Prima Voce: Caruso

Sounding across the years, through the haze of primitive (though remarkably vivid) recordings, the voice of Enrico Caruso is still a miracle. The sense of style, the feeling of effortless control and power held in reserve, and, most of all, the uncanny expressiveness that comes through in Caruso's combination of phrasing, accent, and intensity: it all compels the greatest admiration. Nimbus helpfully specifies the provenance of the takes collected on this disc. They span a period of 17 years, from several matrices recorded early in 1904--two years after Caruso had made his first recordings for The Grammophone Company--to a 1920 Victor recording of "Rachel, quand du Seigneur" from Halévy's La Juive, one of the tenor's signature pieces. Caruso died at the age of 48, when a lot of today's tenors are just reaching their peak. But as these selections show, he was a seasoned artist from the time he was 28. No wonder the world fell at his feet. --Ted Libbey