I have posted a biographical sketch of Caruso elsewhere on the site, so this page is for Johanna Gadski.
The dramatic soprano studied in Stettin, and made an early debut (1889) at the Kroll Opera, Berlin, singing there and elsewhere in Germany for the next five years. In 1895 she began a successful three-year association with the Damrosch Opera Company in the USA, and from 1899 to 1901 was active at Covent Garden and at Bayreuth. Between 1900 and 1917, however, her main centre was the Metropolitan, with whose company (after a previous appearance as Elisabeth in Tannhä:user on tour in Philadelphia, on December 28, 1899) she made her house debut on January 6, 1900 as Senta. She became one of its most valuable Brünnhildes and Isoldes, excelling also in many Verdi roles such as Aida, Leonora (Il trovatore) and Amelia. After the USA’s declaration of war on Germany, her reputation suffered during the war hysteria of that time. From 1929 until her death (in a car accident) she was active and successful in a Wagnerian touring company in the USA organized at first by Sol Hurok and then by herself. She sang even the heaviest Wagner roles with unfailing beauty of voice and purity of style, and showed the same qualities in her Italian parts. Her powers are well documented in the large number of records which she made between 1903 and 1917. (Desmond Shawe-Taylor)
Unfortunately, I don’t have any of Gadski’s Wagner recordings, so this (final) duet from Aida with Enrico Caruso will have to do.