December 6, 1919 MUSICAL AMERICA 3

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Famous Coloratura, Returned to U. S. After a Long Ab­ sence, Tells of War Work in Italy and France-Decor­ ated by Two Governments -E~tablished Hospital for Con!'!umptive Soldiers. §y CLARE PEELER . ILKIE CtJLLiNS would begin the W story this way: 11 The Elcene, a private sitting room in the Beiievue­ Stratford, Philadelphi~L The Tim~, a iat~ sprirtg afterrtoort lrt 1913. The Per­ sonages; a Manager, a Secretary, a Woman Wr,iter, artd One Other.;; Suddenly there rushed into the room a little, phifilP; bright-faced, chestnut­ haired womarl, witii big g!llden-browrt eyes that were darteiiig with excitement. She hurried over to th~ open wirtddw and-no, dear reader, .. she didnit thrtiw herself. out; but orte spt!ctator, then tin­ used to the ways df the te;npenimerttai, thought she was g9iiig t5· artd that what was a great enough even£ to thil said !Jrt­ looker already was going to be made greater by the sensational suicide of a great coloratura. For the little woman 1-Luisa Tetrazzini, Noted Soprano. No. 2-Mme. Tetrazzini "Carries On" was Luisa Te_trazzini, and the commotion During t he Recent London Railway Strike. No. 3-The Singer Photographed grew out of the fact that a band was on Landing in t he United States Last Week passing, which the soprano insisted was "soldiers." Finally convinced against her manage beautifully. But you see she's ly, "No." The fatigue of traveling, the will that there were no soldiers, she so big-hearted and so fond of having her incessant demands of opera have disposed sighed out, settling herself in the corner friends about her that Heaven only her in favor of concert. "It is not w of the sofa, "Forgive me, Madame. We knows how big the troupe will be by that expensive," she says with a twinkle, for will now talk-"es? I am so excite; I time. However, one thing one can al­ she is as readily moved to laughter as to think it was the soldier. Ah, how I ways count on, Madame's good humor. tears. "I buy one costume, and it is good love-a the soldier!" She's the nicest person! No matter for one, two, six, eight concert. But Many, many times has Tetrazzini's what happens, she's as jolly as a lark.'' opera!" And she lifts her eyes expres­ love of "the soldier" since that spring But it is a mistake to assume that the sively to heaven. One of the last times afternoon six years ago found its expres­ singer is an untutored good-natured that she appeared in Europe was at a sion in compassion, in tender sympathy songbird, with no thorough knowledge Trieste performance of "Rigoletto," with and in all the help. that her singing could even of her own specialty. She can and Titta Ruffo irt the name part, for the give. For throughout the wo1:ld war the does take an opera for practice, and sings Red Cross. As the performance netted famous soprano has given herself gen­ every part in· it, transposing the men's the cause 100,000 crowns, it is to be as­ erously to the cause of the wounded and the contralto parts, of course. No sumed that her popul~rity in opera has among the soldiers of her country and of "untutored" or "unmusical" person is remained the same. France. Both countries have shown her apt to find amusement in that species of It seems a pity to lose her vivid per­ highest honor in gratitude. Set in dia­ diversion, it would seem. And she has sonality from the music-drama. She is monds, the Royal Italian Cross, given her been very thoroughly schooled in the art like all Italians, intensely dramatic. by Queen . Elena, glistens, and next it of singing by actual lessoning only, it is When she spoke of her debut in the role hangs what she perhaps values even Photo Ba4n Newa said, for six months; but when one has of Violetta, and of singing in the third more, the medal of the Red Cross for a prima donna for a sister, Italo Cam­ act, she immediately assumed the pose on the wounded! Once I sing to a boy. He the sofa, immediately looked Violetta, as distinguished service. France made her have not the arm; he have-a no leg. panini, at one time the greatest of a member of the Institute de Beaux Arts. tenors, for one, brother~in-law, and c:eo­ much as so "plump and pleasing" a per­ Just he have the face and the nice bt'ight son could. I expected her to demand an It was not an unusual event in her eye. And he say to me, 'Madame; go fonte, the impresario-conductor, for an­ career that a concert that she gave after other, and one's own voice develops at .Alfredo from me on the spot. away for half an hour and come back.' "Will you give from me a message to the war in Paris netted for the Red Cross And when I come back! Oh, my dear, three, one can hardly remain ignorant half a million francs, nor that the Queen of the art of singing if one tried. my, dear American people?" she asked he have-a the arms, the legs, and he instead. "Will you tell them that I am of Roumania had Marshal Foch as a box say, 'See, I show you,' and he light-a the When Patti died, last September, Lon­ guest; nor that the wives of the Presi­ don assumed the attitude of "The queen so ver' happy to come back to them?" cigarette. They have make him the Ecco1a! dents of the France and of the United what you call, yes, the artificial arm and is dead; long live the queen!" But not States lent their presence. Mme. Tet­ leg. And he smile at me, and I cannot so the woman whom Adelina Patti had razzini is, as the Paris E xcelsior re­ speak for a while. Then I sing to him herself openly acclaimed as her successor BRILLIANT OPENING OF marked, "accustomed to sing before as I nevare sing to anyone in all my after Tetrazzini's first appearance in THE RUBINSTEIN CLUB queens." It is much more surprising life.'' 1907 at Covent Garden. that this little person who travels in She has not changed at all in these Weeps Over Patti's Death Huge Audience at Season's Inaugural state that is close to pomp, who has all years in the bubbling, childish mirth of Recital Gr eets Galli-Curci with luxuries that the artist nature almost her at the little things of life; in her "I was singing at Leeds," she said, the Marked Enthusiasm invariably demand~ , that such an one overflowing jollity and graciousness. She tears thick in her eyes, "when somebody should sing for hours to men so repul­ sang at Venice when the bombs were come and say, 'Patti, she is dead.' Just If the o.pening concert of the Rubin­ sively wounded that she shudders when dropping into the city, and she seems quick like that. Oh, I feel, I feel, I feel stein Club was an augury of its com­ she now recalls their poor faces, so to have enjoyed it thoroughly. " The -I cannot tell you. I cry for three days. ing season, the augury was an auspi­ maimed that they were helpless. cannons were going boom, boom!" she That great, that wonderful woman! That cious one. The audience that gathered to hear Mme. Amelita Galli-Curci, at Singing for Wounded said delightedly. "And people they say voice! And so good to me, I cannot tell to me, 'Why do you not go back to Flor­ you. Ouf! I love Patti. Just the same the Waldorf on Thursday afternoon, "Oh, how I cry!" she said to me last ence? You are Florentine; go to your as mother she act to me. After my first Nov. 22, overflowed every available bit week when in her room at the Knicker­ own city. We are afraid for you.' But night in Covent Garden she comes to me of space, and was as profuse in its ex­ bocker in New York we renewed our ac­ I say, 'No! I can stay here if you can.'" and says, 'You are the Patti now.' And pressions of approval as it was in point quaintance of six years ae-o. "When she brings me to her hotel to the Ritz, of numbers. the war begin and first I sing, I cry all How She Travels and says to all the gentlemen and ladies, Mrs. William Rogers Chapman, pres­ the time for a year to see the soldier To sing in New York on Sunday, Nov. 'This is my Luisa.' I knelt down and ident of the Rubinstein Club, and her so hurt. But then, afterward!" 30, and in San Francisco on Sunday, Dec. kissed her hand, as if she was queen assisting officers have held high musical She gave that most expressive little 7, is something of a record, but it is one and she look like a little queen, I tell standards for their organization, and the shrug of hers; that goes with lifted eye­ which opens Tetrazzini's visit to this y.ou. Not big, but so like a queen. And results are abundantly evident in the brows and outspread hands; the most country. I aske~ her manager who was always after that when I sing in London worth of the programs presented and the Latin thing, instinct with resignation, going with her, and he heaved a sigh. I get from her the letter, the telegram, support they have won from earnest to queer human nature. "One personal representative, one lady always at Christmas the beautiful cards. musicians. "Afterward, maybe I care just-a so secretary, one baggage master, one ac­ She was my dear, dear friend. And Mme. Galli-Curci was assisted in her much, but I no cry any more. I work-a companist, one maid, and one little dog," now--" program by Manuel Berenguer, flautist, too hard to cry." Mr. Daiber said feelingly. "'Mayo Wad­ Again the expressive Latin shrug. and Homer Samuels, pianist, who in Mme. Tetrazzini left her pretty little · ler, the violinist; Warren Proctor, the "Now it is all gone, that wonderful addition to providing accompaniments home at Lugano when her country en­ tenor, and my wife and I are going, in­ voice, that god heart, that noble woman for the singer, appeared in the Chami­ tered the war. "I not want to stay in · cidentally." -And I, well, 'I stay here a while and nade Concerto in D Minor. The prima Switzerland when my country he go to The small dog she had acquired in then it will be my turn to go- -." donna's offerings included a Fifteenth war," she remarked. Near Milan she es­ emulation of her sister, Mme. Campanini, I think it is not very often that one Century French song, "L' Amour de tablished a hospital for the soldiers who who "has one just like him." He was an sees a woman and a singer weep heartily Moi," a group of Bergerettes of the had contracted tuberculosis, and here she animal of charming manners,, but labored at the death of another woman singer. Eighteenth Century, and songs by De­ worked for a long time. under the unfortunate delusion that Perhaps it may be cynical, but the rarity bussy, Delibes, Auber and Samuels. "They would not let me go away," she ankles were a desirable article of diet. of such a happening was what touched Benedict's "La Capinera" and the said. "I say to them, now I sing-a I commiserated the manager on his pros­ one even more than the thing itself. "Shadow Song" from "Dinorah" were· given with flute obbligato. She was· in enough. You will go to sleep. They pects, but he said cheerfully: Will Not Sing in Opera catch my dress (she illustrated on mine "Oh, bless you, that's nothing!. If she splendid voice and responded to encores how they did it) they say, 'Oh, Madame doesn't add more than ten to the bunch Asked whether she will appear in with a number of additional offerings. please stay and sing? And I stay. But before we get to San Vrancis~o, w~'ll opera, Mme. Tetrazzini said emphatical- M.S.