The San Francisco call., 1906-04-15
NOTES OF ACTORS
AND THEIR PLAYS

This is the story Giuseppe Campa-
mari. the popular barytone, tells of his
beginnings as a singer:
II come of family of musicians. l
was a growing lad when my father told
me to prepare to enter the conserva-
tory at Milan to study the violoncello-
Papa 1 replied I wish to be a
singer
|. de was very angry. and laughed
scornfully. You a singer, You are
fool. Do you not know that you have
no voice.
"If 1 can talk 1 can sing I an
swered. respectfully. but firmly. L will
make q singing voice out OF my talking
voice
when I was sent to the conservatory
with my cello, where my big brother
was studying the violin. / presented
my request TO the head of the vocal de-
partment. He tried my voice and
laughed like my father You have no
more voice than that. he said, and he
struck the wooden case OF the piano.
Then he continued kindly. My boy.
strive TO be a good ceilist. That is also
beautiful voice. which you can make
sing.
Il was determined that if they would
not teach me at the conservatory 1
would teach myself 1 began to train
my voice in the same manner / was
taught on the cello. very, very slowly.
note by note, listening with ears and
mind that the sound should be round.
clear and true Each note occupied all my
attention. l fixed my mind and thought
upon II. 1 never attempted new note
until / was perfect in the last. The
cello was my teacher and my model I
could not have selected a better.
Il became SO great nuisance at
- Nr..1~
hour after hour. that my father for
bade me to touch the piano, but L still
continued my studies at the house of a
friend
Believing in the theory that the one
who accomplishes is the one who. knows
his business best, l frequently went 20
the opera, and especially to the same
opera for whole season at a time to
study and watch the manner In which
successful artists delivered their solos
took note of how and when they failed
and vice versa. Every one. no matter how
great or how humble who is a follower
of our chosen art can teach an earnest
student either a fault to avoid or a
quality to gain.
No less an artist than Edouard de
ResZke. after seeing a performance Of
Faust by the Castle Square Company
adopted their Mephistopheles' manner of
shifting flame from the ground on which
| he strikes his sword in the first act.
''One day, when l had about completed
\ both ny vocal and cello studies. a great
musical celebration was given in Milan,
in honor of Donizetti. whose ashes were
| to be reinterred. 1 went very early In the
morning 10 the cathedral with my mother
| to rehearse my cello solo. AS l entered
/ heard the sound of heavenly music
Cropping about in the twilight / came
across an old man with a white. flowing
beard and black tunic, playing on cello
! before the grand altar. | thought it was
| a vision-some patriarch or prophet who
had descended from heaven I fell upon
| my knees and began to pray to the di-
| vine musician. After a while the figure
took the cello and placed II in a box
lined with red fianneI; 1t then approached
and addressed me in a human voice. II
was Patti, the greatest cellist who has
ever lived. Through this encounter we be-
came good friends.
He who studies in the dawn. he uAd
to say to me. will play long after the
/ moon has rlsen.'
Il had become a singer as well as a
! celist when my brother, who was first
violinist of the Boston Symphony. ad-
vised my joining the same orchestra