Caruso 1873 (CD) – Roberto Alagna

Composers: Various
Artists: Roberto Alagna, Aleksandra Kurzak, Rafal Siwek, Orchestre National D’Île-de-France
Conductor: Yvan Cassar
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Sony
CD Release Date: October 12, 2019

Superstar tenor Roberto Alagna returns with his sensational new album. Caruso 1873 is Alagna’s tribute to Enrico Caruso, the Neapolitan singer he considers to be the greatest tenor of all time. Alagna honors his legendary predecessor with a selection of repertoire drawn from Caruso’s own recording career, which stretched from 1902 to 1920. 

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt an almost visceral love and admiration for Enrico Caruso,” writes Alagna. “I respected the Caruso ‘style’ when making this recording, just as one would respect a composer’s style.”

Alagna is accompanied by the critically acclaimed Orchestre National D’Île-de-France, singers Aleksandra Kurzak and Rafal Siwek, and conductor, pianist and arranger, Yvan Cassar. Together, they committed to find a way into Caruso’s world, as accurately as possible. They recorded not only in the original languages and keys that Caruso used in his recordings but also tried to match his tempos, his variations, his breaths. They even did everything to recreate the original orchestrations, for instance by including heavier brass, in order to reproduce the atmosphere of the early recordings.

The music chosen is a journey back in time through Caruso’s eclectic repertoire, showcasing his personality and blended with Alagna’s own favorites. The album offers many surprises and encompasses work from Handel and Pergolesi to verismo composers including Cilea and Leoncavallo – contemporaries of Caruso who wrote music especially for him. Puccini is represented by “Vecchia zimarra,” the bass aria from La bohème, which – as legend has it – Caruso once sang on stage standing in for an ailing colleague in perfect subterfuge.
 

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