Page:Everywoman's World, Volume 7, Number 7.djvu/24

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AMELITA
GALLI-CURCI

The World's Greatest Soprano

By HECTOR CHARLESWORTH

Amelita, Marchioness Galli-Cores

 

ONCE in a great while it is our privilege to hear an artist who gives us the conviction that we are in the presence of one of the immortals—of one whose genius and achievements will be remembered long after we are dead. That is the feeling inspired by hearing the singing of Amelita Galli-Curci. It was the feeling that Pzederewski gave his hearers when he loomed on the world over a quarter of a Century ago. It was a thought that lay back of one's enjoyment of Irving's acting at its best, that still gives an aura of distinction to the dancing of Anna Pavlowa. With Galli-Curci, every sensitive listener gives her at once a place in history, and enrolls her name with those of the great in the annals of the past.

Among musical critics there has been, for years past, a tendency to depreciate the art of coloratura singers, to term it cold, technical achievement, "Art for art's sake" and nothing more, was the cry; but the instinct of the music-loving public has always been to pay royal homage to the woman gifted by God with a voice of superfine excellence. It is, perhaps, because humanity can feel and understand the greatness of great singing more fully than it can appreciate any other form of art, that this is so. Since Galli-Curci's appearance in Toronto, I have been frequently asked what is meant by coloratura singing Literally it means ornamental vocal effect, like unto the decorative achievements of a great master of line and colour. It is a revel in the beauties of pure tone, apart from an interpretative intention. But while Galli-Curci describes herself as a coloratura singer, she is much more; she is also a mistress of interpretation. Her art and personality convey intellectual distinction, just us do the paintings of Whistler, above and beyond their decorative qualities.

 

SINGERS who unite these qualities have been exceedingly rare. The man or woman with but an averige vocal equipment who has mastered the art of interpretation is not infrequent phenomenon. The singer who justifies the proverb "Vox et Preateria Nihil"—voice and beyond that nothing also well-known. Such a singer was Tetrazzini, whose throat was a glorious musical box but who was devoid of personal distinction. Galli-Curci, apart from her stupendous vocal gift, is the very embodment of attractive personality. The picture she makes on the stage recalls the delicate old prints of singers in the early part of the nineteenth century, and brings to mind prima donnas like Pasta, Grisi, and Clara Novello. Her deportment, light, graceful, and charming with nothing of the air of the robust prima donna adds to the satisfying effect and delights the eye, appeals to the intelligence, and ravishes the ear.

No doubt, the superfine quality of the singer is due to the fact that she was born in a cultural environment. A misleading impression has gone abroad that she is an untrained singer: that she sprang on the world full armed with knowledge. It is true that she did not undergo, in her childhood the long years of drudgery that were the lot of Malibran, Patti, and other noted women who were the children of strolling operatic singers and got their training in the rough school of experience. Galli-Curci's preparation, like that of the exquisite artist Marcella Sembrich, was provided by an all-round education, in which music was include. She may boast, with justice, that her vocal development has been directed by her own intelligence, though for seven years she has enjoyed an invaluable experience that brought her into contact with many of the greatest singers of the day. She is, moreover the native of a city where operatic music, is an integral part of the life of the community.

 

AMELITA GALLL-CURCL, who is in private life, Marchioness Galli-Curci was born in Milan, Italy, on November 18th, 1889. She has a Spanish strain, which shows in her countenance. Quite early she showed a great aptitude for languages, literature, and the intellectual side of music. As a girl she took first prize in literature at the Lycee Alessandro Manzoni, and highest honours at the International Institute of Languages, Milan. To-day, she speaks, in addition to her native tongue, English, French, Spanish and German, and has a working knowledge of Russian. She developed an ambition to become a pianist and composer and studied harmony with Maestro A. Piani; capturing the Grand Prix at the Milan Conservatory. When approaching her twentieth year it became clear that her beautiful voice fitted her for an operatic career. To an intellectual young woman a knowledge of operatic traditions and methods is more easily obtainable in Milan than in most other cities of the world; but her debut was made at the Constanzi, Rome, in February, 1910, as Gilda in "Rigoletto," Curragati, a noted Italian critic, rightly proclaimed her "a messenger of the Goddess," and within a year or two musical Italy was convinced that in her would be revived the earlier glories of Italian song.

For the Italian singer, South America offers a very profitable field, and Buenos Ayres in the Argentine Republic, which possesses a very large Italian population, maintains grand opera on a magnificent scale. Thither the young Milanese went, and sang in company with such great vocalists as Caruso and Tito Ruffe, who later brought her fame to North America, though the young prima donne was destined to sing in many parts of the world before she electrified the public. After her season at Buenos Ayres, there followed a triumph at the National Opera House, Havana, and It is singular that no American impressario had the foresight to snap her up then. From Havana she went to Turin, and then came to her the opportunity she most coveted, an engagement at La Scala, Milan.

Engagements in many capitals intervened before Cleofonte Campanini (Continued on page 45)

Galli-Curci and the Marquis, her husband, at breakfast: the home loving phase of her life