deh cat e p ianis
simo ) as it was full of glow and passion in
dramatic moments when it made his auditors
,
vibrate with emotion B ut this rare vocal flex

.
ib ilit y was the master s own achievement too

’
.
,
F o r his method based as it was o n principles

,
whose application should be un iversal— his

manner o f work the sc al e and exercise material
,
2 16 Caruso a nd t he A rt o f S inging
narily given Indeed the make up o f most

. ,
-
men and women o n the operatic stage is so

banal so devoid of character that it is justly
, ,
ridiculed by all who seek something more than

beautiful singi ng at t he opera house Wh at .
would a theater audience think of an actor

whose make up gave him rather the appear
-
a nce o f a puppet than that o f the character
he was endeavoring to present ? A nd yet few

opera singers who are al so supp o sed to look
,
a nd act their parts devot e much care to their

,
make up-
.
Caruso was as careful about creat ing the

appropriate make— up for the character he w as
impersonating as he was about studying the

appropriate gestures declamation and musi
, ,
cal expression H e pondered the mental emo

.
,
t io nal and moral traits o f the character as they

,
were revealed not only in his o wn lines an d

music but throughout the entire opera If he .
foun d that insufficient he searched elsewhere

,
-
in art in literature in history
, ,When he .
was preparing the rfile of S amson he went ,
to the Bible fo r additional enlightenment on

that legendary hero in order that he might
visualize him the more vividly ; an d as we have ,
S ty le an d R ep ert o ry 2 17
already remarked when he was studying

,
Eleaz er he sought advice o n Jewish customs

,
from a promin ent Yiddish actor Of N ew York .
O nce C aruso had formed a vivid mental pic

ture o f the character he was to enact the prob ,
lem o f the make up solved itself

-
.
In the truest sense of the word Caruso was

a crea t o r o f character In his eff ort to make
.
all his impersonations down to the minutest

,
detail distinctive for their individuality he

, ,
was in some measure helped by his physique .
C aruso was of medium size ; and though the ,
hne s of his face were firmly chiseled neither ,
his head nor his features were really very in

dividual in their physiognomy It was this .
fact which enabled him to throw so great a

measure Of physical conviction into his many
impersonations His face was a mobile mask
.
which naturally adjusted its hne s to the char

acter he was interpreting and reflected its
characteristics and peculiarities in the most
colorful manner .
If in his portrayal of folk types roles such

-
,
as Canio and N emerino he was superb as a

,
child o f nature at the same time r61es stamped

,
with the aristocratic h allm ark (Edgardo o r

2 18 Caruso an d t he A rt o f S inging
the Duke ) hero ic r61es (Rhad ames o r S am

,
so n ) o r romantic r 61es (Rodolfo o r J

, ulien )
were no less within the scope o f hi s dramatic

talent In all that he ever did on the stage
.
there lived the feeling f o r the actual the real , .
H is renderin g o f character as well as o f song

was imp ermeat e with nature with power and ,
truth T his is suffi ciently est ab h shed by the

.
fact that C aruso s sweeping compelling ef

’
,
feet in human character delineatio n is present

-
no less strongly in o ur recollection than is the

enchanting beauty o f his song .
A nyone who heard him in the scene o f j eal

“ ”
o nsy in the third act o f C armen o r at the ,
“ ”
close Of the third act o f Ai da or when he ,
“
c onclude d the Ridi P aghacci c o uld
scarcely forget those moments in which a ,
p rimal outcry seemed to spring from the hu

man soul at a white heat It was a natural .
cry o ne that came from t he soul ; and yet it

,
was not the cry o f nature T hough o ff ered .
with the st iliciz ed gestures o f realism it was ,
in truth art in its highest manifestations an ,
art deeply and subtly controlled with the ,
c ontrol never in any way in evidence N O it . ,
was no t C aruso s voice alone which made him

’

Untitled

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Untitled

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CARU S O

A N D HI S PRACT ICA L ADVI CE T O ST U D E N TS

FRE D ERI CK A . ST O KE S CO MPAN !

Enrico C aruso called me to N ew York to be

served him in the s ame capacities during his

friendship began in the year o f 19 09 In .

those days I always eagerly awaited C aruso s ’

arrival in B erlin not only because it was an

inspiration and a musical education to work

cause his very pr esence diﬁuse d sunshin e and

happin ess In fact it is difﬁcult fo r me to

say whom I loved more C aruso the artist or

C aruso the man— both were so great .

During the years that I spent with C aruso

struggles and his triumphs as well as about

his art He always spoke very modestly o f

his phenomenal achievement but he loved his,

art and often discussed its vexing problems .

F or he was much more than a magical voice

extraordinary vocal and dramatic powers were

to produce an eff ect he could contrive a means

to accomp lish it . He devised exercises

An d the vowels he employed to blend and

T wo consideration s have prompted me to

the desire to pay my tribute to the memo ry

hope that I could pass on to all who are con

methods in breathing and producing tones his,

vocal exercises and his views on vocal tech

tical advice to singers I have dwelt on his

life only in so far as it was closely related t o

of the recollections he was so fond o f telling .

Whenever I have quoted C aruso I have en

deav o red to recall as nearly as possible the

S mson in S mson et D lil

S ignor nd S igno r F ucit o

Oth er Views o f Himself

displacement caused by this lamentable hap

We doubt if there are mO re than a half dozen

public men on the globe to day whose demise

would so stir the universal imagination as has

S o wrote the late James Gibbons Huneker ,

and the entire press of the country nay of , ,

the world voiced the same feeling o f grief and

C aruso had won the hearts o f thous ands of

death in the ann als of song that roused so

as when Caruso breathed his last In many .

l ands his heroic struggle t o stay death was fol

was ﬂashed the world over that C aruso had

o f deep sorrow swept the myri ads who lo ve d

a n d admired him T here were t wo countries

where the great loss was perhaps felt more

which he remained loyal and where he was

t ry where h e was loved as a native so n

fortunes and the public career o f o ne o f the

tenor of his day are so closely interwoven that

t o all intents and purposes th ey are o ne H is .

life was song an d song was his life A nd y et

unlike many singers C aruso was d eeply inter

est ed in many provinces o f art an d culture

quite beyon d the boundaries of musi c H e has .

so often been misrepresented as an artist whose

knew him as intimate ly as did the writer can

great activi ty hi s powers of observation and