CHAPTER I

ENRICO CARUSO, THE MASTER OF NATURAL SINGING

On February 26, 1873, the most magnificent exponent of the vocal art the human race ever possessed—Enrico Caruso—came into this world. On August 2, 1921, at the height of his glory, his golden voice was stilled forever; and the world, in its grief, is still wondering what it was that Nature bestowed on this privileged son to make him the most wonderful source of human melody of all ages.

Scientists and voice experts vie with each other in trying to explain the vocal phenomenon—Caruso—and, though they differ in their conjectures, they all agree that a voice of such rare beauty, and singing of such effectiveness have never been paralleled in the history of vocal art.

In their various versions, scientists endeavored to trace the striking factors of his rare singing to certain peculiarities of his vocal apparatus, giving most of the credit for his wondrous voice to his vocal cords. This conception, however, merely follows an impression dominating the musical world which has always associated the miracle of Caruso’s voice with some secret magic power of his golden throat.

Other experts on voice believe that the principal feature of Caruso’s singing was the striking power of his breath, due to the exceptional strength of his diaphragm and intercostal muscles.

A brief analysis can easily prove that the real reasons for Caruso’s marvelous singing are not precisely those which have been advanced. He was an exception, not for the rarity of his vocal organs, but for their perfect function—faultless according to natural laws—which made him the truest exponent of natural singing.

Singers endowed with the same and even better vocal organs, on the whole, than Caruso are not scarce, some of them having come under the personal observation of the author. Singers with more remarkable breath-power than Caruso have also existed and still exist. (Tamagno is as yet in the memory of the present generation, without mentioning other living singers.) Yet it is the universal impression that none of them can stand comparison with Caruso as singers.

The truth is that Caruso had nothing exceptional in his laryngeal apparatus, and the larger size of his vocal cords or other peculiarities which have been mentioned about his vocal organs were certainly not the decisive elements in his phenomenal singing. On the contrary, there were shortcomings in his throat which were so evident that if he had had to rely on his vocal organs alone for his career, he would perhaps never have become a singer at all.

As a matter of fact, Caruso himself often commented on this, relating an early experience of his. At the age of twenty he went to one of the most famous laryngologists in Italy, Professor Ferdinando Massei, of the University of Naples, to be treated for tonsilitis at the hospital of Gesŭ e Maria. When asked about his profession, Caruso said that he was studying singing. The famous physician shook his head dubiously and replied: Take up something else, you have not the throat for singing.”

All laryngologists who had the opportunity of treating Caruso know also that his throat was often much congested, and that he smoked too much, although the beauty of his voice was never impaired.

Therefore his throat was not the magic organ that gave rise to his greatness. This strengthens our theory that the importance given to the throat as the organ which characterizes exceptional voices is greatly exaggerated.

What, then, were the really striking features responsible for Caruso’s singing?

My intimate association with the great tenor afforded the opportunity of examining constantly all facts relating to his voice, and the advantage of discussing my impressions with him, accurately studying his own point of view. I, therefore, feel justified in expressing an opinion on this subject, founded on close observation.

Not one, but several, qualifications, physiological as well as psychological, harmoniously combined in one individual, were responsible for making Caruso the most magnificent vocal phenomenon of the human race. These qualifications are embodied in the words _Natural Singing_.

His vocal organs, most obedient to Nature’s dictates, were not anatomically exceptional, but in their physiological function were the most balanced vocal machinery ever known to me. His vocal cords, rather large and thick for a tenor, although not the exceptional factor in the beauty of his voice, gave him the range of a basso as well as tenor. But this is not unusual, as tenor, baritone and basso ranges are conventional, not scientific, divisions. Nature creates voices, the specific qualities and ranges of which have no such scholastic limitations. Cases of bassos singing as tenors, and contraltos singing coloratura are not infrequent among singers who produce their voices properly. Caruso had one of these rare voices, which he used according to Nature’s dictates; thus it was not difficult for him to sing baritone as well as tenor, if he chose to do so. This, therefore, was not the striking feature of his exceptional power. There have been other tenors who could do the same, such as the famous Lablache, who used to sing basso as well as tenor rôles.

One peculiarity worth mentioning, however, about his vocal cords was their rather soft consistency, a circumstance which accounted partially for the mellow and velvety quality of his voice. The value of this is easily illustrated when compared to the marked difference in tone existing between an E string of a violin made of steel and another made of gut, the latter having considerably more mellowness of tone due to its softer consistency.

In reference to the other physical factor commonly conceded as most prominent in connection with exceptional voices, namely, the breath, Caruso certainly always had at his disposal the most generous supply of air, which he supported wonderfully by his control of the diaphragm, that was as strong as any muscle of his body. His beautiful singing, however, was not the result of breath-power, or brute force, but rather of his careful and intelligent distribution of it, which was a remarkable feature in Caruso’s style of singing. He always employed only the exact amount of breath required for producing each tone, and no more; and this was responsible for his precise intonation, his remarkable legato, and his long-sustained tones.

Caruso almost unconsciously focused his voice in its most exact pitch, guided by his natural instinct of giving to each note only as many vibrations as were scientifically required. Thus his voice, contrary to the style of singing predominating to-day, was never under high pressure, and, therefore, never sharp.

The natural placement of his voice in the very center of the masque was a most striking feature. Its production was always based on the fundamental tones of the voice, not on the overtones. He used the overtones generously, but only for enriching the fundamental tones, not for overshadowing them. Generally when voices are forced, the overtones become more prominent than the fundamental tones, resulting in singing which is similar to a painting in which the shadows predominate over the lines of the drawing, making the design indistinguishable. In the singing of Caruso the fundamental design of the voice was clear, solid, and imposing, and its many delicate shadows were responsible for its rare beauty, blending in velvety softness the masculine strength of his baritone quality.

But the exceptional physiological attributes which Caruso possessed were the majestic freedom of his voice production and the striking power of resonance of his body, which he utilized to full advantage. The former was due to his use of the vocal organs in perfect accord with physiological laws, his voice production being so correct, and at the same time so natural, that for the most part singing was for him merely talking. The massive volume and the rare quality of his voice—its exceptional characteristics—were due to the resonance of the body, which was like that of a Stradivarius violin. The much-emphasized properties of his vocal cords, when compared to the striking feature of the resonance of his body, had no more value than the string of a Stradivarius when placed on an ordinary violin. The marked inferiority of tone of the second violin is equivalent to the difference that the vocal cords of Caruso would produce in the throat of another tenor.

Therefore the magic power of his voice lay in the correct physiological mechanism of his voice production, on one hand, and in the remarkable physical conformation of his body, on the other, made up of tissues of exceptional resonant property, acting as an immense resonating case for his tones.

His masque, chest, and all the cavities of his body, even in their remotest corners, were producing sounding vibrations during the correct, free, and expansive production of his voice.

His tongue, of remarkable flexibility, which he could shape in any way, or keep relaxed in a concave form on the floor of the mouth, thereby creating, with his well-arched palate, a larger and rounder space, added not a little to the resonance of his singing.

His nose and frontal sinuses, markedly developed, together with his broad and rounded chest, were striking factors of resonance also. His entire body, in fact, in its large and solid frame, was a striking resonator for his voice.

Therefore all these qualifications, magnificently combined and answering perfectly to the laws of physiology and acoustics, made him the most wonderful exponent of natural singing.

The psychological endowments which lent to Caruso’s voice its intense pathos, never before equaled, were supported by the self-assurance of the correct mechanism of his voice production which gave him the advantage also of devoting all care to the details of his singing, and to the aesthetic beauty of his voice molded on its natural sentiment.

For him singing was a pleasure rather than a technical struggle for effects, therefore, audiences cried along with him or loved along with him in his different rôles. His mind, freed from the necessity of thinking high or low tones, was always open to the inspiration of the words and the music he was singing. He was the first in his class to abolish the conventional though beautiful style of singing of the _bel canto_ school, refusing to bend toward the traditional temptation of making the words slaves to the tones. He sang the words for themselves—for their significance—feeling and meaning them. Hence the pathos of his voice, and his superb enunciation, which made the audience understand and feel every word he was singing, added much to his superior standing when compared with other singers.

Caruso was not a tenor, not a baritone, not a basso; he was a singer who had the vocal characteristics of all three combined. He had a voice which did not recognize scholastic, conventional classifications of registers, and ignored all limitations in its range. He covered all the possibilities of the human vocal apparatus with the same colorful masculine voice, from the lowest to the highest tone of his range. He covered all the possibilities of the human and at the same time powerful. His voice was a stream of gold. At the age of forty-eight, when most singers are at the close of their careers, his vocal perfection was at its height, and would have lasted however long he lived.

Caruso was a born singer, and a perfect one, by almost divine and superhuman will. He obeyed the call of his heart rather than technical influences, his sentiment being his only guide in singing. Everything in him was instinctive and intuitive. If, at the beginning of his career, he failed to do justice to his vocal gifts, he was unconsciously the victim of technical influences imposed on him by his teachers. His imperfections were due more to psychological conditions than to the voice itself. Surely, though, he did not fail to give the impression that his voice was of rare beauty. When Nature, the real master of his voice, took the lead in his vocal career, and his mind and soul coöperated efficiently, he no longer encountered obstacles in his singing. His evolution as a singer and artist shows very clearly how only lack of artistic education and confidence had held back the natural element which was as powerful in him at the beginning as later.

This very element, though—the natural gift for song—existed and still exists in many other singers, perhaps, as well as in Caruso, but his strong ambition, love of hard work, and intense desire to learn and improve are very seldom combined so conspicuously in one person.

Thus, though Nature endowed him with the rare gift of a most beautiful voice, he owed to himself alone the greater share of his extraordinary success as a singer and artist.

The age of the famous motto of Rossini, that singing requires only voice, voice, and voice,” is gone forever. This was perhaps applicable to the music of his epoch. To-day, to meet the modern psychology and progress, other qualifications are necessary—those which made Caruso the wonder singer of our time.