The Washington times., 1920-02-08
Bu Mile. ELUira Amazar
lin an lnterview.)

I In an lntervieW.) .,
YUYHY has the phrase 'as impossible
NJ as a grand opera prima donna"
" become. synonym for unreason-
ableness, childish wilfulness, preposterous
whims and monstrous egotism?
know and will explain.
Grand opera is the most selfish Of the
arts and professions That is the reason
why those who live in its atmosphere do
things that appal citizens of the ordinary,
balanced world. 1t is not their fault; they
cannot escape 1t.
The life of the singer. ever creating
characters of romance, becomes a realm
in which the artist himself is king. He
regards everyone who ventures within its
bounds as an interloper; anyone who
dares to cross his will as an arch in
truder. In the strangely refracted vision
created by the proscenium arch even the
wife of a great star becomes an incon-
siderable creature.
The life of the grand opera artist is one
that tends ever toward the expression Of
individuality. He succeeds according as
he supplements his training by originality.
His life becomes an aria of staccato Is.
The sentences heard oftenest about an
opera house are II wilr' and 81 won't"
1t is necessary that the artist express his
individuality strongly often to live. The
struggle in the world of song Is as fierce
as in the world of business 1t is so; 1t
must be so; but out of it grow conditions
almost intolerable to the outsider or to
the semi-outsider.
One characteristic that have noted q
thousand times as l have followed the
fortunes of grand opera artists Is that
they are extremely careful Of money. To
use the bald term-they arc stingy. There
Is a reason for this, as there is reason
for everything. They are, in one respect,
marvellously clear-sighted. They know
they cannot sing always. They estimate
that their singing years are few. They
calculate that their singing life Is the COM
parative1y brief one Of twenty years. Be-
fore that they are mere students. After
that they are memories; their voices are
ghosts of what they once were. There
fore they reason that 1t behooves them to
save during their two-score OF profitable
years.
They save in strange ways. Realizing
that 1t is necessary, as you say in Amer
lea, to put up a 'front.'" they live in good
hotels. But many of them live in very
small rooms in very big hotels. They re-
ceive their guests in the hotel drawing
rooms, which are imposing affairs-all
shining chandeliers and slim-legged, gilded
furniture and heavy brocade curtains.
They look and behave very well against
this background. And no one knows that
they sleep and dress in some slit in the
wall on the top floor.
Having acquired this setting, they help
solve the food problem in two ways: They
turn up their coat collars and seek the
cheapest of dairy lunch places or they
cook their meals in their rooms Passing
through the halls our nostrils are assailed
by whiffs of edible delicacies or indeli-
cacies. Near the room Of baritone my
nostrils have taken in the unmistakable
odor of tripe. Or as pressed the elevator
bell have inhaled the pungent sauce pre-
pairing to cover a dish OF spaghetti.
You would be astonished at the little
two-cent tricks of parsimony Of some OF
the great opera stars.
Sometimes the hotel proprietors do not
know OF this infraction Of their laws. Maids
and bellboys are sympathetic with artists
whose names are large on the billboards
or In newspaper type. They do not report
these odors of unblest cookery. Plain,
everyday folk who are fellow guests re-
gard the measure as an idiosyhcrasy OF
genius. And they do not report II as they
would II plain John Smith or Mary Brown
we're thus guilty And IL the proprietor
himself discovers the infraction he seems
to wink at 1t. He does not want to seem
churlish to these favorites Of the gods.
He smiles and affects not to notice the
aroma OF onions or garlic on the twelfth
floor of his hostelry.
Some of the grand opera stars who earn
enormous sums spend according to the
amount of their incomes. Galli-Curci does
and so does Rosa Raisa. For them, sable
coats and goura feathers. But they are
the exception. Most singers thatch their
roofs we'll against the rainy season.
The men do not manifest this In their
clothing. They know that the public ex-
pects that they will wear good clothes as
surely as that they live at good hotels.
And one must not disappoint the public