Enrico Caruso 'O Lola' Siciliana, Cavalleria Rusticana = G & T version (Mascagni) November 30, 1902

Enrico Caruso sings O Lola (Siciliana) from Cavalleria Rusticana.

Issued by The Gramophone & Typewriter Co. Ltd. Milan.

This has no spoken introduction (unlike Caruso's Zonophone version of this same aria recorded months later).

Recorded on November 30, 1902.

Accompanied by Salvatore Cottone, piano.

The opera Cavalleria Rusticana has a 19th century setting--a Sicilian village on Easter morning.

Turiddu, a young villager, has returned from military service to find that while he was gone, his fiancée, Lola, has married Alfio, a carter.

Seeking consolation and revenge, Turiddu has seduced Santuzza, a young woman in the village.

As the opera begins, Lola, overcome by her jealousy of Santuzza, has begun an adulterous affair with Turiddu.

Offstage, Turiddu is heard singing The Siciliana: "O Lola, lovely as the spring's bright blooms." The curtain rises on the main square of the village.

O Lola, c'hai di latti la cammisa
Si bianca e russa comu la cirasa
Quannu t'affacci fai la vucca a risa
Biatu cui ti dà lu primu vasu!

Ntra la puorta tua lu sangu è spasu
Ma nun me mpuorta si ce muoru accisu
E si ce muoru e vaju 'n paradisu
Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu

O Lola, your dress is white as milk.
You are white and red like a cherry.
Your lips smile when you look through the window.
Blessed is the man who gives you the first kiss!

Your threshold is stained with blood.
I don’t care if I’m killed there.
And if I die and go to Paradise, I will not
even enter if I don’t find you there
Ah! ah! ah! ah!

Enrico Caruso's first recording session was in a hotel room in Milan on April 11, 1902.

One month earlier, Caruso enjoyed a triumph in the premiere of Franchetti’s Germania. This success led to the tenor making records.

On April 11, 1902, Caruso was paid by the Gramophone & Typewriter Company’s Fred Gaisberg to sing ten numbers into a recording horn in a Milan hotel room. The fee was 100 pounds sterling. The tenor sang to piano accompaniment. Gaisberg (either Fred or his brother Will) wrote “Carusso” on early wax blanks.

As time passed, people looked back and viewed this session as giving birth to a new era.

Before 1902, opera recordings aroused little enthusiasm since voices on discs and cylinders were distant, often drowned out by surface noise. Early opera recordings gave little satisfaction.

Caruso helped make the gramophone respected because his voice--a superb one--recorded well. Before 1902, recording officials had difficulty convincing celebrities to make records since the final product was crude. Some celebrities did make recordings in 1902 (Plançon, Van Rooy, Calvé, Scotti, Bispham, Renaud)--partly to earn large fees for little work, partly to satisfy curiosity about how they sound. But Caruso’s success inspired many others.

With the first Caruso discs available in the summer of 1902, the gramophone was suddenly more than a toy--that was Caruso’s contribution to the infant industry. Lovers of great singing realized that recording devices could capture and preserve great singing. Caruso’s voice on his early discs came across clearly enough to be satisfying, Caruso’s interpretations compelling.

Caruso had other Milan sessions. The next one (again for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company) was on November 30, 1902, with some titles recorded a day or two later (in December 1902).

Will Gaisberg (Fred’s brother--Fred himself was touring, making records in exotic locations) produced most of the Milan recordings of the November-December sessions. B.G. Royal recorded four of the recordings, and these have "-R" embossed next to the matrix numbers, indicating Royal as producer.

On April 19,1903, Caruso made seven recordings in Milan for the Anglo-Italian Commerce Company. As I wrote earlier, these were released as Pathe disc, Pathe cylidners and Zonophone discs.

In late October 1903, three more titles were recorded in Milan. There were issued by Pathe on both cylinder and disc--and on Zonophone discs.

Next, Caruso cut two titles for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company--the last Milan session.

Thereafter Caruso recorded only for the Victor Talking Machine Company.

Enrico Caruso "O Lola" Siciliana Cavalleria Rusticana = G & T version (Mascagni) November 30, 1902