CARUSO'S ORDEAL

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14601, 26 February 1921, Page 11 (Supplement)

CARUSO'S ORDEAL

SINGS WITH BURST BLOOD VEBBEL. An English paper, referring to the illness of Enrico Caruso, says;— Singino: before a fashionable audience in New York. SiPnor Caruso burst a blood-vessel in his throat. Although blood was running freely, he pluckily continued until the end of the first act. The injury occurred during a special performance of "Elisire d'Amore" at the Gibbons Academy of Music at Brooklyn. For a lime few in the great throng realised the gallant flpht the famous tenor was making to continue the opera. ■ His throat hied visibly, but he insisted on finishing his role until the curtain was rung down at the end of the first act. Even more dramatic was Hie scene behind the stage. Signor Caruso's firs!, attack occurred in his dressing-room, while he was preparing for the opera, but the trouble seemed to yield to ice applications. Shortly after the tenor had begun tn sins his part the bloodvessel opened again. Drawing a handkerchief from his pocket, he rolled it into a. ball, which he continually ap-

plied to his throat. When one handkerchief became saturated lie would deftly move backwards up the stage and throw it into the wincrs. Then he would catch another tossed by a member of the chorus, thus using handkerchief after handkerchief until the first act was over.