Born in Naples in Italy in 1873, Enrico Caruso was a pioneer of recorded music and has become acknowledged as probably the greatest tenor of all time. Having made his debut in Naples in 1895 he went to America in 1902 and linked with the New York Metropolitan Opera. His first recordings in 1904 created a sensation, and over the next sixteen or so years his royalties amounted to a phenomenal £500,000, a measure of the millions of records he had sold during his lifetime. Indeed, it was sales of his discs that established the entire record industry. His death in 1921 triggered international mourning on a scale not seen again until the death of Elvis Presley more than fifty years later.