# Just got a nice addition to my autograph collection



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

The date is 1919 and it was signed in New York City. Was he singing a particular role at the Met in 1919?


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

bigshot said:


> View attachment 77762
> 
> 
> The date is 1919 and it was signed in New York City. Was he singing a particular role at the Met in 1919?


Did you buy that in eBay ore at a store?
Do you trust that kind of sale?


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I bought it at eBay. Authentic Caruso signatures are pretty easy to identify.


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Eh, buying autograph is no fun, it's all in getting the signature personally. 

Ofc getting one from Caruso wouldn't be easy today, but for real fan, nothing is impossible.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

My treasures are personal letters and signed pictures from Magda Olivero who I always sent a birthday card to and got wonderful responses.
She brought more happiness to the world and lived to 104. Not a bad life.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Mine; a signed picture of Renée Fleming.

I was 1994 and I was 8 years old.
Later I showed it to her when she visited Amsterdam, to do the Handel disc promotion recital .

And yes, a Christmas wish every year


----------



## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Very nice. I'd like to find a Callas signed photo some time, but they're outrageously priced and I assume the area is full of fakes. I'd need to seriously educate myself before I tried that.


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

If you set up an automated search at eBay and lurk for a while, you can easily figure out the fakes. There really aren't that many of them. You can also look for "Make Offer" sales and lowball. (I do that a lot.) My musical autograph collection consists of Leopold Stokowski, Enrico Caruso, Lauritz Melchior, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong.


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

bigshot said:


> The date is 1919 and it was signed in New York City. Was he singing a particular role at the Met in 1919?


Caruso sang many, many roles at the Met in 1919.

Does that say April 4, 1919? If so it was a day after a Verdi Festival, where he sang Radamès in Act 3 of Aida. And the day before he sang Samson in the opera by Camille Saint-Saëns (conducted by Pierre Monteux with Margarete Matzenauer as Dalila). It's also not long after his 25th Anniversary Gala, on March 22, during which he sang Nemorino, Canio, and Jean de Leyde (one act each).

In that 1918-19 season Caruso sang all of those roles (in the full operas) along with Don Alvaro (_Forza_ was first seen at the Met in November 1918, with Rosa Ponselle making her house debut), Rodolfo, Flammen (_Lodoletta_), Lionel (_Martha_), and Don José.

The 1919-20 season opened with _Tosca_, with Caruso as Cavaradossi. He would also repeat many of the roles from the previous season, plus Eléazar (_La Juive_) and Des Grieux (_Manon Lescaut_).

The Met Archives is a great database for such things!


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> Caruso sang many, many roles at the Met in 1919.
> 
> Does that say April 4, 1919? If so it was a day after a Verdi Festival, where he sang Radamès in Act 3 of Aida. And the day before he sang Samson in the opera by Camille Saint-Saëns (conducted by Pierre Monteux with Margarete Matzenauer as Dalila). It's also not long after his 25th Anniversary Gala, on March 22, during which he sang Nemorino, Canio, and Jean de Leyde (one act each).
> 
> ...


Versatile, to say the least. From Nemorino and Rodolfo to Canio and Samson. I think Otello would have come next, and maybe even Tristan.


----------

