Description: A key element of the Caruso legend was the enormously charismatic presence that the tenor brought to the stage. All the more tantalizing, given the absence of any complete opera recording from Caruso's discography, to page through old production photos and read contemporary accounts of how he "sang like the rising sun." This potpourri of Caruso in digitally remastered duets and ensembles will tempt you to reconstruct--in the theater of your imagination--how electric the experience of Caruso's voice in a given dramatic context must have been. Simply to list the cast of fellow singers here--Luisa Tetrazzini, Marcel Journet, Frieda Hempel, and Paquale Amato among others--is to review a mythic golden age of vocalism. And there's the paradigmatic pairing of Caruso and Geraldine Ferrar in an Act I duet from La Bohème that bursts out of the technical limitations of its recording with a sincerely moving directness. Some of the other treats include the quartet from Rigoletto (one of four versions recorded by the tenor), the opera with which Caruso made his Met debut, as well as a couple of duets from La Forza del destino and a relatively lengthy number from the once-popular Marta. Compare the two takes of the Lucia sextet that bookend this disc--from 1912 and 1917, respectively--and notice the darker timbre that Caruso's voice took on toward the end of his career. Both are exemplary for the limpid shape and expressive ritards of Caruso's freely flowing lines, which gloriously interweave with the other voices in the ensemble. --Thomas May
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