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Enrico Caruso sings "Faiblesse De La Race Humaine...Inspirez-Moi Race Divine" from Gounod's "La Reine De Saba" ("The Queen of Sheba").

The "Inspirez Moi" section here is called the "Lend Me Your Aid" aria.

This was recorded on February 5, 1916, and issued on Victor 88552.

Gounod's opera about the Queen of Sheba, which premiered at the Salle Le Peletier on February 28, 1862, is not to be confused with Karl Goldmark’s opera Regina di Saba. Caruso recorded arias from both operas. (From Karl Goldmark's Queen of Sheba--Die Königin von Saba--the tenor recorded "Magic Notes" or “Magiche note.” This was on November 7, 1909.)

Caruso here sings as the character Adoniram, a sculptor and architect of the first temple.

It is the opera's best-known aria. The hero invokes the example of the sons of Tubal-Cain (son of Lamech and Zillah, the founder of metalworking) as molten metal flows into its mould.

Singers Edward Lloyd, Evan Williams, and Walter Widdop recorded (in English) what Caruso sings here in French. In its English version, the words are "How vain and weak a thing is man... Lend me your aid, O race divine."

Caruso lived from February 25, 1873, to August 2, 1921.

He was born in Naples, and at the end of his life he returned to Naples, hoping to recover from illness but instead dying there. He did not live in Naples during his adult life. Caruso purchased the Villa Bellosguardo, a palatial country house near Florence, in 1904. Caruso's real home during his years of greatest fame was a suite at Manhattan's Knickerbocker Hotel.

The tenor made more than 260 recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company. A sensation in opera houses and on concert stages, he is still famous because his records were incredibly popular during his own life and remained popular long after the tenor's death. Many singers of the twentieth century said they learned much while listening to Caruso's voice.

He was loved as the lead tenor in "warhorse" works--that is, in operas that stand the test of time, being produced often. But he also took risks, gambling on newly created roles (with no guarantee that the new opera would succeed) and also helping revive forgotten operas. He excelled in Italian and French role. His voice was not suited for Mozart or Wagner.

The tenor's first recording session was in a hotel room in Milan on April 11, 1902.

One month earlier, Caruso enjoyed a triumph in the premiere of Franchetti’s opera Germania. This led to the tenor making records.

On April 11, 1902, Caruso was paid by the Gramophone & Typewriter Company’s Fred Gaisberg to sing ten numbers into a recording horn in a Milan hotel room. The fee was 100 pounds sterling.
The story about the company saying the fee was too high is apocryphal.

The tenor sang to piano accompaniment provided by Salvatore Cottone.

Gaisberg (either Fred or his brother Will) wrote “Carusso” on early wax blanks.

You could say this session as giving birth to a new era.

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