The San Francisco call., 1909-12-19

finer blending than this. and FRITZ is
the product.
Just where she got that spirit which
inspired Paderewski to style her, some
what ungallantly, it must be admitted,
the little devil of the opera is not
known. though FRITZ herself is rather
inclined to attribute that quality in her
psychological makeup to her mother.
However that may be. a glance at the
pictures above Will be sufficient evil
dence that if she started singing at an
early age she at once exhibited those
qualities of mind and temperament
which have made her-have made her
well, have made her FRITZ Scheff.
To her mother she doubtless owes her
singing instincts. but if there is any
thing in the perpetuation of racial
characteristics / would wager that she
gets her temperament from her father,
who is Hungarian. There is something
of the wayward, willful gypsy in
FRITZ. isn't there?
Anyway, it happened at the tender
assert herself vigorously to quiet the
preeocious ambitions of her little
daughter, who wanted to be a prima
donna, too, just as a boy wants to be
what his father is without waiting to
grow up. FRITZ wanted to sing. and
she would have developed in presto
time into youthful prodigy if her
mother hadn't crossed her. There are
many prodigies," quoth Nine. Yaeger.
looking fondly at the little girl with
mouth agape singing fiorid passages
from the opera, but there are only a
few prime dome. She shall be a prima
donna, and not a wornout child won
der" FRITZ had absorbed song with
her very breath and sustenance. 1t had
become a part of her temperamental
fiber just as her milk had become flesh
and blood and bone. Naturally, you
couldn't shut her up, and the neighbors
say they didn't want to- But Frau
Yaeger kept her close by while she
filed her itinerary of grand opera
houses in Vienna, Dresden and Frank
fort, and guarded her throat from harm
and suppressed the exuberance of a
youngster who never had to learn how
to trill.
a OST of Fritzis young girlhood was
spent in Frankfort. where, by the
way, the above gallery was as
sembled. Meanwhile, under her moth
o-ss er,,sda.o.a t1rftzs x,-aS 5avalopipcr
into the prima donna class so rapidly
that she landed at the goal when she
was II years old. If you should at
tempt to guess the opera she made her
debut in you would fail; yet no role
would better fit her age and looks than
this: Juliet in Romeo and Juliet"
she was about the age of Shakespeare's
romantic heroine, and it must have
been a delight tp the staid old Frank
fort admirers to be able to see. for
once. a prima donna who was not an
anachronism in girlish role.
IT was while studying and singing
professionally on one occasion in
Germany that FRITZ Scheff attracted
the attention of Maurice Grau. who
wanted her at once for his Metropoli-
tan group of singers. Grau made FRITZ
Scheff. then not out of her teens. an
offer that staggered the child She was
not accustomed to count money so
quick" Her first New York appear
ances were made under the Grau man
agement in La Boheme," wherein she
sang coquettish Musette; in "TPag-
liacci,' in which music story she sang
the role of wayward. forlorn and
naughty Media; and she did the role of
artfulness and naivete. that of Cheru-
bino in Mozart's sunshiny opera, The
Marriage of Figaro Then the eastern
critics began to look up adjectives to
fit her. The spirit of the Teuton and
the verve of the Hungarian had pro-
duced quite as remarkable a result as
that which resulted when Portuguese
and German met in Sousa, born in
Washington, and the critics could not
find words to describe the peculiar
charm that FRITZ Schef exercised over
her hearers and which caused Pade-
rewslki in despair to call her 'the little