The Great Caruso The Great Caruso The Great Caruso is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and starring Mario Lanza as the great operatic tenor Enrico Caruso. It was directed by Richard Thorpe, and produced by Joe Pasternak, with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer, from a screenplay by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig. The original music was by Johnny Green, and the cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg. Costume design was by Helen Rose and Gile Steele. The film is a highly fictionalized biography of the life of Caruso. The film also features a large number of Metropolitan Opera stars, notably sopranos Teresa
Enrico Caruso prominent Neapolitan singers taught by Lombardi were the baritones Antonio Scotti and Pasquale Amato, both of whom would go on to partner Caruso at the Met, and the tenor Fernando De Lucia, who would also appear at the Met and later sing at Caruso's funeral. Money continued to be in short supply for the young Caruso. One of his first publicity photographs, taken on a visit to Sicily in 1896, depicts him wearing a bedspread draped like a toga since his sole dress shirt was away being laundered. At a notorious early performance in Naples, he was booed by a