TIMID COMPOSER

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 108, 3 November 1926, Page 3

TIMID COMPOSER

MASCAGN! ANECDOTE

ORIGIN OF " SICILIAN A." The city of Rimini paid triumphant homage to Pietro Mascagni, who had in their theatre conducted tho opera "Marat" (writes a correspondent from Italy). He was about to take his departure for the United States to direct a series of repres.ptations. Thirty-six years have now passed since the first representation of '' Cavalleria Rusticana," and the whole world expects that the glorious Italian musician, the greatest among all living composers, on his return from America, will set about giving his universal admirers a new masterpiece. When one asks Mascagni to talk about "Cavalleria," he promptly replies that before "Cavalleria" he had- alrealdy written "Guglielmo Rattcliff." Search well in the heart of .Mascagni and you will find that the favourite opera, the daughter of his choice, is that first opera, his powerful and genial " Rattcliff," written when he was 25 years of age, in the first fervour of his Rossinian enthusiasm. But, et pour cause —also '' Cavalleria" is dear to '•him. His wide-world glory came from it; And he willingly recounts the episodes of that first performance of " Cavalleria" in the Constanzi Theatre of Rome, on one November' evening before a public that scarcely half filled the theatre. Mascagni followed that first performance, sitting in the stalls, un- i known to all, in the midst of tho public. The opera had this curious effect of being applauded before the curtain opened. All will remember that the magnificent serenade, the famous "Siciliana": "0 Lola ch'hai di latti la cammisa , . ." is sung behind the scenes with the curtain closed. And when, that evening, Fernando de 'Lucia, had finished singing the stupendous aria the first enthusiastic applause began in the hall, the forerunner of triumph. When "Cavalleria" was sent.ln for competition, to the firm of Lonzogno, it did not include the "Siciliana.?' The Maestro, overcoming his hesitation as to whether he would enter the competion at the last moment, and urged by his wife, Lena, to do so, she carried it to the post in a heavy downpour of rain," and'without umbrella. Later on, Mascagni'was asked by telegram to come and play the opera over before the jury that was to decide. It was oni'y then that the young composer drew out of'his pocket two sheets of music and, timidly hesitating, said to the Maestro Marehetti, the author of "Ruy Bias," and to they other members of the jury: "I would like to have a short romanza sung behind the scenes before the curtain rises . . . but I don't know whether the rules of the competition permit of the addition. . . ." "They don't permit," declared Marehetti; "play the opera as it has been sent in." And Mascagni, putting back hope, and sheets into his pocket, sat himself at tho piano and played the opera as it had been presented to his judges. At the end—that is at the famous "Hanno ammazzato compare'Turiddu . . . the Commission was in the state in which, a few months later, the public at Constanzi found itself: that is to say, overwhelmed with enthusiasm. And one of the Commissioners, the Marquis Francesco d 'Areais, a learned musician, journalist, musical and dramatical critic of the old school—that means the good old school—remembered the sheets put back jn Mascagni's pocket, and said: "T think now. the young Maestro may play the romanza:he wished added." "He cannot!" cried Marehetti, authoritative president and strict observer of the rules. "He cannot add it, but the can let us hear it," rebutted d'Areais. "We aro the judges, not the rules." "Let us hear it, then," consented the author of "Ruy Bias"; "but I warn you it cannot be added to the work." And Mascagni, drawing the sheets from his pocket again, played and sang the "Siciliana." Scarcely was it finished when Marehetti was the first on his feet. "Bravol bravo! Magnificent!'/ "And you can imagine, it sung by a great tenor!" observed Mascagni. Magnificent, but none—except d 'Areais— would assume the moral responsibility of adding it to the opera. Before the jury the problem remained unsolved. "Beautiful, most beautiful ... a real jewel . . . but what can be done? The rights of the others .. . . Ah, the blessed rules . . ." But at the first presentation at the Constanzi the divine voice of Fernando de Lucia from behind the scenes, invaded and electrified the theatre. The "Siciliana" was annexed to the opera for which it was conceived in the mind of the composer a day after the closing time for the competition. At the last moment, Mascagni, insisting, and backed by d'Areais,.and the jury still hesitating, the editor, Edvardo Souzogno appealed to, directly assumed the responsibility of joining the serenade of Turiddu to Lola to the marvellous pages of "Cavalleria," a stupendous gem put as advance guard to the other ten marvels. -