The Great Caruso (1951) on Netflix
Enrico Caruso leaves Naples for New York to sing with the Metropolitan Opera. Opera society there treats him as an outsider because of his poor background and limited education.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.5/101,711 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Enrico Caruso grows up in poverty in Naples, where he dreams of singing for a living. Setbacks and hardship stand in his way. His voice is exceptional enough to earn him engagements at major opera houses across Europe, and along the way he meets professional rivalries, disappointments in love and the pressures of fame. New York and the Metropolitan Opera make him an international celebrity. Dorothy Benjamin enters his life, and their romance develops behind the fame his performances have brought him. In the high-class opera world he has joined, his lack of education and his poor background leave him an outsider, even as his voice wins him admirers.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Great Caruso (1951)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Caruso family in Italy successfully sued MGM for monetary damages over fictional characters and incidents in The Great Caruso, and the studio was temporarily ordered to withdraw the film from exhibition in Italy.
SPOILER
In the film Caruso dies on stage at the Met after a throat hemorrhage during a performance of Martha, but his real hemorrhage came during L'elisir d'amore at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on December 11, 1920, and he did not die until August 2, 1921, in Naples.- The Great Caruso grossed $1,390,943 in ten weeks at Radio City Music Hall in New York, the highest in the theater's history at the time; the record stood ten years until Fanny surpassed it in 1961.
- The RCA Victor album of the film's arias, sung by Mario Lanza with Constantine Callinicos conducting the RCA Victor Orchestra, sold 100,000 copies before the film premiered and became the first operatic LP to sell one million copies.
- Caruso never sang in an opera chorus nor ever appeared in a supporting role; when Tosca premiered in 1900 he was already a rising star whom Puccini himself had considered for the lead tenor role of Cavaradossi, though the part went to another tenor, Emilio de Marchi.
- Mario Lanza embarked on a planned 20-city concert tour in January 1951 intended to promote the film, but he was forced to cancel at least eight of the concerts when he became ill with pleurisy.
