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New York circa 1920. "Caruso family." A portrait made the year before the legendary tenor's untimely death: Enrico Caruso with wife Dorothy Park Benjamin and their infant daughter Gloria, along with the family of his son Rodolfo Caruso. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.
Mario Lanza, the pride of Philadelphia, had an equally stunning voice; they both died much too soon.
From 1913: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA1VBjbOs4c
A quote from that site sums it up: "Could you imagine how it felt to hear and see this miracle voice in the concert house and at the opera stage? It must have been totally overwhelming and nothing today compares with the emotional force and the intensive presence as the voice and the humanity of Enrico Caruso. Never ever forgotten."
I assume the mannish looking woman in the white shirt and tie must be Dorothy. That is not much like how I imagined her! I wonder if he named Rodolfo after one of his favorite tenor roles. He sure is a handsome young man, and reminds me of Rossano Brazzi.
VictrolaJazz, that ticket stub, and your mother's commentary about it, is priceless!
Many of Caruso's recordings are in the public domain and some are available for listening or download on archive.org.
Here's the one everybody knows - "Vesti la Giubba" from Pagliacci:
http://archive.org/details/VestiLaGiubbacaruso1907
An amazingly powerful voice that still resonates 105 years later.
Looks like everybody in the family, except the daughter-in-law, inherited Grandpa's nose.
That baby would be 92 if she's alive today.
[Died in 1999. - Dave]
Let's see, silk shirt, flannel knickers, and shoes and socks I'd kill for. Maybe not everyone else would, but I would.
Someone please get some sunblock on those two blond kids, ASAP! (Might be too late for the boy, though.)
"Enrico Pallazzo! Enrico Pallazzo!"
Sorry, just had to.
1951 biopic starring Mario Lanza. Hollywood-ized and not particularly accurate, but Lanza sings beautifully.
Still have some Caruso recordings from way back when.H is voice is truly amazing! Not an opera fan, but Pavoratti and Caruso I can listen to for hours.
Wow, just look at Baby Gloria. She certainly is the spitting image of her famous dad!
What a lovely family and setting, so sad he would die so young!
I still have the ticket stub in her college memory book with Caruso's name on it from when my mother, as an 18 year old freshman at Texas Women's University, heard him perform at the Fort Worth Civic Auditorium in October 1920. He would make only four more concerts. She later wrote in the same book: "Glad I went, 'cause he went and died!"
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