WAITER'S RISE TO FAME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 271, 15 November 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

WAITER'S RISE TO FAME.

PARIS' NEW STAR TENOR.

The Opera Comique of Paris has a new "star' tenor in the person of Jean Anza-ni,who not very long ago was a waiter m a restaurant and who never dreamed ot taking music seriously. But he loved music, and he could not refrain from using his voice when opportunity came. He would sing in the kitchen, and Ins fellow waiters soon persuaded him to sing at some of their smoke concerts and at other little festivals.

At one of these concerts Dr. Georges Clement chanced to hear Joain, with the result that early in December last the cafe waiter was invited to visit the directors of the Opera Comique and to sing one of his favourite airs. When asked if h e knew anything about music he confessed.that he did not. One of the directors replied "Excellent."

When questioned in regard to the amount he needed to live on Anzani said •that £16 a month would suffice. The director thereupon remarked "Then layaside your waiter's apron to-morrow and enter the school of the Opera Comique."

Since then the ex-waiter has studied and practised continuously under masters of his art—his only previous instructors were gramophone i*cords— and a few weeks, ago he made his debut as Mario in "La Tosca."

The first act was a triumph, for Anzani, but the conductor refused, to give any encores so as not to tire the new singer. More demands for encores in the second act were also refused, but, in the third, amid a shower of flowers, the waiter tenor was allowed to respond to the cries of "Bis" from all parts of ;he house.