I was 8 years old when "The Great Caruso" came out in 1951. I saw it again yesterday and was amazed at how vividly I remember much of it. I was already listening to opera at that age, passively at least, as my mother always listened to the Metropolitan Opera Saturday broadcasts, but this was the first time I *saw* what opera was all about. It began my lifelong love of opera. I loved Mario Lanza when I was a kid and I still do.
I don't really have anything to add to the other good reviews here. I do have a correction to one, though. "Blanche-2" in a review of October 7, 2007, says: "Also it's highly unlikely that Caruso ever sang Edgardo in Lucia; the role lay too high for him." He did, though. A check of the Metropolitan Opera Archives (http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm -- search "Caruso, Enrico") reveals that Caruso sang 17 performances of "Lucia" between 1904 and 1906. He sang 863 performances at the Met between 1903 and 1920, consisting mostly of the roles one would expect for his type of voice. However, from 1903 to 1906 he sang several bel canto roles, usually assigned to a more lyric tenor voice: Elisir d'amore, Favorita, Lucia (Donizetti) and even two performances of La Sonnambula (Bellini), and even Bizet's "Pearlfishers" (1916), a very high-lying role. The only one of these he kept in his repertoire was Elisir, of which he sang only the first act on Dec. 11, 1920. He suffered a hemorrhage and the rest of the performance was canceled. His last Met performance was in "La Juive" on Dec. 24, 1920.
When I read the Met archives, what surprised me was how often he sang during the Met seasons, often every three or four days, and not just in one or two operas. And this was just the Met. I intend to do some more research into where else he sang and how often. What an amazing career! He seems not to have rested much.
In closing, Wikipedia characterizes his voice as follows: "Caruso's voice extended up to high C in its prime and grew in power and weight as he grew older. He sang a broad spectrum of roles, ranging from lyric, to spinto, to dramatic parts, in the Italian and French repertoires. In the German repertoire, Caruso sang only two roles, Assad (in Karl Goldmark's The Queen of Sheba) and Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, both of which he performed in Italian in Buenos Aires in 1899 and 1901 respectively."
I don't really have anything to add to the other good reviews here. I do have a correction to one, though. "Blanche-2" in a review of October 7, 2007, says: "Also it's highly unlikely that Caruso ever sang Edgardo in Lucia; the role lay too high for him." He did, though. A check of the Metropolitan Opera Archives (http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm -- search "Caruso, Enrico") reveals that Caruso sang 17 performances of "Lucia" between 1904 and 1906. He sang 863 performances at the Met between 1903 and 1920, consisting mostly of the roles one would expect for his type of voice. However, from 1903 to 1906 he sang several bel canto roles, usually assigned to a more lyric tenor voice: Elisir d'amore, Favorita, Lucia (Donizetti) and even two performances of La Sonnambula (Bellini), and even Bizet's "Pearlfishers" (1916), a very high-lying role. The only one of these he kept in his repertoire was Elisir, of which he sang only the first act on Dec. 11, 1920. He suffered a hemorrhage and the rest of the performance was canceled. His last Met performance was in "La Juive" on Dec. 24, 1920.
When I read the Met archives, what surprised me was how often he sang during the Met seasons, often every three or four days, and not just in one or two operas. And this was just the Met. I intend to do some more research into where else he sang and how often. What an amazing career! He seems not to have rested much.
In closing, Wikipedia characterizes his voice as follows: "Caruso's voice extended up to high C in its prime and grew in power and weight as he grew older. He sang a broad spectrum of roles, ranging from lyric, to spinto, to dramatic parts, in the Italian and French repertoires. In the German repertoire, Caruso sang only two roles, Assad (in Karl Goldmark's The Queen of Sheba) and Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, both of which he performed in Italian in Buenos Aires in 1899 and 1901 respectively."