ODOARDO BARRI, THE COMPOSER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 48, 28 November 1891, Page 631

ODOARDO BARRI, THE COMPOSER.

Ol»oauih> Barri, the composer ot so many popular drawing room ballads, held, years ago, a prominent position on the American operatic stage. Indeed, he gave every promise of becoming a second Sims Beeves. The great fire of Chicago in < Ictober, 1871. changed all that, however. During the horrors of those three days and nights Signor Odoardo Barri—or, to give him his real name, Mr Edward Barry, for he is an Irishman — who chanced to be sojourning in the city, lost everything he possessed, his hair turned almost white, and. most serious of all, his fine tenor voice deserted him forever. Finding it impossible, after this, to follow his profession, he determined to go to London. His early experience there was of the roughest. Yet he did not allow himself to be discouraged. Pending his establishment as a vocal tutor, he took to composition, and one day he carried a setting of a ballad to Messrs-). B. Cramer and Co., in RegentStreet, by whom, to his great joy, it was accepted ami purchased. But this was not all. As often as he presented himself to this house with a MS. he was received with the utmost courtesy, and the sum asked for the copyright was at once paid to him. There was, however, a sequel to all this. For several years these self - same MSS. were kept under lock and key, so that, so far as Messrs Cramer were concerned, the name of Odoardo Barri never reached the public ear; nor was it until after the composer had achieved some success with an operetta entitled ‘M. D.’ that they brought forth his songs, one by one to the light of publication. At the present time * Signor ' Odoardo Barri has no difficulty in commanding high prices for bis songs ; but, like many another artist, he has come to recognise the truth that the way to fortune lies through the stage door.