Mattinata (Leoncavallo) Mattinata (Leoncavallo) "Do not confuse with songs of the same name by Ottorino Respighi and Paolo Tosti." Mattinata (; English: "Morning") was the first song ever written expressly for the Gramophone Company (the present day HMV). Composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo in 1904, this song was dedicated to Enrico Caruso, who was the first to record it in 1904 with the composer at the piano. Ever since, this piece has become a concert favourite. More than a half-century later this song was recorded by Italian-born tenor Sergio Franchi on his American-debut album, "Romantic Italian Songs" (RCA Victor Red Seal, 1962). In
Enrico Caruso Carlo, Warsaw and Buenos Aires also heard Caruso sing during this pivotal phase of his career and, in 1899–1900, he appeared before the tsar and the Russian aristocracy at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as part of a touring company of first-class Italian singers. The first major operatic role that Caruso was given the responsibility of creating was Loris in Umberto Giordano's "Fedora" at the Teatro Lirico, Milan, on 17 November 1898. At that same theater on 6 November 1902, he created the role of Maurizio in Francesco Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvreur". (Puccini considered