Newspaper Page Text
ATLANTA, GA„ SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 1913.
CARUSO DEPLORES THE
BLENDING OE EINANCE
AND MUSIC IN AMERICA
musicians, when you do everything
else bo thoroughly? Your hotels are
the wonders of the world, your elea-
trtc signs the despair of Europe
your slwpe, your little towns-'-
many, many things you do are aur
vela of thoroughness. Hut In music
—well—" ■ He shook his head- Anti
ously.
‘There Is owe type of sieger In
America for which I feel a very
great pity/" he sold. "That la the
man or woman who sings In pri
vate for a time, then goes before
the public In concerts to sMoh his
friends crowd. Right awojr ha 1*
told that he has a magnificent mice.
Many persons tell him tint. Then
the mischief is done; for ho be
lieves it. He wanted to believe It
In the first place; but now he Is
sure of It. And what does ha do?
Stops studying. And another vetce
that might have risen to the stand
ard of the artist In time step* and
Is lost to the world.
"Many and many a f uture artist
Is killed In your country by being
told that he has a magnificent
voice—then getting what you call
here the ‘big need,' and quitting
study. Ah, my friend, H to a orime
against Art—Just as It Is a orime
against God. to npoll a gift Ho ha*
given tis!"
Got 12 for Faust.
Money was no consideration with
Caruso when his career was In the
bud.
'Talking of money making," he
said, “here Is what we In Italy
sometimes do. I had studied for
years, studied hard too. Ttian I
appeared In opeia. What do you
think I got? I sang In T/Abantco
Frnnclsoo’ for three nights and got
eighty francs—sixteen dollars In
your money. But 1 did better than
that—or Is It worse than that? The
first time I sang ‘Faust’ I got the
enormous sum of ten francs—Just
two dollars. Mind you, I had stud
ied for years and years—and got
two whole dollars!
"What would an American have
done? I ask you, Hp would have
squared his shoulders, looked at
you with a look to fefll—and then
told you to go somewhere. It would
have hurt him to the quick to sing
‘Faust’ for two dollars. He would
have thought you crazy to ftsk him,
or else that you purposely had
meant te affront hlmi far Av« and
E BNRIOO CARUSO, familiar
spirit of song, Is In Atlanta.
The great tenor will sing In
three operas in this week’s festival
of mnslc: “La Gloconda,” "Tosca,"
and "Manpn Lescaut.”
Caruso, thinking and living In
terms of music, naturally has his
opinion of musical America, an
opinion very much worth while, b«-
cause he Is Caruso.
And that opinion!
In a recent interview he voiced
It, with a shrug of his shoulders,
It Is said.
"Music Is not yet In the program
of life In America,” he said,
Ths shrug of his shoulders was
portentous. It was as if he said:
"The affair is not mine, but your
country’s.”
Thinks Art is Debased.
Financial considerations, he be
lieves, debase the art that In In
music.
"A boy or girl In this country,"
he said, "may show talent for
music. Straightway comes a teach
er. Then the teacher Is told to hur
ry along the pupil—for America
wants results fast. The quicker
the musician butterfly Is evolved
from the cocoon the butter; for
then earning capacity begins. And
so It comes about that lessons are
discontinued years und years before
they should be, and only half a
musician !b thrust on the world.
The making of an artist stop* so
the making of money can start. ..
“Ah, If they only knew that the
making of money was bound to
come—If they would only watt—If
they would only suffer! Drudgery,
self-denial, patience,—all these
things Art asks of her subjects, and
especially In music. To be. a mus
ician means misery—they should
be spelled alike In your language so
that all those who study may un
derstand. But no—you must do
things quickly, as you build your
skyscrapers. Overnight you want
results,—the money-making mania
and the American ljustle which go
hand In hand cloud the real end in
view, and that Is to perfect your
art Years It takes for that, years
full of heartburns and disappoint
ments and suffering, And only
*hose who show capacity for suffer
ing for win the wreaths.
"Why is it that in America you
do things by halves in making your
return
Caruso's Message to Atlanta
Through the Sunday American:
‘ILove to Sing to Your People ’
(|)r and
s
BY ENRICO CARUSO,
The World’s Greatest Tenor.
(By Telegraph to The Sunday American.)
NEW YORK, April 19.—I am glad to be able to tell the good people of Atlanta, through the
columns of The Sunday American, that I love to sing for them. The long season at the Metropol
itan Opera House in New York is never too long for me, for I like to sing here, but whatever regret
I have when it is all over is mixed with a feeling of pleasure that I am to sing again in the South.
Your people in Atlanta are all so cordial, they appreciate the efforts of an artist so warmly
and they do not hesitate to express their feelings. An operatic artist needs such encouragement,
and it is most gratifying and pleasurable to receive it, as I hope I shall once more this year.
I find no great difference between singing in New York and singing in Atlanta. The people
of your Southern city seem to be so musically cultured; they know what is good operatic art, and
I think that all the artists who sing in Atlanta feel the same way as I do about this.
It hardly feels Kl/e being in one of the smaller of the American cities when I am in Atlanta.
Everything is what you Americans call up to date about it. And there is surely a genuine love
of music there. The artist on the stage can feel that. It is something to which he is very sensitive,
and I feel it whenever I am singing in the South.
I sljall sing three times in the week that we are going to be in Atlanta, and that i» anee
oftener than I usually sing in New York. I shall sing Des Grieux in “Manon Lascaut" on the
opening night, Monday; Enzo in “La Gioconda” on Thursday afternoon, and Cavaradoaat in
“Tosca” in the closing Saturday evening.
I am in fine physical condition generally, and the people of Atlanta, if nothing unfortunate
or unforeseen occurs, will hear me at my best, and it is my best that I want to give them.
I want to add a few words of appreciation for the way the week's opera season in Atlanta has
been managed before and will no doubt be managed this year by the Atlanta Music Festival
Association.
These gentlemen, some of whom I have met, have the right feeling for music and the presen
tation of opera in their city, and I know it is largely because of what they have done in the
past and what they cCnthme to do that as much interest is stimulated in the South as is shown
whenever I am there. ,
I have sung in a number of American cities other than New York .and I must say that I never
enjoyed myself in any of them as much as I do in Atlanta. That is one of those things that is a
little hard to explain. In other cities the audiences are appreciative enough and they are also
most cordial, but in your Southern city there is some sort of special satisfaction—that is about the
best way I can put it—in what I and my fellow artists try to do, and I believe everybody feels
it on the stage side of the footlightB. I know I do.
I hope these friendly feelings between myself and the andi
ences that hear me will continue for many years to come.
SUCCESS ASSURED, SAYS COL. PEEL
Col. W. L. Peel, President of the Atlanta Music Festival Association, yesterday gave the fol
lowing statement to The Sunday American:
G RAND OPERA in Atlanta is now a permanent thing. Its annual success is assured.
Atlanta has already fairly won the proud distinction of being the musical center
of the South. Letters from our friends in all parts of the South bear eloquent testimony
to this fact. Many persons and many influences have had a hand in the winning of this
artistic victory, but without any intention to discriminate
unjustly, I can say with trujh that the largest share of
the triumph should go to our local newspapers. For the
gallant part played by The Sunday American I return
unstinted thanks.
—*—I fia—
—
Gatti-Casazza Wires to The
American: ‘Atlanta Will Have
The Best Opera in the World’
BY GIULIO GATTI-CASAZZA
MIS'S .rtLLEM
-DAI5 GAIT
V r® C'KX3 V/ (O <3
Photo by Hlrshburg.
Photo by McCrary.
‘eat singers of the Metropolitan’s
■rsonnel.
The performances will have casts
iual In every respect to those New
ork hears, and the performances, so
r as orchestral ^nd choral support,
•enic splendor and other details, will
> the same.
These operas will bring forward all
ie principal artists of the company,
ith the exception of some of those of
s German wing.
Atlanta, in hearing these operatic
orks of diverse styles and varying
ppeal, in a single week, has as much
iriety and greater artistic efficiency
tan many operatic theaters in Eu-
>pe during an entire season.
Atlanta may he proud of itself, that
is able to absorb with intelligence
,is much operatic music, and the
etropo^tau company finds it a pleas-
re to give its performances in such a
immunity.
CARUSO, SCOTTI AND
BORIA ARRIVE TO-DAY,
AND THE SEASON IS ON
S IGNOR ENRICO CARUSO of the
golden voice, his secretary,
his valet and his lavender walk
ing suit; Signor Antonio Scotti. his
quiet smile and his private recipe for
Scotch highballs, and Mll«. I-ucrezia
Boria will arrive in Atlanta to-day
direct from the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York. They will mo
tor to the Georgian Terrace, take a
beauty nap in their respective suites,
and Atlanta’s fourth grand opera, sea
son will be oft In a gallop. For opera
in Atlanta does not mean merely mu
sic, It means afternoon teas and
after-opera dinner parties and so
many frills and fripperies that the
head of the family Is “broke” for
three months afterward.
These three singers arrive under
the watchful care of “Billy” Guard,
the diminutive publicity promoter,
Continued on Page 2, Column 2.
Director of the Metropolitan Opera Company.
(By Telegraph to The Sunday American.)
NEW YORK, April 19.—Any doubt that may once have existed concerning an appreciation of
music in America has at last been thoroughly dispelled by the experience of the Metropolitan
Opera Company, both In and out of New York, and by other organizations whose activities in
the operatic field now extend practically throughout the principal centers of the whole country.
The American people have been awakened to a love and comprehension of opera and nowhere is
this more emphatically the case than in Atlanta.
The coming week of opera in the artistic center of the South—for Atlanta lias surely grown
to be that—will be the fourth that the Metropolitan company will have given there. The un
qualified success from every standpoint of the season last year made a yearly continuance of opera
in Atlanta certain, and just as the appreciation of the Metropolitan company’s artistic efforts has
grown, so the musical program offered has increased in both diversity and importance.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Atlanta Music Festival Association has done much to
foster the growing artistic taste of the city, and the local management, as in former years, will
again be in the hands of this admirable organization. It is not too much to say that this associa
tion has veritably made Atlanta one of the important operatic centers of the country.
At times in the past there lias been an inclination to temper the kind of operatic art offered
in America outside of New York to the conditions that existed or were thought to exist, but’that
is no longer the case. ,
THE OPERA THAT WILL BE OFFERED IN ATLANTA
NEXT WEEK WILL IN EVERY RESPECT BE PRECISELY
ON AS HIGH AN ARTISTIC PLANE AS THAT DONE IN NEW
YORK DURING THE SEASON JUST OVER THERE.
The people of Atlanta will be ; offered seven different operas
within six days, and that is only
one less than New York ever
hears, even in the most excep
tional single week at the very
height of the season. The operas
will be in Italian, French and
English, and will enlist all the
kathetn-
ooeDojc
“Ho to
Photo by Hlrshburg.
I'TIS'S ANUTV
'SteL’DE/Kr
Ot-OKHO* fUQTQ
"T.tXBlW
PJCOYrk
Photo by O’Cpnnor.
Some Opera Graces fr/'Ci*™
who will add to the brilliancy of opera week. They will be
seen in the boxes and in the pit. At the top is Miss Ruth
Stallings; at the extreme left is Miss Helen Dargan; next to
her is Miss Kathryn Gordon, and at the extreme right is Miss
Anne Selden.