MUSIC NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1289, 7 January 1915, Page 37

MUSIC NOTES.

(By

“G” String.)

Miss Amy Castles arrived in Melbourne a few days ago where she intends enjoying a three months holiday before entering upon an extended

concert tour of America. The proprietors of the leading hotels in San Francisco have had the wiscom of musical silence borne in upon them. Repeated clashes amongst the guests following the playing of this or that national air by the hotel orchestras have compelled the managers to forbid the melodic discoursing or any old kind of patriotic music. Even the Hungarian dance tunes, the most cherished possess.on in the repertoire of restaurant orchestras, have had to be banned and barred. The ’Frisco police have also closed a picture theatre and arrested the proprietor on a charge of inciting to riot by screening pictures purporting to represent the Franco-Prussian war. The Peace Sunday, proclaimed by President Wilson on Occober 4th, brought forth a weird musical fantasy, each organist in his particular church playing the anthem of the country lor which he had most sympathy. Therefore tha “Marseillaise” in one church contended with “The Watch on the Rhine” played in another church over the way. But from the reports of

the proceedings it appears that the British National Arnhem, the me.od.es of the Allies, and “The Star-spangled Banner” were in most request. In one instance the entire congregation stood while variations extending into nearly twenty minutes were discoursed on “The Star-spangled Banner.”

In a graphic account of his early struggles, published in a recent issue of “T.P.’s Weekly,” Caruso says: — “My good father was .employed in Naples as a working mechanic, and

I fear I was a sad trial to my parents as a child, tor I was very, very noisy and lively; my juvenile and piercing voice was heard all day, and often all n.ght. Indeed, at home I was not what they call popular. No; my father chastised me as I deserved, and de sired to make me. a sober, industrious mechanic, like himself. In this desire 1 did not jo.n him. I longed to be a sailor, and haunted the docks for hours, rebelling strongly against my parent’s laudable wish that I should learn a trade. At the age of eleven 1 developed a great love for singing, and possessed, I believe, a fine, clear contralto voice! One day the old organist of the Church of St. Anna, Naples, heard me singing some popular melody, and my youthful efforts del ghted him so much that he engaged me to sing in his choir. And I received for my labours each Sunday the large sum of 20 cents weekly, the ■first money I ever earned. At fifteen I announced my intention of devoting myself to art and music, and left my father’s house following his furious ultimatum that ‘I could be a mechanic or starve!’ So I became a wanderer, with no weapons to help me in the fight for success but a remarkable physique and tremendous optimism, which, thank heaven, has never failed me. Somehow I managed to pick up a poor livelihood by singing at church festivals and private houses. I was often hungry, but never unhappy, and thus I went on until, at the age of 18, I was faced by this fearful problem, ‘Was I a tenor or a baritone?’ My voice at that time was so thin that it resembled the ‘wind’ whistling through a gaping window,

and my fellow students laughed at my hopes of an operatic career. Undisturbed, I worked on until my studies were curtailed by my military duty. The time came for me to serve my King and country, so away I went to be soidato, registering a private vow chat Naples should eventually acclaim me as ‘EI Tenore Caruso!’ Later, Sonzogno, manager of the Teatro Lirico, Milan, asked me if I would study the rme of Marcello in ‘La Boheme,’ but after a few days I decided that it did not suit me and returned it, with many regrets. A little later I visited Milan, and there Sonzogno came to me with a request that I would change my mind, as he was certain that it would suit me, and that I should make a success of it! Spurred on by his belief in me I learned the role, and on Tuesday, November Bth, 1898, appeared as Marcello at the Teatro Lirico, Milan, and made, if I may say so in all humility, my first success.”