A Night at the Opera

One wintry January afternoon in 1916, the Metropolitan Opera's Enrico Caruso, Frances Alda, Antonio Scotti and Andres de Segurola bundled into a train for one of their weekly performances in Philadelphia. For the top performers in the Met's golden age it was a routine trip, but one they always made the most of. This time, the party sipped champagne.

When the curtain went up on LaBoheme that night in Philadelphia's Academy of Music, Tenor Caruso & Co. found that wintry weather had cut their audience to fewer than 200. So they decided to do La Boheme up a little differently.

All four--even Soprano Alda--aped Basso Segurola by wearing monocles.When Segurola put on his top hat, he was showered with white dust: Caruso had thoughtfully poured flour into it. Baritone Scotti squirted seltzer water in Alda's face. Instead of nibbling at stage fare in the cafe scene of Act II, they sat down with relish to a chicken dinner--and more champagne --ordered in from an Italian restaurant.

But the most memorable moment was one that few listeners were aware of. In the last act, with Mimi a-dying, Segurola (known mainly to a later generation as Deanna Durbin's teacher) suddenly turned to Caruso and whispered hoarsely that he could not manage his final aria, the "Coat Song." Grated the basso: "I've lost my voice."

As Madame Alda (now 66) recalls it, Caruso said, "Non fa niente. You just stand still and move your lips and I'll sing it for you." With his back to the audience, he did just that. Says Alda: "I felt like sitting up in my bed and joining in the applause."

This week, on CBS's We the People program, U.S. music-lovers were to hear for the first time how the great tenor sounded as a great basso. For, pleased with his prank, Caruso had made a recording a few weeks later. Only six prints had been run off and Caruso had ordered the master copy destroyed. Said he: "I don't want to spoil the bass business." But one of the prints had been preserved by Dr. Mario Marafioti, onetime Met physician and friend of Caruso, and Narrator Wally (Voices That Live) Butterworth had persuaded him to let a new master be cut from his copy. He also persuaded Madame Alda to tell her story on the other side.

After its unveiling on the air, those who doubted their ears could buy the record themselves (from Butterworth, for $3) and listen again.

Other new records:

Bartok: Quartet No. 3 (New Music String Quartet; Bartok Recording Studios, 1 side, LP). Swiss Conductor Ernest Ansermet once described the late great Bela Bartok as "one who searches groaningly, even though he may appear to be smiling." Composed in 1927, his Quartet No. 3 is crammed with rhythmic and harmonic search, and a few groans and smiles too. With this excellent recording, made by the composer's son Peter, 25, all six Bartok quartets are now on wax. Performance: good.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky conducting; Victor, 8 sides); (Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Carl Schuricht conducting; London FFRR, 2 sides, LP). Two great performances; if Schuricht's is more sure, Victor's 45-r.p.m. recording holds an edge over London's LP (33 1/3-r.p.m.) in quality of sound.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Irma Gonzalez, soprano; Elena Nikolaidi, contralto; Raoul Jobin, tenor; Mack Harrell, baritone; Westminster Choir and New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter conducting; Columbia, 16 sides). The first three movements are performed with more passion than pace; both the singing and the recording in the choral movement come off with some screeching and muffled sounds.

Chopin: Concerto No. 1 In E Minor (Alexander Brailowsky, piano, with the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg conducting; Victor, 8 sides). Artur Rubinstein's magnificent performance (also for Victor) is a mark for most pianists to shoot at; Brailowsky's softer and sometimes soggy version just misses. Recording: excellent.

Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 64 No. 5 (Budapest String Quartet; Columbia, 6 sides). This quartet, the "Lark," does not fly with quite the grace and charm of Haydn's earlier and better quartet, "The Bird" (Op. 33, No. 3). The Budapesters don't soar with their earlier ease either. Recording: fair.

Gilbert & Sullivan: Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury (D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, New Promenade Orchestra, Isadore Godfrey conducting; London FFRR, 4 sides and 2 sides respectively, LP). The first two in the Gilbert & Sullivan series which London Gramophone plans to bring out, performed by the past masters of the art. Performance and recording: excellent.

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