First up on our musical odyssey is the Enrico Caruso recording of the Neapolitan classic "O Sole Mio". The song was written in 1898 and talks about what a nice day it is outside and the sun is shining but hey! There's an even better sun and it is your shining face. The song is closely associated with the late great 'Juicy' Luciano Pavarotti but we are listening to Enrico Caruso's 1916 recording. Caruso was kind of a big deal back in the day, having had performed that the Met a boatload of times and being one of those big opera-type personalities. Caruso himself was Neapolitan, so I guess this song hits him in the feels. So here is what we think:
Holly:
"I really appreciated his understated singing of this piece, because lots of people try to way overdo it with whole Napolitano thing. I quite liked his voice, and I felt like it was a cool kind of dated. Wont be buying his album, but I definitely really enjoyed it. I gave it a 4/5 because I found it very pleasing. Not life changing though."
Kelly:
" Some times I feel like it’s hard to judge something when the recording quality is so old/bad/dated, but Caruso was a big deal at the time and you can see tell why. He’s not my favourite tenor timbre (Domingo will forever hold that place in my heart) and he has the crazy sheep-vibrato that was big at the time, but his singing is great - and the song is a classic. I don’t know that I would rush out and buy a Caruso album, but I can appreciate his performance. 3.5/5"
The general consensus here is that it's a great version of a great song, but one that we won't be rushing to the ol' record-mart to pick up. Have a listen:
O Sole Mio - Enrico Carusa
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