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On this day in New York · November 23, 1903

Caruso Debuts at the Met

A Naples-born tenor nobody in the house had heard sing walked onstage as the Duke in Rigoletto and turned the Met into the address every touring voice in Europe wanted next.

The facts

Date
November 23, 1903
Role
The Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto
Co-stars
Marcella Sembrich as Gilda, Antonio Scotti as Rigoletto
Met career
863 appearances with the Metropolitan Opera between 1903 and 1920

On November 23, 1903, Enrico Caruso stepped onto the Metropolitan Opera stage for the first time, cast as the Duke in a new production of Verdi's Rigoletto. He sang opposite Marcella Sembrich as Gilda, with Antonio Scotti as Rigoletto. New Yorkers knew his name only from his reputation in Europe and South America; nobody in that opening-night crowd had actually heard him sing. By the famous Act III quartet, they had, and the house wanted more. Caruso stayed on as the Met's leading tenor for the rest of his life, and the recordings he was cutting for the Victor Talking Machine Company around these same years carried that voice into parlors and phonograph shops far from 39th Street.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. When Enrico Caruso made his Metropolitan Opera debut on November 23, 1903 as the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto opposite Marcella Sembrich as his Gilda, American audiences marveled on first hearing the rich tones of the unknown tenor resonating in the opening bars of the opera's beloved Quartet.

    The Sembrich, an online history of Marcella Sembrich's career, describing Caruso's Met debut

    Source: The Sembrich

  2. Caruso's career, which lasted from 1895 to 1920, included 863 appearances with the New York Metropolitan Opera (both at the Met and on tour) before his death in 1921 at the age of 48.

    Wikipedia, "Enrico Caruso"

    Source: Wikipedia

Why it still matters

Caruso's contract made the Met the center of American opera almost overnight, and his parallel recording career made him the first singer whose actual voice, not just his name, reached people who would never sit in that house.

Sources

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