How Scotti Perfects a Master R6le

February 10, 1~17 M U S ·I CAL AMERICA 3 HOW SCOTTI PERFECTS A MASTER R6LE Famous Metropolitan Baritone Gives the Interviewer a Tabloid Demonstration of the Process by Which .He Has Worked Out the Details of Operatic Acting in His Memorable Interpretation of "Scarpia" in ''Tosca''_·'Correlation of the Musical and Dramatic Elements in the Opera's Tense Second Act Antonio Scotti as He Appears in Real Life and as Portrayed by the Sculptor's Art. The Center Pic"ture Shows Mr; Scotti During a Studious Hour in His Living Room. The Other Figures Are Photographic Reproductions, from Different Angles, of a Bust of the Noted Baritone as "Scarpia" by the Neapolitan Sculp tor,' Cifariello, and Now on Exhibition at the Canessa Galleries, I West Fiftieth Street, New York F all the scenes in grand opera there ing word from Puccini concerning the two more acts than the opera contains, reproducing for you the way in which 0 is none which possesses more concen premiere of "Tosca" in Italy, but in the and in one of these Scarpia appears be -now and then with swift play of voice interchange of congratulatory greetings fore Queen Caroline. She asks him · if or gesture-he visualized for us the trated, vivid drama-call it melodrama, with the composer following the "Bo he has captured Angelotti and he replies whole scene. If such a reproduction if you will-than does the second act of heme" performance,' there was no mes that the conspirator has eluded him. In could be made, it would constitute a "Tosca." Of the contributors to that sage· from Puccini to Scotti. In the intense anger the Queen then declares practical treatise on the interpretation drama the most vital one is undeniably meantime Maurice Grau had been urg that if he does not succeed in apprehend of Scarpia in this act. ing Scotti to come to New York, and, not ing Angelotti, she will remove him from Chief of the impressions which we the character of Scarpia. Among the hearing from Puccini, Scotti signed a his post as chief of Rome's police. ft>rmed from thi§! analysis was that of many baritones who have sung this role contract to appear at the Metropolitan. the skill with which he fills out the pauses there has been none who has excelled Thus the premiere of "Tosca" was The Desperate "Scarpia" where there is no vocal part and where Antonio Scotti (and who has equalled given' with another baritone, Giraldoni, ' 1When Scarpia is revealed at the be · the libretto gives no directions as to Scarpia's stage business. In each case him?) in the delineation of the part. as Scarpia, and it was not till consider .ginning of Act Two in the opera, he has ably later, in London, that Scotti first just come from this audience with the he showed us how he contrived some It was for these reasons, then, that we played the part. He attacked the role in Queen and is smarting under her rebuke. action which was natural, logical and sought out Mr. Scotti the other day and the same fresh state of mind as if he had Therefore, you must go below the mere entirely within the picture. In one spot, asked him to tell us something of the way been, . indeed, creating it as the composer ly superficial to understand the ill temper while seated at his table, he sips a glass in which he had coordinated the dramatic had wished, for he had seen but one per of Scarpia as I play him in this scene. of wi;ne reflectively. "Or," he added, "I and musical elements of the part. We formance of the opera, having journeyed He is exasperated by the unsatisfactory may brush my lips with the napkin as I felt that what he would have to say to Genoa for the purpose. reports from his agents of their search · sit thinking-different bits in different would not only be of interest to students for Angelotti, and his ruthless treatment performances, as the mood dictates. In of opera as a profession, but might prove The Public as Judge of Tosca and Cavaradossi is due not only such a situation, using the same business illuminating to opera-goers in general as When Scotti and Puccini finally came to the brutality of the man, but to his every time would mean mechanical act showing "how the wheels go 'round" in together again the baritone learned from desperate feeling that he must learn the ing. It is because of this varying the the mechanism of operatic acting. the Maestro that the latter's failure to whereabouts of Angelotti from them or action with the moods that one perform Summing up the impressions of our communicate with Scotti_:__as he had been lose his position. ance in the part may seem to the au conversation with the noted baritone, we expected to do-was due to the troubled "Again, in my costuming of the part I dience better than another." would point out that Scotti's interpre condition of his mind in connection with draw upon Sardou's play. The music At another moment, two or three meas tation of Scarpia is the most perfect type his finishing the composition of "Tosca.'; that you hear through the window in ures of orchestral music fin.! Scar1Jia of art in that, without sacrifice of spon Puccini had sent the score for the inspec the second act comes from the reception walking a few paces along the floor, con taneity, it is so carefully thought out, to tion of his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, and of Queen Caroline, which is shown in the templatively, while a similar pause in the minutest detail. When one listens to the latter had informed him that he liked comredia and at which Scarpia has his the voice part a . second later is accom the second act of "Tosca," the various the opera in general, but felt that the audience with the Queen. Now, my cos panied .with a continuation of the same bits of the action dovetail into each other last act "would not do." Puccini there tume in the second act is what Scarpia business-always spontaneous in effect with such ·absolute naturalness that one upon went to Milan and played over the wore at this reception, and is the· same and preserving the continuity of the never has the slightest feeling that these final act for Ricordi, who, with the added as the first-act costume, except that I whole. Further, his 'movements are so apparently spontaneous effects have been insight into the composer's interpretation wear a special set of buttons, appropriate synchronized with the music that it worked. out with sueh premeditation and was more favorably impressed with the to the occasion and to Scarpia's office, seems as if the composer had written care. It is this "art concealing art" that opera's closing scene-although not en and a _jewelled order around the neck, that part of the score as a setting to makes Scotti's Scarpia · a model of thusiastic. When it came to the premiere, also smted to the character.'' this very action, and yet it is not in the operatic portraiture. however (as Mr. Scotti told us), the first Mr. Scotti is scrupulously exact in all least mechanical. Changes in , Interpretation two acts were received in a lukewarm details of costume, properties, etc. "These Timing the Action 'manner by the public, and .it was the buttons," he added, "are entirely correct · Mr. Scotti informed us that his inter enthusiasm generated by the last act for the period of the opera, as I have Mr. Scotti is so saturated with the pretation of the part had undergone which made the opera a success. copied them from designs in a collection music of the entire opera that he al many changes since he first started sing As has been said, Mr. Scotti's concep that I possess. You might think that it most sub-consciously times the action to ing it. ·"I'm rather amused," said he, tion of Scarpia has constantly been was not worth while to bother about such the music. For instance, he fits the "when I think of some of the details in broadening since he first undertook the details, but if . they are noted by only business to one orchestral passage so my earlier impersonation, for, of course, role. In studying the character he has five or six in the audience, I am content, neatly that just as the final note of this an artist's ideas of a part broaden as his not been content with digging out of the for I feel that· I satisfy myself-that is passage is played he sinks into a seat art matures." libretto and the music every bit of light the ·essential consideration." with an effect just like that of a period It was Puccini's wish that Scotti should that seemed to illumine the action of which punctuates a sentence. He is create Scarpia in the world premiere of the sintster Baron-he has gone further A Treatise on the Part also able, on occasion, to give 9ne of his his opera, but this Wll-S prevented by· a back than that. "I do not rely merely on After Mr. Scotti had given us some of fellow players a hint as to the exact misunderstanding between the two men the score," he informed u·s, "for I base his ideas concerning Scarpia he took up moment for a particular bit of business.

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