The San Francisco call., 1897-01-24


swamped everything theatrical last week.
To read the majority OF The press notices
one would have imagined that the San
Francisco critics had been langulshing to
PROSTATE themselves at the altar OF good
singing, that they had never heard any
before and never hoped 10 hear any again,
and intended to worship with Will
while the objects of alteration were with
them. OF course it Is very charming to
see talent recognized in this ecstatlc way,
but to me there is flavor of provincial
ism in going into indiscriminate extraYa-
gance over everything, good bad and in
different, and in the performances at the
Baldwin last week there were one or two
trihes that were undeniably bad-the
tenor's falsetto notes, for instance.
do not for moment want to disparage
the Nord ca Scalchi combination, for
their concerts have been a rare treat, and
if we had divas such as Nordica and
Scacbi with us oftener it would be TO our
educational advantage, for, as COM
muuity, we are much given to singing.
First and foremost in interest to my mind
comes Scachi, because, in spite of wear
real contralto She came into the world
before ii was the fashion to manufacture
contraltos at so much an hour They are
turned out now as rapidly as machine
made hand-organs, and are as weird and
repulsive as most other monStrosltles.
But W hat does that matter to them or the
masters who make them? In the dearth
of real contrsltos they supply a long-felt
want, and win money and applause, when
in reallty-well, "if 1 were really king" l
would devise punishment 10 lit the
crime of being "made" contralto.
My pet aversions in singing are the
tenor who willfulIy INDUCES in falsetto,
and the fabricated contraIto. The tenor
is the worse in some respects because he
sins against art with malice afore-
thought, in the hope CT not being found
out. If he takes his notes piaaissimo he
sometimes succeeds in concealing his sin
from the multitude ard gets applause,
which his conscience, if he has any, must
tell him he does not deserve. The manu-
factured contralto is more sinned against
than SHINING as she is generally the dupe
of some ignorant or INSCRIPTIONS chara-
tan who undertakes to make voices
while you wait"
In Milan I once lived in the house with
a made contralto and had an opportunity
of studying her from the earliest stages of
her career to her final downfall, and 1
always think OF her when 1 hear admir-
ing friends say in awestruck tones of
some poor victim of the charlatan's wiles:
''She can sing down to E and blow the
ROOT off when she lets herself loose. and
before she took lessons from Mr.. So-and-so
she had not single low tone in her
voice"
The girl watched grow into contralto
came from America, with a nice little
mezzo-soprano voice and was ten pied by
q maestro who said he could alter and
change voices, just as a dressmaker makes
over old-fashioned gowns. "You pay
your money" he said Chat preliminary
was never neglected), land you take your
cho!ce-!ight soprano, dramatic soprano,
con'ralto: can make you sing anything
from 'AZucena' to Linda da Chamounix' "
She chose contralto, because in spite of
the rate at which they are being manufac-
tured there is still a tradition that con-
traltos are scarce. The poor girl had an
agonlzing time trying to acquire what she
called her 'chest' notes, for nature had
not given her any but one day when she
was graphing with all the vowels and
consonants of the alphabet in her efforts
she heard a peddler out in the street call
ing "PantofoIe." He was crying his
wares ii the deep, sepulchral, hollow
in hot
gers and made contraltos all affect,
That's what 1 want" exclaimed the girl;
and moved BY a sudden inspiration she
cried "pantofole, too, in a tone so deep,
hollow and sepuIchral that she almost
wept with JOY at having 'got" the con-
traito production. Her maestro congratu-
lated her on her intelligence, and said
that cOstermon ers, although untutored
children of nature, often have beautiful
chest tones.
Just six months afterward that girl
learned the error of her ways. By that
time she had two distinct voices, the one
above her costermoneer tones, which was
thin and reedy and was growing smaller
by degrees and beautifully less, and the
notes she had learned from the coster-
menger, which were growing heavier,
coaIser ana more unnatural day by day.
Her conversion is another story. She said
at the time that she would like to under
take lecturing tour, in order to make a
horrid example of herself for the benefit
of other misguided mezzo-sopranos, lust
as reformed drunkards get up on plat
forms and tell about the error OF the DAYS
when they served the demon rum. But
the pity of it is her preaching would not
have been OF any use, for the poor little
mezzo-sopranos who are shrieking out un-
natural low notes would never have lis
tened. They ali hope some day to bridge
over the break between their natural and
their acquired voices, and in the mean
time they say triumphantly, "Why, even
Scaichi has breaks between her registers"
Quite true; but every tone in Scalchis
rich voice proclaims that she is a con-
tralto, while the poor little manufactured
contraltos have thin, reedy upper and mid
die tones. They should Judge themselves
by these notes, not by few acquired low
tones. the production OF whicn is really
nothing but the trick of a ventriloouist. l
think the test medicine for a girl who
wants to make herself into contralto is
to hear Scalchl. for she is a contralto by
the grace of Gcd.
Nordica is as full Of surprises as grab
bag at church fair. She disappoints the
expectations of one audience and sends it
away saying that she has seen her best