Enrico Caruso (February 25, 1873August 2, 1921) was one of the most famous tenors in the history of opera. Caruso was also the most popular singer in any genre in the first twenty years of the twentieth century and one of the pioneers of recorded music. Caruso's popular recordings and his extraordinary voice, known for its range, power, and beauty, made him one of the best-known stars of his time.
During his career, he made nearly 260 recordings and made millions of dollars from the sale of his 78 rpm records. While Caruso sang at many of the world's great opera houses including La Scala in Milan and Covent Garden in London, he is best known as the leading male singer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for seventeen years. Conductor Arturo Toscanini, who conducted some of the operas that Caruso sang in at the Met, considered him one of the greatest artists he had ever worked with.
Born in Naples, Italy, Caruso began his career in that city in 1894. The first major role that he created came in Giordano's "Fedora" (Milan, 17 November 1898).
In 1903, with the help of his agent, the banker Pasquale Simonelli, he went to New York City to sing with the New York Metropolitan Opera. The following year Caruso began his lifelong association with the Victor Talking-Machine Company; his star relationships with both the Metropolitan and Victor would last until 1920.
Caruso was one of the first star vocalists to make numerous recordings. He and the disc phonograph did much to promote each other in the first two decades of the 20th century. His 1902 recording of Vesti la giubba from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (Clowns) was the world's first gramophone record to sell a million copies.
Caruso died in 1921, from what is thought to be complications of pleurisy, which was apparently not diagnosed in time to save him. He was 48. He is buried in Naples.
His life was the subject of a highly fictionalized Hollywood motion picture, The Great Caruso, in 1951.
Since his death, numerous compilation albums of his work have been created.
