Museo Enrico Caruso

About

The Museum of Enrico Caruso is housed in Villa Bellosguardo, where the tenor lived the last period of his brief yet intense life. He choose this location together with Ada Giachetti, when they were happily in love. "... this hillock - writes Caruso - is not made of earth, it's something irreal, that by miracle has appeared out of nothing without getting contaminated by wordly matters." After a century, the landscapes maintains its fascination, in spite of the transformations that occured. The Villa, one of the few with its original structure, was conceived by Giovanni Antonio Dosio and it's surrounded by a park of eight hectares with Baroque's statues, an Italian garden and olives groves. The Museum displays an extraordinary collection of mementos and relics, gathered during forty years by the Associazione Museo Enrico Caruso di Milano, which tells us about the life of an unique and unrepeatable voice, of one of the most famous Italians in the world. Dresses, programmes, pictures, caricatures, which Caruso draw magnificently, phonographs, personal objects bring the visitor nearer to the enchantment of this voice hearable in the rooms thanks to a refined technology. The dream of Brian Sweeny Fitzcarraldo in the movie "Fitzcarraldo" (1982) of building a theatre in the middle of the Amazonian forest in order to let the Indios know Caruso, seems more real in this place. The Museum is dedicated to the tenor Enrico Caruso, but presents at the same time the starting point to a reflection on the evolution of sound technology and fan worship.

At a glance

• Typical visit: about 1 hour 30 minutes