Enrico Caruso’s portrait standing, right profile, examining a bust sculpture of himself, augurst 5, 1914
glie, la soprano Ada Giachetti conosciuta a Livorno in una in Livorno in 1987 in occasion of a performance of La Traviata in Traviata del 1897, e una figlia da Dorothy Benjamin, sposata 1897, and a daughter from his second marriage to Dorothy Bena New York nel 1918. Ada fu il grande amore ma anche il jamin, whom he married in New York in 1918. Ada was his greatsuo grande dolore: lo lasciò dopo 11 anni di matrimonio est love, but also his greatest sorrow: after 11 years of marriage, per fuggire con l’autista, con il quale tentò anche di estor- she left him to stay with their chauffeur. cergli denaro. La vicenda finì in tribunale, con la Giacchetti “Life has brought many sorrows to me. Those who have never condannata a tre mesi di reclusione e 100 lire di multa. “La felt can’t sing”, Caruso once said. His first sorrow was the way he vita mi procura molte sofferenze. Quelli che was whistled at in 1901 in Naples, where, after that non hanno mai provato niente, non possono unlucky evening, he didn’t sing anymore. cantare” disse una volta Caruso. La prima sofHe used to go back there every summer in vacation, ferenza era stata quella che gli aveva procura- He is buried though (Naples –he said- attracts me like the Sito Napoli con i fischi del 1901 e dove non can- in Naples, rens’ song), and there he came on his last summer, tò mai più da quella sera infausta. Ci tornava in the district too: he died in 1921 from a kidney infection, while però ogni estate in villeggiatura, “Napoli - di- of Doganella, he was staying at the Vesuvio hotel in Naples. He ceva – mi attira come il canto di una sirena”, only 48 years old. He is buried in Naples, in the very near to the was compresa l’ultima, nel 1921, quando una madistrict of Doganella, very near to the grave of the grave of the lattia all’apparato respiratorio lo fermò in una great Italian artist Totò. Among the most beautiful delle stanze dell’albergo Vesuvio. Aveva solo great Italian tributes to Caruso, the movie Fitzcarraldo by Wern48 anni. È sepolto a Napoli, alla Doganella, a artist Totò er Herzog –the wonderful story about a music lover poca distanza dalla tomba di Totò. Tra i più bei tributi in (played by Klaus Kinski) who was so obsessed with Caruso that suo ricordo citiamo un film, Fitzcarraldo, di Werner Herzog he allowed a lyric theatre to be built in the deep Amazon rainfor- la fantastica storia di un melomane (interpretato da Klaus est, so that the tenor could perform there- and Caruso, a song by Kinski) ossessionato da Caruso al punto da voler costruire, Lucio Dalla that is famous everywhere in the world and which un teatro lirico nella profonda foresta amazzonica per farlo this Italian singer wrote in 1986 to commemorate him. But the esibire - e una canzone celebre in tutto il mondo, Caruso, memory of this great artist is still alive above all in the recordche Lucio Dalla gli ha dedicato nel 1986. Ma soprattutto ings he made for the Victor recording label (now RCA Records), restano le sue incisioni per la Victor (ora Rca), frutto di uno which resulted from his extraordinary intuition and creativity straordinario intuito proiettato nel futuro. that seemed already to be projected to the future. 132 Capri | The Divine Coast