New-York tribune., 1922-12-10
New Biographies of Musicians
And the Ruling Prima Donna
Peculiar Features in the Story of Emma
s' Calye: Operate Anecdotes; The Mar
riage of Mime. Malibran
III = Krehbiel

~. brought up or down 70
' ~, q n. ether arts we are not
- ~, w, :, ssd confronting US half
'''''' -. new books, biographical
''''1 '1'..s,,rr.yAis.l, :, concerning @a'i,
nd .'','''s,ss :, ''..s,si.o.n Of the musical
' :, mar. about poets areh''se''
. 'f, '.,,,.r.. =. , BY pr.stisI'''" Of music
s' - ...n, to care shout the lie
S'.''s s''..,'., 4 ,i.IiD.'' or h'a'i''. or
h'''',,. ,,... ,r srpnists or the blow
'''.. -, ,.nrsssnt' Of brass Even
." -, who call forth GER
.usun. Of idClsiry do not seem
:. - ss.r,. ti.A. Of the attention or
'.,.,.., ,hsllsnsed BY singing women.
=, n. elect Of the biOgraphers
=. h,w ar. the operate prims
issrsl -, .....
"a, ,ous musical decree all writers OF
-, and contributors TO newspapers
-.r.fines we're obliged TO trans
!. "A. term and speak Of them as
~. women" or leading ladies'" as
:, a, sustom in the days long sgone'
~. tntrieal stock companies throve
/. 4. vrneipal cities Of the country.
e.rlsr isn't It. that Of all the terms
- a designate the different kinds OF
,,,,f, n 8 lyric thester the only one
~, has survived is "prima donns"i
=. .vrimO uOmo" Is forgotten dust
=. NINA donna Is not only all that
4, "A, Two centuries ago; she is more.
=, /, now 10 be found in every mu-
,l,d comedy company in Broadway
-. abe exeites some interest
.,..r. 70. As much as the prima donna
= d, opera house, or in a manner OF
...,tl,r las our popular humorists
- a, vrirns donna Of the photoplay.
n s.,,nt seem quite fair that we
,,,os hsv. 80 much more writing
~, and without binder's-boards,
400 ne woman who sings In the
n,,,,, han the men who write the
,,,s, AZ u. music that she sings; but
,.u, 10 bs a part Of the order OF
,,,ur Ia. his should be 50, and we
"a, 10 uux ylek a quarrel with the
ha tlr '. can with the equator
"a Nth Al the good nature that we
d ,,~ hu blessed with. we look
a,svfs sns Of the books that must
~,u,y ne little spaces between con-
,,r, rd opsrss. Here 10 one entitled
NJ LIFE written in French we pre-
a-, by Emma Cslve, translated into
f,ra,h By RosAmond Glider and pub
hss NJ .. Appleton & Co. There Is
r,rd evidence that this biography
"A, rrit.sn by the lady who is its sub
nmf not actually written, die
uz q some literary person clever
r.rt IA set down the words in suen
t,u,r ss to make them sound like
W wn speech. Nine. Cslve has
hnu slsverness enough to write a
nm hook, and make them all as en-
rairlus and self-illuminative as
III Ev,rybody knows that who has
srtalk.d with her about herself her
r. or Buddhism. What makes Us
stk that she may have called in a
HI. outsids help besides the trans
rsrs whose slips are not many is
as. al. Is 30 tempersmentally careless
lbsu. Trtas many Of her statements
Ne surely knows that the Battistini'
vsss whom she sang in st. Petersburg
10. artist is still singing, though ne
lac sysrpasssd the age Of three score
rs. and kn), is a barytone' not
tenor; and shs also knows that Mar
gusrss's brother (in the opera
'Fsnss"). whose name Is Vslentin' Is
also BARITONE, not q tenor.
whtn II comes 70 retailing old tradi-
tons not even an autobiographer
esght 10 be held 70 too strict an ac-
ustb bat In giving her own ex-
rHsnees, which have been largely
a~0sd By her contemporaries, we
II tueh an one ought TO be nice
s srsdon and not arouse ineredulity
ss Observers. For instance, II
Il story that Manoel Garcia
w iay 0thello Tin Rossinfs
"a uaneh tragic puissanee that
Hsisza terrified his daughter
N H ln Desdemona). Similar
III N tod Of Edwin Forrest, WHO
n i'iyss that he was not really
tA's 70 the death as Richard III,
1ls the leading man Of the
use ell his skill in swordsman-
. save his life. But we can't
winding trust in the story that
Nl5t tells that once Garcia so
'a't bis daughter that TO escape
a the final scene Of "othello"
"'asd from the stage into the
7 pit and the arms Of the
" De Btriot. who thereupon
y iovs with her and eventually
'a her. Between the year 1925,
Il Safeias daughter sang in
az the old Park Theater in
'ofk' and the beginning Of her
Sy With De Beriot in Paris
resulted In the marriage Of the
a'i'r the SignOra Mslibran had