CARUSO SINGS

Evening Post, Issue 13, 16 January 1936, Page 16

CARUSO SINGS

The golden voice of Enrico Caruso, greatest of all tenors, lives again. Two arias, recorded during his lifetime, are reproduced with modern extended range and amplified orchestration in "Escapade," the Viennese romance. The Caruso numbers are heard in a sequence reproducing his premiere in Vienna in "Rigoletto" at the Imperial Opera. ■ "Questa o Quella" and "La Donne c Mobile," Verdi's two great arias which were held among Caruso's greatest songs, were utilised. The original records, furnished through arrangement with the phonograph company, were used. From these greatly amplified with orchestration specially arranged to give a grand opera volume, the. filmed sound track was <made.

"With modern methods," says Douglas Shearer, director of recording at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, "high fidelity was obtained and with the normal balance of an opera rendition we were able to reproduce the voice of Caruso approximating it in real life more closely than ever before." The new picture is a brilliant comedy romance with William Powell as its hero and introduces Luise Rainer, brilliant Viennese stage star,' to American audiences, as his leading * lady. • Robert Z. Leonard directed, with Frank Morgan, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen, Mady Christians, Laura Hope Crews, Henry Travers, and others of note in the cast.