GIGLI IS HAPPY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 158, 6 July 1937, Page 5

GIGLI IS HAPPY.

HAS LOST 37 POUNDS. HUGE ANNUAL INCOME. FORMER COBBLER'S BOY. LONDON, June 6. Beniamino Gigli, the Italian tenor, makes £50,000 a year; travels all over the world; stays in great hotels; ie received by the smartest sets; is accompanied by a suite of ten, and — Remains the perfect type of Italian peasant, rooted to the things of the soil. Like the peasantry, he is so attached to his family and his faith that before he goes on to opera stage or concert platform he always thinks—consciously thinks—of his dead mother. "T'at is t'e mos' important,' , he said yesterday to a hard-boiled crowd of newspaper men and women who interviewed him at the Savoy Hotel. "I t'eenk of my mot'er." Gigli (the first G is sounded like a J and the second is not sounded at all — call him Jeelvee) is very proud of himself. Xot for making so great a fortune that he. once a cobbler's boy, could spend £100.000 on his house; not for taking on himself the mantle of Caruso. About those achievements he ie so modest that he will not speak. Twenty-four Lemons. But he is proud as Punch that in the last four yea re he has shed 2st 91b. "I eat spaghetti, macaroni—yes. But I have t'e pa<>ta made for me. wit' no starch. And I have always 24 lemons from Sicily. '"Drink? Water. Even though I own vines. Smoke! Xot'ing. Eat? Oh. yes. But carefully regimento." Although he has lost his 371b. Gigli is no lightweight. He is oft sin—and weights 13st 51b. His tailor does marvele. and his suits, are subdued, but the flamboyant southern taste bursts out in a tie of flaring maroon in which- is set * large sqoaro

diamond ecarfpin; in jewelled cuff-links; 1 in shoes (he has. tiny feet) with heels half an inch higher than the normal. I

He does not like his 60-room castle to be called a castle (castello). "Non e un castello. E una casa"—(a house) he said. Whenever this singer is even slightly moved, he slips into liquid Italian which pours out of his mouth like a stream of honey. Some time ago he threatened to retire at 49. He has changed his mind. "I retire when I can sing no longer. Not till t'en. An , eef t'e poobleec still want to hear, t'en I seeng wit' no voce at all."