Customer Reviews

Caruso Voice Of The Century "RCA Red Seal Legendary Visions"

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The legendary Enrico Caruso was a very passionate man, apparently about everything. So I wonder what he would think about this new BMG/RCA dvd and cd set. Great concept combined with a surprisingly lackluster execution. I am not sure of the market BMG had in mind because the set seems to work best as an introduction to the great tenor rather than as an addition for the Caruso afficionado. Yet even as an "Intro" it provides little information for the neophyte to want "more."

Getting down to specifics, the main attraction is a 46 min. A&E biography that is very nicely produced with fascinating newsreel footage of Caruso, interviews with key people including his son, and of course, Caruso singing on the soundtrack. How can you go wrong? The problem is the unanswered questions a viewer may have at the end. For example, what happened to Caruso's little daughter and his wife? This is where liner notes have usually come in handy but there are no liner notes with this set (either that or they were left out of the copy I received), a very shortsighted omission on somebody's part.

Buyers are urged to go to bmgclassics.com on the Internet for more info, but that turned out to be just advertising for other titles. When I visited it, it didn't even list the dvd/cd set I had just bought!

Following the A&E bio on the dvd is the real prize of this set, a complete silent film from 1918 starring Caruso himself. An introductory title explains that scenes were filmed at the old Met making the footage of Caruso onstage priceless. But beyond that info, there is no more said about the film, its origins, or why it's not in better shape. It looks like the transfer was taken from a worn 16 mm print, quite viewable for silent film fans but possibly tough going for everybody else. To be fair, pehaps this print is the best surviving material available but BMG says nothing about it. I noticed that Caruso's real life secretary, Bruno Zirato, plays his secretary in the film and I wondered about other cast members too. But BMG really fell down here by providing no information or background. There is a nice piano accompaniment that uses some arias and Neopolitan songs effectively to suit the action in various scenes. The story is rather predictable but is handled with some ingenuity to make the viewer wonder how it will all turn out. For all his success, Caruso would not be popular as a film star, unlike his colleague Geraldine Farrar, who did quite well for a number of years in silent films.

The bonus cd contains about 46 minutes of Caruso's most beloved recordings but with no info about their dates or even identifying who the other singers are on each track. The afficiando will already have this info but what about the newcomer to Caruso? My overall impression of this set is that the price is right for what the purchaser is getting but the finished product seems to lack an enthusiasic producer who really cared about its subject matter. Earlier RCA releases going back, at least for me, to the early LP era all were packaged with notes that conveyed a sense of excitement about the great man. This set seems to say, "Here it is, take it or leave it."