Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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.