The New York herald., 1921-12-04
BY WILLIS STEEL.
LII conditions being favorable, gifted
\ with voice and intelligence-and


intelligence is the greater gift
having trained both carefully and lived
right always, you can sing acceptably in
public for half century. It has been done.
indeed, it is being done.
What's more. the newcomer with the
fresher voice and the added attraction of
novelty cannot oust you from your well
deserved niche in the temple of song. 1t
is foolish to fear him, for whatever gifts
he brings at the opening of his career only
time and constant study shall ripen until
he grows to be rival worthy of your
throat.
part of this dictum is obviously true
end will have the success of the obvious.
Everybody likes to say Of what he has read,
if he feels it, that he has thought along
the same line with the man who writes.
That is what makes the triumph of many
an obvious book. 1t is certain that one-half
of the persons who read what singers say
about how they grow in their art with
assiduous practice will exclaim:
That's nothing new, for I've thought
the same myself"
The other half of the statement often
uttered by great singers who give figures
that shall indicate their belief in the
longevity of their career is not so generally
convincing. To make 1t go down may
require a cloud of witnesses.
Some Have Rounded Out
The Half Century Term
To sing in opera for fifty years! I'm
possible, the doubters will say although
they may know of an instance or two that
have Jagged as long on the stage This
IL not being written of the superfluous
Cnes, but of the opera singers, men and
women, who have rounded out half cen
tury of operate glory.
Are they afraid of the young singers?
Absurd. The old artist knows that it has
taken him years to learn his art and that
at any epoch of 1t by taking stock he knows
too that he is still learning and still has
rnuch to learn. From peak to peak Of his
art he goes with ever increasing interest
and pleasure particularly II he carries his
audience with him. But he flies not on
superimposed wings, no adventitious or
exterior aid can carry him to the heights,
and his progress upward depends upon
himself.
For a new opera he must learn so much
and in so many ways. History, biography,
philosophy, there is scarce a branch Of
human learning from which he may not
draw, having the ambition and the will,
to help him in its Interpretation For the
very role in which perhaps he made his
debut and that he must get up in again
twenty years afterward he finds himself
compelled to study with the thoroughness
and care that he would devote to new
score.
In the familiar roles that the newcomer
assumes as a common thing there is no
more to be expected or hoped for than the
traditions bound up In it. The singer just
beginning to emit his wood notes wild"
has enough to do to learn and display these
fttingly or at least acceptably. His
brother singer of an elder day." not con-
tent with tradition, provided he has any
brain at all, seeks to perfect his mimetic
art as he does his singing. In fact, IL he
is a true artist he lays more stress on the
former.
The lamented Caruso of La Juive" was
as different as possible from the Caruso
of the Duke in "Rigoletto,' as he sang it
at his first appearance in the Metropolitan
Opera House. The voice, as it rolled out
in the part of EledSer, where he touched
the n1RneSL pOlDL III Hlb ART, was uOL Iuc
voice of the Duke. 1t had lost certain
quality and had gained other quality. If
il lacked the freshness of those bygone
days, he was now its complete master and
It obeyed him implicitly. In other words,
in his later day he had gained perfect
control wanting in the earlier. While in
style and finish the later impersonation
was so much fuller and greater that the
man at one time and the other could not
be criticised as the same artist.
To say these things. Of course, is merely
to emphasize the obvious note previously
touched on, but they cannot be omitted.
With Caruso In mind, as he died at an age
under so, the latter half of the proposition
cannot be carried on. There are physi-
clans who say that when a man dies before
his allotted time given the conditions that
he has lived a regular normal life, he really
passes away through violence And by
stretch of meaning to words this may be
said of the great tenor.
Shining Examples Are These
Of Those Who Last Long
But there are living examples of both
parts OF the dictum. Battistini is a shin
ing mark At 6S this Italian, pronounced
by many judges of singing to be the great
est barytone in the world, Is singing three
times weekly in the season at Berlin.
hor x.f