The Great Caruso
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Mario_Lanza_in_the_Lucia_Sextet_Scene_in_The_Great_Caruso_(1951).jpg
The Great Caruso is a highly fictionalized film biography of the life of tenor Enrico Caruso. Released by MGM in 1951, the film starred Mario Lanza as Caruso and Ann Blyth as his wife Dorothy. It also featured a large number of Metropolitan Opera stars, notably the soprano Dorothy Kirsten. Directed by Richard Thorpe, The Great Caruso was an enormous commercial success — largely on the strength of its star Mario Lanza's performance. Newsweek wrote that, "Lanza brings to the role not only a fine, natural and remarkably powerful voice, but a physique and personal mannerisms reminiscent of the immortal Caruso."
Nearly 40 years later, Caruso's own son, Enrico Jr. reminisced that, "Vocally and musically The Great Caruso is a thrilling motion picture, and it has helped many young people discover opera and even become singers themselves." He added that, "I can think of no other tenor, before or since Mario Lanza, who could have risen with comparable success to the challenge of playing Caruso in a screen biography."
References
- Caruso, Enrico Jr. and Farkas, Andrew. Enrico Caruso: My Father and My Family. (New York: Amadeus 1990)
- Cesari, Armando. Mario Lanza: An American Tragedy (Forth Worth: Baskerville 2004)