THIS WAS CARUSO

Evening Star, Issue 20023, 14 November 1928, Page 2

THIS WAS CARUSO

THE ARTIST AND THE MAN Because no one knew the intimate side of Caruso’s lile like the little American lady who became his widow after three short years of married happiness, the book she has written, railed ‘Wings of Song,’ will bring enlightenment to those thousands who only knew the great tenor by repute or through tho medium of the gramophone. Airs Dorothy descended from an English stock of settlers in tho New World, was his second wife and the mother of his only daughter, Gloria Sons were born to him in his first marriage. Caruso’s first appearance as an operatic star reads like romance. He was acting as understudy to the leading tenor in a small Italian touring company m which Caruso had friends, and there was a celebration. He was summoned suddenly to take the tenor’s place, but was in such a condition that ho could not oven remember the name of the opera. Ho was hooted off the stage, dismissed from the company, and mocked by small boys in the street, who shouted after him “Übbnaco” (drunkard). The next night, when he was trying to drown his sorrow in more red wine, a panting messenger arrived at his lodging. “ Cacuso, come,” gasped the messenger._ “They won’t listen to the tenor. Hissed him. Call for you ” Caruso stopped short. “ Call for me? Liar! They don’t even know my name!” “Not your name,” panted the boy; “they call tor Übbriaco.” , ~ T , Tho story proceeds: “In ten minutes Caruso came rollicking on the stam?. Ah, thanks to the good red wine, he is still fortified! The audience greets him with howls. They leap upon their scats shouting ‘Ubbriaco! TJbbriaco!’ He begins his aria. Silence. Not at that time the voice of a great artist, but the voice loved by the people, full of naural emotion, of surprising sweetness and melody. He sings the riotous audience to silence and then to frenzy. He comes before the curtain again and again, drunk, not with red wine, but with the first sip of success, the taste of which was to bo on his lips for ever after.” Caruso was not above blaming other people for the consequences of his selfabsorption Georges Carpentier and his bride reached New York on their honeymoon, and called on him. Ho began sketching directly they were announced, scarcely spoke to them, and lot them go. Tho authoress adds: “ After they had left I said: ‘ Think of that young man being a boxer—-the French champion!’ ‘Who?’ asked Enrico, looking up from his sketch. ‘ Why, M. Carpentier, tho man who was just here.’ ‘ What?’ cried Eurico, jumping up. ‘ Not Georges Carpentier, tho boxer? Why didn’t

you tell mo so that I could be intelligent?’ ” When Caruso was singing in opera in New York tho day began at !- o’clock, when his accompanist would play tho music of Hie, opera for the night. “ Enrico rvould drink a cup ot black coffee; take his bath and an inhalation, all tho while listening or humming an accompaniment. Dressing was a machine-like routine. Two valets assisted him, and they were not allowed to speak- to him or to make tho slightest noise. We lunched on consomme and cold chicken. During the afternoon lie rested or played patience. Ho allowed himscll an hour to dress and make up. While he was making up he smoked one cigarette after another, for he never believed in the theory that smoking injures the voice. Just before he went on he inhaled a quantity of tepid salt water. Another rite followed. His dresser ami his valet stood on each side of him. One man handed him a tiny glass of whisky. As ho finished the other gave him a small glass of water, and this was immediately followed by a quarter of an apple.” Caruso liked bis wild to have many clothes, but he did not like her to be conspicuous. Thinking to please him she once wore a black velvet gown with a long train. She walked into his dressing room, hoping for approval. “ But imagine my astonishment when he looked at mo and, with a very black frown, said; ‘You can’t go out of the bouse in that gown, Doro. Would you really wear such a Jow-cut dress in public? It shows half your back. Take it off at once. -My wife cannot appear like that.’ ” His wife hid her tears, and the next day Caruso returned from a rehearsal and dropped a little white box in her lap. It contained a. chain of diamonds that reached to her knees. When Caruso went to his villa in Italy for a rest he had twenty-one relatives to live with him.

“Enrico enjoyed tho idea of being tbo head of the family and its main support. If pleased him to sit at the head of the Jong table in the dining room and look down its length at his wife, his stepmother, his sons _ and brother, cousins, nephews, and nieces, and to feel that, like the patriarchs of old, he sheltered his tribe and provided for its sustenance and support.” Caruso was so delighted by the birth of his daughter that he tip-toed into her nursery at all hours with presents —caps, slippers, and shoes several sizes too large, a fur coat that she could not wear for at least a year. And all this before little Gloria was three weeks old. When she had reached the dignity of a feeding bottle Caruso would Burry home at 11 o’clock to give it to her. “ Ho would fetch her from the nursery and, after saying gravely ‘ Buon appetite,’ would hold the bottle and croon softly te her until the last warm drop had disappeared and the little figure was asleep in his arms.”