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After the Luciano Pavarotti house museum and the museum dedicated to Renata Tebaldi comes the one dedicated to another great opera composer: the first national museum dedicated to Enrico Caruso, one of the greatest tenors of all time. It was inaugurated in Naples inside the Royal Palace on the occasion of the anniversary of his birth (February 25, 1873). It could only be his hometown that hosted him, idealized by him in the famous interpretation of “‘O sole mio”, written by the composer Di Capua on a text by Capurro, not in the capital of Campania but in Odessa on the Black Sea, but due to the heterogeneity dei fini the song has become a hymn of love for Naples.
He expected an anniversary to celebrate it arriving even after Hollywood, where on the “Walk of Fame” the tenor received the honor of a five-pointed star fixed in the avenue that immortalizes the glory of art. An extraordinary testimony of affection for an artist who made America fall in love with him, where he had emigrated like millions of compatriots between the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s. Certainly not like those described in the ships that left for very distant lands, but a successful emigrant to conquer America, neither more nor less like the Beatles did in the sixties.
The debut
His debut took place 120 years ago at the Metropolitan in New York where he remained under contract for seventeen years. Until now Naples on the centenary of his death (August 2, 1921) as well as naming the Maritime Station of Naples after him, to honor his art and the memory of emigrants from all over the world in every era, had made his birthplace a museum. Inside you could already admire letters, photos, caricatures, posters, a gramophone from the 1900s and a personal walking stick. In the new permanent space curated by Laura Valente, a rare collection of memorabilia and original engravings, partly donated, is set up.
Insights
Visiting it, one can grasp the sense not only of the art but also of Caruso’s innovation, compared to other singers who are more wary of new technologies. His intuition about the artistic and economic potential of discography is well understood: he was among the first to record records with opera arias on behalf of the English house “Gramophone & Typewriter Company” which made him known all over the world. “Vesti lagiubba” from the opera “Pagliacci” by Ruggero Leoncavallo, recorded in the United States for the Victor label, is the first record to cross the milestone of one million copies sold. He was later posthumously awarded a prize, the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1975. In the monumental “Sala Dorica” there is not only an exhibition of precious Carusian objects, but you enter a veritable room of wonders, with animations in 3D and multimedia platforms, music and film stations and installations.