Enrico Caruso

Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy

Last updated 8/27/2026

Enrico Caruso became one of the first major recording artists in history, and his early 20th-century phonograph recordings, made when the technology was still commercially unproven, are widely credited with helping establish recorded music as a legitimate and commercially viable mainstream medium. His powerful, richly colored tenor voice made him the most celebrated opera singer of the early 20th century, and Caruso's regular performances at New York's Metropolitan Opera over nearly two decades established him as opera's first genuinely international recording-era celebrity. Caruso's commercial recording success generated substantial royalties that helped demonstrate to a skeptical music industry that recorded classical and operatic music could achieve genuine mass-market commercial viability, directly influencing the broader recording industry's subsequent investment in classical artists. His combination of genuine vocal artistry and his foundational role in establishing recorded music's commercial legitimacy has made Caruso one of the most historically significant figures in both opera and the broader development of the recording industry itself.

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