Evening star., 1921-08-21

am actually on the stage do / succeed
| in pulling myself together"
"Yes,Nah yes. he was like that" said
Mr.. Scotti, when his guest asked him
/ IL he knew also the Caruso there de-
scribed. Then the baritone told in
stances of emotion. causing the great
| star to give an inferior performance.
| while at other times. raised again by
emotion to heavenly heights, he
| scared to musical glories new even
/, to his closest friends.
''Often at the close of a perform
ance," said Scotti. "he would collapse
| into chair in his dressing room like
| a man stunned
Il admitted to Enrico once that j.
| too. experienced these extremes of
| nervous depression or exaltation. He
shook his head and said: .Ah. my
| Toto. we remain not SO young as once
| We were. What a strange thing, Toto.
| that while we are young and have our
| careers to achieve and all to lose or
| all to gain at cast of the dice.
/ ii We're. we are not troubled at all
with nerves. though SO much we have
1 at stake. But now, as we grow old.
+, We know assuredly that we have our
| dear public with US. that ours is a
substantial success already won. and
yet. forsooth, We are at the mercy OF
| our bundles Of nerves. every time We
open our harmonious mouths"
| The writer mentioned to Mr.. Scott
| his admiration of the phonograph rec
| ord of the great duet sung by Caruso
| and Scotti from the opera la ForZa
| del Destino.' Hundreds of thousands
i of persons who never heard the tenor
and baritone in the flesh have lis
tened entranced to the heartrending
melody of that last battlefield good
! bye between the soldier and his
stricken comrade who lies dying of
his wounds.
| Again Scott's eyes became moist
| with emotion.
"Yes. that" said he. was our great
est duet. though we sang many others
| in opera together. IL may seem
| strange to you. but we never sang il
in the opera La Fora del Destino'
| The opera itself did not particularly
appeal to US. but the duet became one
! OF our great features in concert.
The people went crazy over II. In
| London we had to sing il before the
king and queen and the royal court
And the people. Why, when We sang
it in public We had to repeat with
| encores four or five times,
That was why. when c. C. Child
| director of the recording laboratory
| OF talking machine company. made
with me contract for a series of duet
| records. j suggested that our first be
what had come then to be known as
| The Duet Amicitiae.' the Duet of
Friendship Mr.. Child demurred.
You say the opera La Forza del
! bcStIuo is HOl very "eIl KNOWN SAID
he. Don't you think we had better
begin with duet by yourself and
Caruso from one of the better known
operas?
But wait until you hear the
Friendship Duet. Mr.. Child / said
! Then you will agree with US that we
| have nothing better to offer you And
| so it was agreed 1t is a strange fact
| that in the process of recording we
never had to repeat that record. Ordi-
narily several trials must be made
before the approved result is in
| surface of what they call the mas-er
record.
And what a history that record
has had. said Scotti contemplatively.
Il suppose you know that il easily is
the leader in all the catalogues. For
the first twelve years since it was
recorded it had an average sale Of
| $4,000 records a year. Then last year
when the price reduction went ,ntc
effect. the annual sale of the Friend
ship Duet rose to $1,000 copies
The Duet of Friendship" COM
mented Scotu after a long pause
And now tear was stealing un-
mistakably down the classic face q:
the baritone star. AS he essayed ~
speak his voice shook. his lips trem-
bled. l could see that in retrospect
he was again blending his mellow
voice with She despairiug tenor wall
of Caruso as they used to soar to-
gether through the exquisite har-
monies of that battlefield parting
Ado. ado. Goodbye, goodbye. for
ever,"
OH" sohbed Scotti, yielding now
unrestrainedly to the stress of his
grief. you say you. too, loved that
record and that on your paonograph
i you and your family PLAYED it de-
4 lightedly again and again. Then you
must know the story of that song
Don't YOU see why il could not
help being the greatest, the most
convincing of our duet records" 1t
was because into il each of us
breathed our sincere devotion. one
| toward the other. We were enact.ns
no part. We were singing forth the
real loyalty of each heart
And now, don't you see this as ]
see it, man? The thing has come true.
Alas. one of us has been taken and I
am the one left! 1 am the poor sur
viving soldier, while more than halt
my life went from me when he was
stricken down!
II loved the Duet of Friendship.
So did he. But never want to hear
it sung again. and 1 am sure I should
never be able to sing again my part
in it,