The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-05-07
ANECDOTES OF ARDlTI
operate Conductor Famous In
Two Continents.
WHAT He THOUGHT WAS ENGLISH

Amusing Samples of His Struggles
with HISTORIES Told of the Mae
stro's Bald Head-How He First met
Patti, and His Impression of Her
Vocal Power.
The veteran operate conductor Luigi
Ardit, who died the other day at his
home in England, was as familiar a
figure in New York in his day as con
ductor of Colonel MapIeson's and other
operate ventures as he was in London
and numberless are the stories that
are told Of him, says the New York
Times Many Of them he has told him
SELF in his entertaining volume Of
"Reminiscences" published by Dodd,
Mead & Co. in 1896
In this volume he relates how it hap
pened that that bald head of his
known to more than one generation Of
opera goers. was not covered by wig,
1t was all owing to the great contralto
singer AIboni She had superstition
against a wig, and when in New York
in 1850 he attempted to cover his shin
ing pate she cutched ii Off his head
one day IN tie singers waiting room
and threw it to the other end Of the
apartment. Ardiu afterward wore the
wig furtiYely at home, and 1t was the
first object which met his wifes eyes
when she unpacked the portmanteau
which lie had taken on his honeymoon.
Colonel Mapleson in his gossipy
Memoirs tells another amusing story
about Arditi's sparse hair. In the Lon
don season of 1850 at Drury Lane the
Colonel had engaged two conductors.
Ardlt and Mr. (afterward sir Julius
Benedict Both, as he informs us,
were excellent but neither wished 10
be mistaken for the other. He cou-
tinuesi
Both, moreover, were bald, and re-
member on one occasion when a grand
combined performance was TO take
place Benedict going into the prima
donnas dressing room, taking up a
brush and carefully arranging his
scanty hair SO as TO cover as much as
possible Of his denuded Uranium,
What are you about, Benedictr |
asked
Nothing particular he replied; on
" | don't want while welding the
baton to be mistaken FOR Arditi.'
Soon afterwardArditi appeared and
with couple Of brushes began oper-
ating on his hair so as TO leave as
much as possible of his bare skull ex-
posed to view He explained the mat
ter by exelaiming.
81 don't want to be mistaken for
Benedict
But it is only fair to say that IN later
years Ardit himself energeticaily de-
MED the truth of this anecdote.
AIT one time, according to the mae
stro's own yeraeious chronicle, he went
to d bank In New York to cash 2 check
but the cashier declared that he must
be identified, as he did not know him
"HaYe you ever been to the operay
asked Arditi The reply was in the
affirmative. Then retorted the con.
ductor turning around, taking off his
hat and showing the back Of his bald
head, look at thatg' He got his mon
ey at once.
Arditt never really learned TO master
the English language-his "Reminis
cences" We're edited by the Baroness
von Zedlitz-and there are many stories
told of his struggles with it. For ex
ample wrote one historian ia the Lon
don Daily News some years since, Isl
/ gnor Arditi'smethod Of importing to bis
orchestra the fact that his silence is
more terrible than his hasty speech
when / tell / mean nodings. But
when / not tell, A-a-a-ahp Again
when called upon to respond to the
toast Of his health, his assertion, Only
one time. this time, worse than con
Quoting two operas, implied that Il
would be his own fault if he was ever
again placed in a similar predicament
"His champion effort was, however
his impromptu speech some years since
at the promenade concerts, when Mile
: de Lido had been detained by q railway