Peter Herman Adler was hired as a technical advisor for the film and served as voice coach for Mario Lanza.[5] Adler also supervised the recording of the film's music.[6]
Although The Great Caruso follows most of the basic facts of Caruso's life, several of the characters and incidents are fictional. Because of this, the Caruso family in Italy successfully sued MGM for monetary damages, and the studio was temporarily ordered to withdraw the film from exhibition in Italy. The factual discrepancies include:
A montage shows the young Caruso in an operatic chorus and singing the secondary tenor role of Spoletta in Puccini's opera Tosca. Caruso never sang in an opera chorus, nor did he ever appear in a supporting role.
In the film, Caruso makes his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Verdi's Aida and is met with silence from the audience and scathing critical reviews. In reality, Caruso's Met debut in Rigoletto was well-received and he became an immediate favorite with New York audiences and critics.
Opera impresario Giulio Gatti-Casazza is depicted as the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera at the time of Caruso's debut there in 1903. In reality, Gatti-Casazza did not arrive at the Met until 1908, five years after Caruso's debut.
In the film, Caruso and Dorothy Park Benjamin appear to meet at the time of his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1903 and marry after Caruso's long world tour, but they actually met in 1917 and Caruso never made any such tour.
Caruso's clandestine relationship with married Italian soprano Ada Giachetti that produced two sons is not depicted or mentioned in the film.
At the end of the film, Caruso appears to die on the stage at the Met after a throat hemorrhage during a performance of Martha. Caruso's hemorrhage actually occurred during a Met performance of L'elisir d'amore at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on December 11, 1920. He did not die until August 2, 1921 in Naples, possibly of peritonitis.
During production, director Richard Thorpe was quoted as saying: "'The Great Caruso' is as authentic as we can make it and maintain interest. We cannot pay too much attention to the actual chronology, but as far as possible the film is biographical. Maybe we'll get letters complaining about certain things, but we can justify them."[6]
Release
The film premiered on April 26, 1951 in Cincinnati, which was selected because of the area's overwhelmingly positive reaction to Mario Lanza's recent concert there.[1]
The film's general release was timed for National Music Week, May 6–12, 1951.[7] It opened at Radio City Music Hall in New York on May 10, 1951.[2]
Lanza embarked on a planned 20-city concert tour in January 1951 that was intended to promote the film.[10] However, he was forced to cancel at least eight of the concerts when he became ill with pleurisy.[11]
All of the silliest, sappiest clichés of musical biography have been written by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig into the script. And Richard Thorpe has directed in a comparably mawkish, bathetic style. Caruso, according to this picture, was just a boyish, lighthearted troubadour who lost that heart the very first day that he arrived in romantic New York. And the little lady to whom he lost it only happened to be the schoolgirl daughter of a rock-ribbed Maecenas of the Metropolitan Opera House. So his extra-curricular activity, according to this film, was simply that of pursuing the little lady, against her father's wishes, until finally she was his. ... Something better—much better—as a story might have been contrived for the biography of Caruso, and something more subtle, too. ... Likewise, the performance of the romance—even that—should have been much better, too. Mr. Lanza is pleasantly amusing, but he behaves like a bumptious boy.[2]
It is the musical of musicals from a film standpoint—the greatest montage of song ever observed and heard that has emerged from a studio. It is also Mario Lanza in top form as a star, and with every opportunity to display his special gifts to advantage. ... The picture is fabulously staged and costumed, and luxuriantly bedecked with Technicolor photography. It is unquestionably one of the most opulent productions of its type. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has achieved a milestone in novelty and thrilling interest that should certainly stir a lagging box office. ... It also is a radiant panorama of operatic scenes, and even though these unfold in kaleidoscopic fashion, with never much lingering on most of the episodes, musically the film carries remarkable impact, because it is toneful in a grand and spectacular film way.[12]
The Great Caruso was an enormous success at Radio City Music Hall in New York, grossing $1,390,943 in ten weeks, the highest in the theater's history at the time. The record stood for ten years until Fanny surpassed the film's gross in 1961.[13]
According to MGM records, the film earned $4,309,000 in theatrical rentals in the U.S. and Canada and $4,960,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $3,977,000.[3] The film was also the most popular at the British box office for 1951.[14]
Soundtrack
The Great Caruso record album, although not a true film soundtrack, was issued by RCA Victor on the LP, 45 and 78 RPM formats. The album featured eight popular tenor opera arias (four of which were heard in the film) sung by Lanza, accompanied by Constantine Callinicos conducting the RCA Victor Orchestra. The album sold 100,000 copies before the film premiered and later became the first operatic LP to sell one million copies. After its original 1951 release, the album remained continuously available on LP until the late 1980s and was reissued on compact disc by RCA Victor in 1989.[citation needed]
Awards
At the 24th Academy Awards ceremony, Douglas Shearer and the MGM sound department won the Academy Award for Best Sound. The Great Caruso also received nominations for its costume design and score.[15]
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