Word: scotty
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There are few names that oldtime opera lovers care to mention in the same breath with Caruso and Scotti, but Claudia Muzio (1892-1936) is one of them. The daughter of an Italian operatic stage manager, she grew up backstage in London's Covent Garden, Manhattan's Metropolitan. Caruso, with whom she made a stunning U.S. debut as Tosca in 1916, once said that Claudia "knew all of our stage tricks before she wore long skirts." She had a voice to match her acting: she could, and did, sing coloratura, lyric and dramatic soprano parts with equal ease...
...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...
...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...
Paris was happy to be invaded. The arrival of Milan's famed La Scala opera company set critics to reminiscing fondly of the days when Arturo Toscanini was in the pit, and Caruso, Scotti and Sembrich were on the stage. Nothing about Paris' own two forlorn companies, at the Opera and the Opéra-Comique, was of the sort to bring up such memories...
Died. Louise Homer, 76, onetime (1898-1932) contralto in the Metropolitan's Golden Era of Caruso, Melba, Farrar, Scotti, Tetrazzini; of a heart ailment; in Winter Park, Fla. Daughter of a Pennsylvania minister, she launched her career at 14 by singing Ruth in a church production of Ruth and Naomi (when the lad assigned the basso-profundo role of Boaz failed to show up, Louise sang that role, too). Dependable and even-tempered in an atmosphere that earned "prima donna" its popular meaning, Presbyterian-born Mrs. Homer once balked at a role: in Faust the Met wanted...