Track Listing

1. Vieni sul mar
2. 'O sole mio
3. Tu can nun chiagne
4. Santa Lucia
5. Pecche?
6. L'Alba separa dalla luce l'ombra
7. Fenesta che lucive
8. Mamma mia che vo' sape
9. Musica proibita
10. Core 'ngrato
11. Luna d'estate
12. Ideale
13. 'A vucchella
14. Vaghissima sembianza
15. Tarantella sincera
16. Senza nisciuno
17. L'addio a Napoli

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43584 in Music
• Released on: 2002-06-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
As a follow-up to its Caruso 2000 release, RCA here offers us a remastered, implemented selection of Neapolitan songs recorded by Enrico Caruso between 1906 and 1920. The gimmick is again that the old recordings have been digitally stripped of their oompah, blaring instruments. In their place, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra has provided modern accompaniment. It's still anachronistic--the voice remains in another acoustical era from the orchestra--but this time, the balance is a little better, and conductor Gottfried Rabl is amazingly sensitive to Caruso's style and phrasing. Moreover, of course, the pops and clicks of the old pre-electrical shellacs are gone. The voice retains its timbre and quality, thank goodness, and one can still marvel at the way the sound grew over the 14 years recorded here. It's always magnificent, but it became more baritonal and muscular with age, without losing any of its thrills. The "Ideale" from 1906 remains an exquisitely tender piece of singing; elsewhere, the sheer visceral excitement of the voice dazzles. Purists may not approve. Those unfamiliar with the Caruso phenomenon should hear him under any circumstances, and this is as good a chance as any. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews

I LOVE it a great effort!!!
Much like the Caruso 2000 CD This Italian Songs CD is a great effort to show us what The Great Caruso actually sounded like. Unfortunately no modern creations can really fix the old recordings to a great extent and give us what He really sounded like; BUT, if you suspend your disbelief, just a little bit, this is not bad at all; and in fact is very good. All the pops and static in the original recording is completely gone, its very clean in that regard, the vocals still sound like they were recorded mono, but with this clearer recording you can get glimpses of how great Caruso was. In Fact at times you just get lost in is powerful and beautiful voice and forget completely the way it was recorded. For Example O Solo Mio is just beautiful. I give this CD a 5 for effort, and for being tied for the best Caruso collection I have ever heard with Caruso 2000. I only wish we could go back in time with Digital recording equipment and record Caruso, then we would all know if he really was the greatest or not. But, I will tell you this, even with the mono sounding vocals hear, if he was not the best, he sure was one of them, the power and emotion are still evident even without being recorded by modern technology. This is a must have for any Caruso fan and any Opera fan as well.

Much better than the earlier "Caruso 2000" CD
I bought "Caruso 2000" a few years ago and while the effort was admirable and the Vienna Radio Orchestra was magnificent, there were just too many barriers to overcome mixing modern fidelity with the no-fidelity recordings of Caruso's voice. It sounded bizarre, like listening to Caruso singing on a small transistor radio while you were sitting in the symphony orchestra pit.
With this newer release, however, there have been some improvements. Apparently the original Caruso vocals were not stripped down as far as on the earlier CD, as you can hear more snippets of the original orchestral backings in the recordings. And on some of the songs, Caruso's voice breaks out of the "cardboard box" sound which characterizes the century-old recordings. A much better job of mixing his voice recordings based on their strengths and weaknesses has been done here. They should consider going back and remixing "Caruso 2000" to get these same results.
Songs such as "Viena sul mar", "O sole mio," "Core 'ngrato," and "Vaghissima" are sensitively and creatively mixed and result in minor masterpieces which will make anyone a believer in this effort. It sounds like Caruso is actually singing to the backing of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra on these songs.
I still feel some improvements could be made but this is so much better than the first CD attempting this mix. And I would like to see the same effort made to the late 1940's and early 1950's Mario Lanza recordings so modern listeners can more fully appreciate his legacy as well. In the meantime, I hope the VRSO is considering work on Caruso's few English-language popular songs, his Christmas recording of "O Holy Night", and "Over There."

A remarkable achievement
Purists, say what you will about blending old and new recordings, but I loved this disc. I've got a number of original Caruso 78s and RCA's "Complete Caruso" CD collection, but never has he sounded so good as on this CD. The mixing of a digitally-recorded stereo full orchestra with Caruso's acoustically-recorded mono voice does at first sound very unnatural, but after a time, the effect takes shape and I'm able to get a better feel for what Caruso must have sounded like in person. The restorations of Caruso's original recordings are marvelous, I hear no surface noise or serious distortion, and the blending of the orchestra with his voice is spot-on. It's refreshing to hear him sing with a full orchestra behind him, not a small studio orchestra as in the original recordings. Naturally, Caruso buffs will want to have the original untouched recordings, but for casual listening, this disc is an excellent buy. I'm particularly impressed with "Ideale," with its beautiful, haunting melody, it's my favorite cut on the CD.