How Do You Do

A dozen of the Metropolitan's once-great singers went to Manhattan's Town Hall last week. Frances Alda, Giovanni Martinelli, Maria Jeritza, Karin Branzell and Elisabeth Rethberg sat in the audience. On stage was the oldest of them all, roly-poly, 69-year-old Giuseppe de Luca, onetime star of the Met's "Golden Age." It was his first Manhattan recital in 29 years. Said De Luca afterward: "Even before I began to sing they make a big ovation. They don't even know can I still sing. They are saying 'how do you do my dear friend.' "

He did fine.

Most of the oldtimers in the audience had sung with De Luca during the 20 years when he was one of the Met's great baritones. With Jeritza, De Luca had sung Carmen, with Alda, La Boheme, and with Rethberg and Martinelli, Il Trovatore. When the Met's new manager, Edward Johnson, was approved in 1935, he did not renew De Luca's high-salaried contract. Throughout the war, De Luca was in Italy. His 30-room villa was untouched by bombs which flattened the house of his neighbor, Virginio Gayda, Mussolini's press aide. De Luca said: "For five years I was playing cards. I refused to sing because I was not in a good humor."

He told his wife he wouldn't sing any more. "She told me, 'You are ruining your life. You always in the garden, with the dog, and read the book. What is the life?' " So when peace came they caught a Liberty ship to the U.S. Just to make sure he still had his voice before trying it in Manhattan, he sang his favorite role (Rigoletto) with the Connecticut Opera Company in Hartford. Even so, before his Town Hall recital last week he passed a nervous day. Said he: "To stay in good shape I remain in bed all the day. I get up and drink very strong coffee, do exercises. I test my voice. It is all right. I dress up, go to hall, stay there one-half hour in armchair."

During his first song, Handel's Let Me Weep, Lord!, De Luca wept. So did most of his audience, for the great baritone voice had lost none of its splendor; if anything, it was even more musical.

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