The Great Caruso (Blu-ray)

[Derek McGovern]

With the Blu-ray release of The Great Caruso scheduled for March 9, 2021, I've decided to create a separate thread for this exciting development.

Please post any news and (eventual) reviews about the Blu-ray here.

In the meantime, it's still not possible to preorder the disc at Amazon, but I would imagine the situation will change as we get closer to the release date.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08VCFV39V 

[Derek McGovern]

P.S. Previous posts about The Great Caruso Blu-ray can be read here.

[Derek McGovern]

I was excited to read Derek Mannering's glowing review today of the blu-ray of The Great Caruso:

"I received an advance copy of the "The Great Caruso" on Blu-ray from Warner Bros. last week and I am delighted to report that the visual quality of the remastered edition is stunning. The colors are so vivid that there were times I felt I was seeing the movie for the very first time. It's that good.

"A menu bar on the disc allows you to jump directly to every musical track in the film and it was thrilling to hear Mario's voice ring out from such a pristine print."

https://www.quicktopic.com/30/H/ECKcxtRbxUTNy

This is fantastic news! Roll on March 9!

[Derek McGovern]

I see that the Blu-ray of The Great Caruso is now available for pre-ordering.  Hooray!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08VCFV39V 

[Steff Walzinger]

This might be interesting for those of you who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Blu-ray:

"The Great Caruso’ Blu-Ray Review – Mario Lanza Brings An Opera Legend To Life In This Crowd Pleasing Hit" by Dillon Gonzales:

https://geekvibesnation.com/the-great-caruso-blu-ray-review-mario-lanza-brings-an-opera-legend-to-life-in-this-crowd-pleasing-hit/

It says:

Video Quality:

Warner Archive presents The Great Caruso with an eye-popping new 1080p master transfer in 1.37:1 sourced from a 4K scan of the original Technicolor negatives. Having Warner Archive work with Technicolor films is like a dream come true for Blu-Ray enthusiasts. The level of minute detail and clarity is stunning with a lovely amount of natural film grain intact. The film features some splendid colors within the costumes and settings that pop off the screen with a great vibrancy. The film is practically pristine with no noticeable instances of damage or dirt detected here. The black levels are incredibly deep with a pleasing stability throughout. Compression artifacts, banding and other such issues do not pop up as an issue in this transfer. This presentation is another instance of Warner Archive showing why they are one of the best labels around. 

Audio Quality:

Warner Archive has served up a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio presentation that is a show stopper. Music is the lifeblood of this picture, and this track handles it beautifully with nothing ever sounding blown out or unstable. Lanza’s voice has never sounded better than on this disc. Dialogue comes through clearly from beginning to end without ever being overshadowed by competing elements. Every element seems to present with a nice fidelity, as all sounds are clearly defined and in balance. This is a track that thankfully does not exhibit any glaring signs of age-related wear-and-tear. Warner Archive has knocked it out of the park. The disc comes with optional English (SDH) subtitles.

[Derek McGovern]

Thanks a lot, Steff, for posting this glowing review. I'm now more excited than ever about the Blu-ray, and hope that our members will post their own assessments of it here once they've received it. 

I'm expecting my copy around the middle of next week (at the earliest), but I'm sure some of our members will have received it before then, since it's being released in just a few hours.

Exciting times indeed! 

[Derek McGovern]

Has anyone who ordered this Blu-ray from Amazon actually received word that their copy has shipped yet? Mine hasn't, and I preordered it weeks ago! Very irritating.

I can only assume that demand for this Blu-ray has temporarily outstripped supply. If I'm right, that could bode well for other Lanza releases, such as Serenade. 

[Armando Cesari]

Hi Derek,

Mine shipped on the 9th. Estimated arrival is the 19th but should arrive earlier.

On Thu, 11 Mar 2021 at 01:38, Derek McGovern <derek.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

Has anyone who ordered this Blu-ray from Amazon actually received word that their copy has shipped yet? Mine hasn't, and I preordered it weeks ago! Very irritating.

I can only assume that demand for this Blu-ray has temporarily outstripped supply. If I'm right, that could bode well for other Lanza releases, such as Serenade. 

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[Derek McGovern]

Thanks, Armando. Good to hear that someone outside of the US has received confirmation that it's on its way. Mine still hasn't shipped, despite my preordering it on February 19, but Amazon is claiming an arrival date of between March 17 and 23. 

[Vincent Di Placido]

That review makes me even more excited to see this Blu-ray. Even the tease of those small screenshots shows amazing work has been done. It can't arrive quick enough...

[Vincent Di Placido]

https://youtu.be/Bq28fTnEGn0
Be sure to select 1080p in youtube settings to get the full resolution.

[Derek McGovern]

I hope everyone's checked out Vince's stunning comparison of the Great Caruso Blu-ray and DVD in the above link. Having now seen the Blu-ray myself, I feel exactly as Vince does about this new release. In fact, I was astonished by all the things I'd failed to appreciate in the past about this wonderful film (thanks, no doubt, to all the muddy versions I'd unwittingly watched!), whether it was Mario's acting (more subtle than it's been given credit for, now that his expressive features are clearer than ever), the performances of not only the Caruso entourage, but also of those in tiny roles, or the sheer craftmanship on display here.

There's no doubt in my mind now that The Great Caruso is Mario's finest film, purely as a film. The flawed but compelling Serenade has more meat on its bones and---for me, at least---an even more impressive musical soundtrack (and that's saying something, given the many superb---and superbly sung---selections in The Great Caruso), but this is a much more consistent movie. One could argue that Toast of New Orleans is equally well constructed, but vocally and musically, of course, it falls far short of the magnificence of The Great Caruso. And that's one of the things that struck me while watching the beautifully restored trailer for the latter, which is included with this Blu-ray. Audiences who only knew Mario's vocal gifts from his first two films must have been startled out of their skins on hearing the likes of the brilliantly sung "Because" and "Vesti la giubba" in the film's trailer. No wonder they flocked to see The Great Caruso from the moment it premiered! There was simply nothing in either That Midnight Kiss or The Toast of New Orleans that could have prepared audiences for the thrill of Lanza's vocal performance here.  

The colours and clarity of the Blu-ray, as we can see in Vince's video above, are a revelation, and the sound also has a clarity that I've never heard before. While I'm probably in the minority in preferring the somewhat richer sound (to my ears) of the old DVD on a few of the numbers---i.e. "La Danza," "Celeste Aida," and "Vesti la giubba"---I've never heard the "Che gelida manina" or "Ave Maria," among other highlights, sound better than they do here. The dialogue is also crisper and clearer than ever before.

One thing amused me when I switched on the English subtitles (a nice bonus, by the way, for the many non-native-English-speaking viewers). When Alfredo (reading the negative review of Caruso's Met debut) quotes the line that ends "too bourgeois to be palatable," the word "palatable" is annoyingly missing, as it has been for decades now on the 16mm print, laserdisc, VHS, and DVD, but the funny thing is that the subtitle states "speaks in a foreign language" at this point! Clearly, whoever provided the subtitles did not have the screenplay at hand and had no idea what Alfredo was actually saying here.

Anyway, if you haven't ordered the Blu-ray yet, but have the means to play such discs, then I wholeheartedly recommend ordering this magnificent release.  

[Peter Danish]

Thanks for the review!  Can't wait for mine to arrive!  

Best,

Peter

Peter Danish
(845)480-2273 
pe...@danishmediagroup.com    
www.peterdanish.com

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[María Teresa Camp Gozalbo]

Lo tengo en mi carrito de compra de Amazon México, lo compraré el día dos de abril. Estoy más que feliz. vi la comapración con las dos versiones que tengo, VHs y DVD, este nuevo es excelente. 

Gracias a todos los que siguen siendo admiradores de nuestro Mario.

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[Tessa1111]

I was 5 years old when I saw this movie, and remembered it fondly all this time.  His voice is the only tenor voice my perfect pitch can tolerate.  So grateful for all the vids and audios, cds/dvds etc. so I can continue to enjoy his work.  He sang more opera than most.

[Tessa1111]

Does anyone possibly know who the baby was in the "Because" scene, the Great Caruso.  Saw a little one in a crib in family photos Mario Lanza.tenor website, and she looked very much like the cutie with the curl in Mario Lanza's arms.  He was so sweet with her.

[Verna XXX]

I remember the child's name was mentioned in a contemporary press article about The Great Caruso, but don't remember what it was (it meant nothing to me, and didn't appear to be a relation of Mario's or any other Hollywood identity). Perhaps someone who has a subscription to a US newspaper clipping service can check for you?