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Show rhe Only Man Who Can H it Signor Enrico Caruso, as the Clow o Signor Enrico Caruso, as the Clow in "I Pagliacci,'" Whose Difficul High C-Sharp Now Becomes a Tame Affair. idem. he Historic Cadenza in Ros-' MK X sini's Barber of Seville" jHHRfe S C Q- pP-- W'hich Romani Is the flBf'' .Cx' - ""N. ' -t First Tenor to Execute HeT W 4 I tt v "fcdct-V rr tie Gr 'r'T1 S'nC 'B' gg-3rii HighVC W ' v, : to which v-- .w wJr. the Arrow i fK A "Barber of Seville" Soprano Cadenza, as Sung By Frieda Hempel, in I Which Two Long Trills Are Followed by a Sustained F Above High C a Remarkable Feat Even f or a Soprano. Yet the King's i Tenor" Is Able to "Hit" That Same "F in Alt." The Extraordinary Vocal Machinery of Sig. Romani, the King of Italy 's Favorite Tenor, Who Has Been Exempted from Military Duty by the King Himself Him-self to Save His Valuable High Notes ill ' V. "'H : 77:h ' I ' - - - - " J ' - them. He sings the tenor roles of Fer- stream of air passes between the mora nando. in "La Favorita"; the Duke, in and more contracted vocal cords. "Rigoletto"; Arturo, in "1 Puritani''; Don "When I sing my highest tones," says Ottavio. in "Don Giovanni"; Nemorino, in Romani, 'it seems to me that the centre 'L'Elisir d'Amor"; Elvino, in "La Son- of the diaphragm rises like a cone, up- nambula": Ernesto, in. "Don Pasquale"; ward and forward, until it touches the Airreao, in i,a iraviata, and so on. Of the modern mod-ern operas his favorite role is Rodolfo, in "La Boheme." a famous Caruso part. The tenor part of Rossini's "Stabat Mater" is one of his best achievements. achieve-ments. Probably you will wonder won-der what Is the secret of this young Italian's ability l.o do what no other tenor if these times or any other has been able to accomplish. accom-plish. The answer is simple: sim-ple: The perseverance of the fittest. A perfect vocal mechanism in a magnificently magnifi-cently vital physique trained to its highest capacity ca-pacity characterizes all great singers. Romani adds the Nth degree, perhaps, per-haps, by greater confidence confi-dence and daring, united with sound methods. The musical tone produced pro-duced by vibrations of the vocal chords in the larynx as a thinner or thicker stream of air passes between be-tween them from the lungs, according to its higher or lower pitch, is also materially under the control of the diaphragm, dia-phragm, that partition of muscle and cartillaee inner wan oi tne upper chest. I seem to feel that this is the power which enables me to reach and sustain all my upper tones." He added what is familiar famil-iar to all singers the part played by the upper throat and the cranial cavities Dack of the nose as resonance reso-nance chambers; and these seemed to gain in importance the higher his tones soared. There are several sopranos so-pranos before the publio whose specialty is the high-pitched roles of the old operas here mentioned. Tetrazzini made her great success in them. Marcella Sembrich now retired from opera probably was the greatest modern soprano so-prano In this class. Her former roles at. the Metropolitan Metro-politan opera in New York are now in the hands of Frieda Hempel, a very beautiful young woman, who curiously enough recently justifies her coloratura col-oratura specialty in the same way that Romani justifies his "altlsslmo" notes: by no other means can the charming old operas be restored to popularity pop-ularity and to general ea- Diagram Illustrating Romanes Ro-manes Idea of How He Takes His "Top Notes." The Centre of the Diaphragm Dia-phragm (A) Shown by the Dotted Curve (B) Rises Like a Cone Until Its Apex Seems to Lie High Up Against the Chest. The Arrow Indicates In-dicates How the Force Here Generated Carries the Vibrations to the Cranial Resonance Chambers, (C). fTI CCO Romani e il suo mi-naturale In A altissimo!" That's what the opera-mad Italians of New York re saying In plain English: "Behold Romani, Ro-mani, and Ms most high E-natural!" And that is not exaggerating, either, for Giuliano Romani can "hit high. F," and probably Is the only tenor in the world who can do it. Who is this Romani with a "top note which soars so far above Caruso's or of sny other opera tenor of the present century? Well, in Italy he. Is known & the "King's Tenor." That is because the King of Italy who Is a first-class connoisseur con-noisseur understands fully the rarity and the value of a voice that is equal to the great tenor roles of the classic Italian operas as originally written by their composers. com-posers. When the King heard Romani sing Rossini's Ros-sini's "Barber of Seville," heard him execute exe-cute smoothly and with ease the famous cadenza with its high C and its E-natural, two full tones higher something which had not been accomplished in the last eighty years of the history of opera His Majesty promptly and personally exempted ex-empted the singer from military duty. What were one man's services in this war compared with the value to the whole world of such a voice? So Romani received the popular Italian title of the "King's Tenor," and brought "is precious top notes to this country for safe-keeping. Where has Romani kept himself and 'hat priceless top note, which only three or tour opera prima donnas can reach? If he's got it, why doesn't he deliver the goods at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, where top notch tenors are worth their weight in gold? The answer is easy. The prodigy is a native-born Italian, barely twenty-five years old. Until a few months ago he nad never been outside of his native country. coun-try. Up to a year ago he didn't know hat his larynx contained a "top note" more lofty than the conventional "high C" of all capable opera tenors. He bad sung the principal tenor roles of Italian opera a'l over Italy, in the conveniional modern way, and was forging ahead on the "high L basis. By accident, one day. the competent yocal instructor who happened to be singing sing-ing the part of Valentine to bis own Faust, "i the opera of that name, became suspicious sus-picious that a valuable C-sharp. an invaluable in-valuable possible D, and an ultra-valuable E in alt." were incubating in the voice- box of that vital young tenor and It was true. Thereupon Romani and his discoverer secluded themselves and plunged into the exacting labor of developing those precious preci-ous upper tones to the full extent of their possibilities. This meant a general going over of the tenor's whole vocal range, purifying it, smoothing out any defects, making it live up to those newly discovered discov-ered upper tones, which would enable Romani, Ro-mani, alone among living tenors, to sing the hero parts in the best works of Bellini, Bel-lini, Donizetti, Rossini and Mozart as originally orig-inally written for the great tenors of their own time. When this task was well along It was not a difficult matter in opera-loving Italy, where "bel canto" is almost a religion, to bring Romani's rare gifts to the notice of the King with the result just described. The "King's Tenor" is now living quietly in New York City. Privately he has been heard by some of the most capable judges in America. The verdict is unanimous. unani-mous. Not only is that "E-natural in alt" pure, easy and to be relied on, but the whole range, down to lower C, demonstrates demon-strates a lyric tenor of the finest quality, of admirable power, and when the occasion occa-sion warrants with an irresistible "dramatic "dra-matic punch" in it. The history of opera contains the name of but one tenor whose qualities could be described in the same terms. He was Rubini. And it was mainly because Ru-bini Ru-bini demonstrated these powers that. Bellini Bel-lini composed the opera "I Puritani," with its brilliant cadenzas soaring into "altissimo." "altis-simo." One reason that this opera, and others of about the same period by Bellini, Bel-lini, Rossini, Donizetti and Mozart are not more frequently sung nowadays is because be-cause much of the brilliancy of their charming and graceful melodies is lost in transposing them downward to a point where Rubini's successors could reach their upper notes. In justice to the great tenors of the last fifty years, it should be remembered that the demands upon them in the way of a perfectly even quality of tone throughout their entire range are much greater than formerly. Then it was permissible to divide the vocal range Into separate "registers," and even to produce the tones above "high C" with a sort of falsetto. To-day there must be no break in the quality of the tones nor in the method of their production from top to bottom. There is no dnnht. yjnt Caruso. pj a which separates the abdominal cavity from that containing the lungs and heart, and which is largely responsible for the function func-tion of breathing. As the pitch of the tone rises, so does the centre of the diaphragm, dia-phragm, pressing against the lungs and increasing the force with which the As in the case of Romani, so does Frieda Hempel make hsr best impression with the soaring cadenzas of Rossini's "Barber of Seville"; she, too, with C-sharps, D's and E's "in altissimo." Perhaps they will be heard together this coming season who can tell? Frieda Hempel, the Beautiful German Coloratura Soprano Whose "Top Notes," Like Those of the "King's Tenor," Are Required in Restoring the "Lost Art" of the Classical Italian Opera. very few other tenors of the last two decades were in this regard the superiors of their predecessors of two and three generations ago. But "high C" has been their really useful upper limit. Caruso, and one or two others, have upon occasion, occa-sion, when in exceptionally fine condition, ventured just one degree into "altissimo," dwelling briefly upon a C-sharp. Thus It will be appreciated that for a Romani to produce an "E-natural in alt" having the same operatic significance as the "high C" of his contemporaries, while supplying ;.:! the other demands made upon up-on a ' ' -. '. ' . - ". is only to achieve a triumph, but to do more than even Rubin could have attempted. Giuliano Romani sings "The Barber o Seville" with the Rubini cadenza at th end. which includes the "high E" abov the "high C" a performance whi-h n other tenor since Rubini has achieved. H also vocalizes the fast movement, runnin chromatic scales which all tenors of th modern school have evaded. This mean a revival of the "lost art." of the earl part of the nineteenth century. It also means new life for several1 of th most charming of the classic operas. Rc mani's practised repertory Includes all o ,4 |