Men Women and Tenors

by Frances Alda

FRANCES ALDA, MEN WOMEN and TENORS with illustrations HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON COPYRIGHT, 1937, BY FRANCES ALDA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER CONTENTS PART I A DJBUT AND A DASH OF COLD WATER 1 PART II I WANT TO SING 17 PART III LIVING ADVENTUROUSLY 53 PART IV METROPOLITAN MERRY-GO-ROUND 107 PARTY TRIALS OF A DIRECTOR AND A DIRECTORS WIFE 149 PART VI A PRBIA DONNA ON WHEELS 211 PART VII CASA MIA 267 ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAIT OP MADAME ALDA, METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, 1926 Frontispiece I ALWAYS LOVED CARUSO S BOYISHNESS 10 WHERE ARE THE OPERATIC PERSONALITIES TODAY THERE is BUT ONE. KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD 20 I WAS CHRISTENED FRANCES JEANNE DAVIES 34 MY MOTHER, YOUNG AND GENTLE 34 GRANDMOTHER, EXQUISITE ARISTOCRAT 34 MATHILDE MARCHESI WHAT A CZARINA SHE WAS 34 I HAVE ALWAYS SPENT MUCH TIME, THOUGHT, AND EFFORT ON HAVING GOWNS BEAUTIFUL AND BECOMING 56 TOSCANINI ALIVE, VIBRANT, ELECTRIC 78 GATTI-CASAZZA so DARK, BROODING, INTROVERTED I so GAY, ADVEN TURE-LOVING, ENTHUSIASTIC 102 CARUSO CARICATURE OF GATTI-CASAZZA 126 THE MOST TOUCHING OF DESDEMONAS 144 MY MOTHER-IN-LAW, SITTING SILENT AND SLUMPED IN HER CHAIR WITH AN AIR OF BROODING UNFATHOMABLE THINGS 156 SCOTTI, PADEREWSKI, ALDA, AND CARUSO, MAY, 1512 172 SCOTTI, ALDA, CARUSO 196 ELSA MAXWELL AT THE LIDO 196 A FISHING BET WITH CHARLIE CHAPLIN 196 ALDA AND MARY GARDEN 196 PRINCESS IN Marouf 232 MARGUERITE IN Faust 232 Si, MI CHIAMINO MIMI La Boheme 232 WITH MRS. HARRIMAN IN A WAR TABLEAU 232 I STARTED SOMETHING THE LlDO BEACH PAJAMA VOGUE 262 ALDA WITH IRENE CASTLE 262 A FAREWELL TESTIMONIAL FROM THE METROPOLITAN STAGE HANDS 280 SUNDAY NIGHT AT CAS A MIA 296 CASA MIA ON GREAT NECK, LONG ISLAND 296 PART I A DEBUT AND A DASH OF COLD WATER Elk ne savait pas Dans sa candeur naive . . , MIGNON

307 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1937

Reviews

[Bob Kosovsky]

I wanted a fun book to read (after previously reading a book written in 1950s textbook language). Luckily I came upon a copy of this book which has never been reprinted since its 1937 publication. Alda's tone and style are very readable, almost to the point of conversation. If I hadn't been so busy and on a trip I could have read the entire thing in 3 days.

For a book written in 1937, she is surprisingly frank about a lot of things (a warning she provides at the outset) and provides a satisfying amount of dish. She is not affectionate toward her ex-husband, Giulio Gatti-Casazza (who was alive when the book was published) saying that, even when she married him, she never loved him. Rather she married him out of a sense of security and because of his ceaseless avowals of love (they married in 1910). She describes him as always being depressed and withdrawn, despite his business dealings and successful stewardship of the Metropolitan Opera and admits that they had separated and lived separate lives years before their divorce in 1928.

The colleagues she reserves the most affection for are Enrico Caruso (she could afford to: he died in 1921 and Alda was friends with his widow Dorothy) and Arturo Toscanini (I know they were good friends until Alda's death—there's a fun photograph of a 1946 party at Alda's house [not in the book] with Toscanini playing the piano surrounded by Alda, Martinelli and others). The other major figure in the book is her main voice teacher, Mathilde Marchesi. I wished she had gone into more detail about her instruction but she probably had to cut it due to the expected audience's lack of musical knowledge.

She makes no apologies for her mistakes (she thought the Met should have closed during the height of the depression - a terrible idea!) or her excessive and expensive taste in material comforts. She clearly invested wisely but only provides a few lines about her financial acuity.

Examining her family on Find-a-Grave and Geni.com, Alda clearly was Jewish (a fact not even Wikipedia acknowledges). She doesn't mention this at all, going as far as not mention her parents' names (David Edward Davis and Lenore Simonsen (later remarried as Lenore Adler). She tries to describe her mother as being of French stock but Geni.com shows both sides are Jewish families. Alda herself clearly didn't care about her birth religion, marrying two Christians and being buried in a Episcopal cemetery in Great Neck (probably because of her husband).

Though she made over 150 recordings, the only recordings she mentions in more than a sentence is her first, the Miserere from Il Trovatore with Caruso, and the Ave Maria from Otello (which she had to rerecord because the first attempt was not good enough). She devotes a major portion at the end of the book to her house which she named "Casa Mia" located in Great Neck. Sadly the house (at 510 East Shore Road) was demolished in the late 1950s.

If you don't know much about the time period you may not find full satisfaction from all the names of people she interacted with and operas she sang. If you're an opera fan with a sense of history (or even a devoted Caruso addict), this book is well worth reading.

[Melissa]

I read this originally many years ago and had been unable to find it. I finally attempted interlibrary loan and I got a copy of an original edition printed in 1937, thanks to the Enoch Pratt Library. Not enjoying it as much as the first time I read it- I'd give it 3 stars now, but maybe because the stories aren't new to me this time. Alda was a soloist with the Metropolitan Opera starting in 1908 and was married to the director there from 1910 to 1928. Best part for me is the tidbits about Caruso with whom she sang- and the sometimes peculiar behavior by tenors.