Carenza Collection of Italian recordings donated to the Canadian Museum of CivilizationHull, Quebec, November 8, 2000 — The most important collection of Italian recorded music in Canada — and possibly North America — is being carefully packed and shipped from Toronto to Hull next week. The Carenza Collection has finally found a permanent home at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC), where this unique collection of more than 40,000 recordings will be preserved and made accessible to the Canadian public through exhibitions, research and eventually the Museum's catalogue on the Internet.
It took Frank Carenza and his wife Rose over 50 years to collect the LPs, 78s and 45s that hold the history of Italian music during most of the twentieth century. The recordings once formed the basis of a popular radio programme produced and hosted by Mr. Carenza, but they are now outgrowing the Carenzas' Toronto home, where they fill three rooms. The Carenzas have decided to donate their exceptional collection to the CMC, Canada's national museum of history and culture, for succeeding generations to enjoy.
The Carenza Collection's great value lies in the number of recordings, the completeness of the collection, the periods it covers and the rarity of some of its items. The recordings are in impeccable condition because Mr. Carenza bought two copies of each recording whenever possible, one for playing and one for safekeeping.
The collection contains the first recordings of a young Enrico Caruso in 1902, the first 10-inch records ever released in Italy, the only song ever recorded by movie star Gina Lollobrigida, and virtually everything recorded after 1945 by Italian-Canadians and, in New York, by Italian-Americans. More than a third of the collection is devoted to opera, with complete recordings of most of the greatest operatic performances by the genre's most famous stars. The Carenzas travelled 13 times to Italy to build the collection, which includes rare folk music recordings from all over Italy, some of which were recorded especially for the Carenzas. The collection also includes dramatic readings, performances and soundtracks of the greatest Italian and American movies and Broadway musicals, and Italian post-Second World War pop music.
Countless songs of emigration were a favourite of Mr. Carenza's radio audience for thirty years, from 1950 to 1979, on his programme Weekend in Italy, which was heard across southern Ontario. Popular with the many Italian immigrants recently arrived in Canada, the programme served to meet the newcomers' need for a familiar cultural environment as they strove to adapt to their new society.
Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, praised the Carenzas' generosity and determination to preserve the collection for posterity. "I applaud Mr. and Mrs. Carenza for choosing to keep the collection intact and in Canada when they could have, instead, sold it at auction piece by piece. By donating this extraordinary collection to the Canadian Museum of Civilization, they have ensured that Canadians will enjoy and learn from it well into the future."
"It was put together for Canadians," said Mr. Carenza, "and I believe Canadians should have access to it. This is my life's work — not a question of money. I think of the cultural value of this music, and you can't put a price on that."
The recordings will be used in an exhibition on Italian-Canadians, planned for 2003 at the CMC and curated by Dr. Mauro Peressini, the CMC's South European Programme Curator. Over the coming years the Carenza Collection will be documented, and the catalogue will be made available on the Internet. Eventually, some audio clips may also be added to the catalogue.
"This collection is a gold mine of insight into the cultural heritage of Italian-Canadians and a wonderful research tool," said Dr. Peressini. "The Carenza Collection is not only a testament to the extraordinary attachment of an Italian-Canadian to his roots, but also an outstanding cultural contribution by an Italian-Canadian to Canada."
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