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Musical Courier 1902-01-29: Vol 44 Iss 1140, 1902
74 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 30. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE LATEST ITALIAN TENOR.
2M. de Marchi Tells of His Plans and Career.
3[New York Sun, January 26.]
5It rarely happens that the Italian tenors at the Metropolitan Opera House play an important part in the doing of the season. The Italian operas are no longer the most attractive to the public, and the system of singing every opera in the language in which it was written has made the number of works performed in Italian much smaller than it used to be.
7"Les Huguenots" is to be sung next week in Italian. That is unusual, as the opera was first sung in French, and it is usually performed in that tongue at the Metropolitan.
9It is now to be performed in Italian because the tenor chosen for the role of Raoul knows it only in that language. And as the tenor happens to be Emilio de Marchi, the customary rule has been abrogated in order that he may be heard in one of the roles of his repertory in which he is commonly accounted greatest.
11If M. de Marchi continues the success which began with his appearance in "Aida" he seems likely to be once more an important figure in the year's proceedings at the opera house. Since Ernesto Tamagno was a member of the company no other Italian singer so well known as M. de Marchi has appeared there.
13The direction of the opera house is inclined to believe from the size of the audience at the last performance of "Aida" that M. de Marchi's success on his first appearance as Cavaradossi has already created in the mind of the public a desire to hear the new Italian singer. "Aida" is not an opera that New York audiences especially admire. Nobody ever knew the reason for this indifference; but it undeniably exists. So it was a surprise to the management of the theatre when the public continued to arrive until the theatre was as full as if it were offering an all-star cast in place of but two stars, and one of them a tenor who had sung only once before at the Metropolitan.
15Emilio de Marchi sang here at the Academy of Music in 1896 with the last of the Mapleson companies. That engagement brought fame to nobody, so the tenor's one performance of Raoul attracted less attention than it deserved. Since he was here five years ago he has sung abroad with the same degree of success that he enjoyed before he came here first.
17He held the reputation of being, with Tamagno and Bonci, who has made his fame in the last few years, the first of the Italian tenors. He has sung in Rome and Milan and in Buenos Ayres and Rio Janeiro, to-day the happy hunting ground of the Italian tenor.
19"I determined when I returned this year to the United States," M. de Marchi said the other day to a Sun reporter, "not to make my first appearance in any role that would bring me into comparison with any of my predecessors here and give anybody the opportunity to say: 'Ah, he wants to take the place of our favorite, and we will not have him.' It was for that reason that I begged Mr. Grau to let me sing first in 'La Tosca,' a role that gave me less opportunity than some others, but did not bring me immediately into comparison with some other singers.
21"I was glad that I did follow that plan, because the public has liked me better with every performance. After awhile the New Yorkers will have heard me in many roles, and then they will know whether or not they care for de Marchi.
23"I am to sing this year only in Italian. In the countries in which I have sung hitherto only that language has been used. I have sung in Wagner's operas in that tongue, and there is no likelihood of my singing his operas in German or any other language. I shall never sing the Wagner roles again."
25M. de Marchi said this with great positiveness, and the reporter asked him how he had come to such a conclusion when the entire tendency is in the other direction, and even singers who are not gifted with sufficient voice are attempting the Wagnerian roles.
27"I intend to remain an Italian tenor," he said, "and to my mind that is quite as necessary to-day as it is to be, for instance, a great Wagnerian singer. It is not possible to be both. After a while a singer who has sung the Italian lyric roles may take to the declamatory Wagner heroes.
29"He may find it easier to sing them than the roles he has sung earlier in his career. But while a singer is still at the height of his career, he cannot be an equally good Tannhäuser and Raoul. I intend to remain as an Italian tenor, for I know that my greatest successes will always be made in those operas.
31"Besides the Wagner operas do not suit my voice. I know that from experience, because I have sung Lohengrin, Walther and Tannhäuser. I was the first Walther at La Scala when Antonio Scotti was the Hans Sachs.
33"I am a great admirer of the Wagner operas, and I find the music of the parts sublime. They are also most interesting dramatically to the singer. But I have decided definitely to give them up. I prefer to stand before the public as a distinctly Italian tenor."
35It is a curious feature of M. de Marchi's career that although he has sung in the countries most devoted to the Italian operas his repertory does not include many of the roles that are here associated chiefly with the vogue of the Italian tenor. Before he had attempted the part in Buffalo he had never sung Rhadames in "Aida," although his great success in the role at the Metropolitan the other night proved how well suited it is to his voice.
37He has never sung the part of the Duke in "Rigoletto," which he is soon to give here with Madame Sembrich, and even more astonishing is the fact that he has never yet appeared as Manrico in "Il Trovatore," which he expects to sing later in the season with Madame Eames if she is ready for the part of Leonore.
39These roles, which are usually the property of every Italian tenor, are missing from the accomplishments of M. de Marchi largely because he has sung so many of the modern Italian operas. He has created roles in "La Bohème" and "La Tosca," and has sung in the "Manon" of Puccini.
41Other operas in his repertory rarely heard here are "Samson et Dalila," "Ballo in Maschera," "Le Roi de Lahore," "Gioconda" and "Mefistofele," although he does not sing the Gounod "Faust." He is an intimate of Giacomo Puccini, who would not allow his "La Tosca" to be sung in Rome until the impresario gave his word that M. de Marchi should create the leading role.
43M. de Marchi has decided opinions on the nature of some of his roles.
45"Somebody was complaining not long ago," he said, "that a certain Raoul lacked distinction. I don't see why such great polish and manner were expected from Raoul. He was merely a Huguenot soldier, devoted more to the army than to the life of the court, about which he knew very little.
47"I always try, even in operas, to find some kind of prototype for the character. Possibly I was most successful as Cavaradossi because I had been in the army and had some idea of the way a man acts after he has been shot.
49"The first night I sang that part in Rome a high official in the Italian War Department came to my dressing room and said that it had been his unhappy experience to see a number of men executed in the army, and that the way I fell to the ground after the soldiers shot at me in the last act reproduced exactly the actions of these unfortunate men. I had seen men fall in Africa, and I knew how they looked.
51"When I left the military academy at Rome and went as a lieutenant to Africa I had not the least idea that I would ever take up an operatic career. I went to the military academy because my family had all been soldiers and it had been decided for me that my calling was to be the same.
53"I had always been fond of music and I had always sung. But I had never thought of becoming a professional singer.
55"I was fortunate enough to be decorated at the end of my first year of service in Africa with the title of Chevalier, and that certainly seemed to settle my career in the army. I was settling down to remaining in the service for the rest of my days when something happened that put an entirely different outlook on my affairs.
57"I suddenly learned that my means would not be sufficient for me to remain in the army and support my rank as a lieutenant and a gentleman. I saw no means of getting the money that I had expected and saw that I must resign my commission. So I resigned and came back to Italy.
59"I thought of business, but a friend urged me to have my voice tried and see if it were fitted for the operatic stage. I went to a teacher in Florence, the celebrated Landi, who died two years ago. That was in 1884.
61"For two years I studied with him and in 1886 I made my first appearance as Alfredo in 'La Traviata.' Ever since that time I have been continually before the public."
63Peano is the family name of the singer. He gave up using it when he went on the operatic stage. He lives now in Rome, although he spends little time there, the opera seasons that employ artists of his position being short in that city.
65He has been for some years a collector, and some of the finest specimens of the modern silversmith's art at the last Paris Exposition came from his collection. He is not handsome after the usual fashion, but his face is interesting and his intelligence shows itself in his changes of expression. He impresses one as a well bred, experienced man of affairs rather than as a tenor.
67There is indeed nothing in his appearance to suggest that he is of the theatre. Nor is there in his life. He lives quietly in one of the more private of the city hotels. He is accompanied to this country only by a secretary, and when he is not engaged studying the roles that he is to sing at the Metropolitan he is trying to learn English as rapidly as possible.
69Camilla Urso's Funeral.
71THE Women's String Orchestra, under the direction of Carl V. Lachmund, played at the funeral of Camilla Urso. The deceased violinist was honorary president of the orchestra society, and had enjoyed the personal friendship of the conductor and several of the members. Many members of the New York Philharmonic Society attended the services, and both societies sent floral tributes. The Women's String Orchestra played "Le Dernier Sommeil de la Vierge," from Massenet's "L'Assomption." Margaret Hall sang Gounod's "Repentance."
73RUD. ARONSON.—Major Pond, who is the manager of young Florizel, the violin prodigy, has engaged Rud. Aronson as assistant.
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