The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Pag
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vdnor
efroDolitan.
o
oera Danton
a T last Scottl. the bachelor baritone,
Is to be married.
iV The public that has been mystl
Sed and disheartened by the failure of his
many attempts, and baa sympathized with
blra In thoae repeated fallurea, la eendlnff
him a flood of congratulations. "Good old
y. You've done tt at last." "Guess you've
read the atory of Robert Bruce and hla
spider that tried seventy-seven tlmea be
fore success." "There's aa good Ash In the
loa at ever slipped off your hook." To
all of which Scottl. the long term bachelor,
tends affable replies. He can afford to
tolerate familiarities at this time, for he
knows that all the world Is Interested in
a lover, especially if that lover has been
singing for it for a quarter of a century.
And most of all if the lover has had a
particularly hard time In all those years
trying to win one bride after another.
Not among the queens of grand opera
though, but in the realms of modest vau
deville has the distinguished grand opera
ainger found his bride. Ina Claire, a
dancer and singer, it Is who has made his
heart captive, and who Will, it is expected,
soon become Bignora Bcottl. Antonio
Scottl is In bis fiftieth year. Ills bride
elect is twenty. But Cupid danced gaily
across the bridge that spanned the dis
parity In years. Cupid acorns the obsta
cle of a difference in ages. Particularly
when a man has tried so often and so
tang to marry as has Scotti.
If search were made In the archives of
the little god, 'for he does keep books, In
his own fashion, It would be found that
Blgnor Scottl Is not by bis fault a bache
lor, lias he not been seeking the Joys and
responsibilities .of the Benedict for thirty
years, since ten years. In fact, before Mrs.
Bcottl that Is to be waa bornT No man can
do more than his best
Aa the baritone sits In bis chair beside
the window of his apartment In a Broad
way hotel and reflects that be Is to marry
a girl of such charm that she quickened
the pulses of staid London, when she ap
peared pn Its stage, and that she, so gos
sips say, might have wedded Vincent Astor,
multi-millionaire, he looks supremely
happy. After thirty years of trying he la
a conqueror.
But the man who at last la victor
might, tt lie chose, recall many de
feats. A procession of the unvan
qulshed might pas before htm In re
view. The roll-call of the procession
ot them might be this: Charlotte
Ives, present: Gsraldlne Farrar, pres
ent; Mary Garden, present; Mary
heavy, present; Emma Karnes, pres
ent; Olive Fremstadt, preaent, and so
on, and so on. All these at some
time, it Is believed, declined Jo be
come Slanora Scottl. WhyT
Blgnor Scottl would be considered ny
all matchmaking mammas, and by most
matchmaking maids, as a good catch.
There can be no doubt ot that. He Is
handsome. He has manners that are de
clared by matinee girls to be "adorable."
Displaying European thrift, he has become
rich from his large salaries aa ainger. He
sings no longer because he must, but be
cause he wishes to sing. He Is ot amiable
character. Why, then, when he kept on
selecting a queen ot his heart from the
long procession of grand opera prima
donnas did each one hesitate, consider,
and at last say firmly and finally "No."
There la no dark secret in bia life. He
is no Blue Beard. Nor la he a Don Juan.
No skeleton obtrudes its bones from his
closet. Why would not women marry
Scottl? Why have they refused until In
his fiftieth year he has become bethrothed
to a girl ot twenty?
He has sung and wooed In
the large cities ot three conti
nents. He made his debut in
Malta, twenty-six yeara age,
alnce which he has sung before
Impressionable Italians, artlstto
Spaniards, sophisticated Paris
ians, the gay and wealthy of
Buenos Ayres and Rio Janeiro,
the cosmopolitan audiences of
London and New York. Every
where he has loved as well as
sung.
Again and again he was
reputed to be engaged. One
mamma actually announced
donna strayed from the world of art and
married a mere banker.
Emma Eames, so the chronicles run, was
wooed by Scottl. Her artist suitor. Julian
Btory won, chiefly because he had never
played Iago nor Tonlo nor the Count nor
Falstaff. When that marriage ended in
the courts, sympathizers of unfortunate
Scotti wrote the prima donna expostula
tory letters saying: "Better that you had
married Scotti, even though be did play
and aing devils."
Mary Garden was one of the chosen, so
far as Scottl was concerned, but she re
fused to be chosen. So, too. of Olive
Fremstad. Character, like ' history, re
peats itself. The prima donne would, as
a husband, have none of him. His vil
lainous roles, they feared, might stalk
nightmare-like through their dreams by
day and night.
Miss Mary Leavy, lie believed, was
braver and leas imaginative. Miss Leavy's
k up It-
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After Years of
Devotion to Hal f a Dozen
of the Grand Opera Queens
He atLastWins the Heart
of a Vaudeville Singer
3fei ha( j
mother was so Interpid as to announce
the engagement. And shades of lean Iago,
and corpulent Falstaff! By the shadows
that they cast he lost her!
And now in little Miss Ina Claire he
places his last hope. In his suit he has
been persistent as a shadow. He Is so
constantly beside her in their (Jrives In
the park, at luncheon, at teas, that he
banishes the memory of his villains. At
the Plaza, at tea, he sits beside her. out
wardly adoring as any college sophomore,
and making no attempt to hide the fact
that Ills hand Is seeking hers In her con
cealing muff. While Mrs. Claire sits be
side them, a stately and approvlngchape
rone. Mothers are not so meticulous as
their daughters. It would not be unde
sireable to be the mother-in-law ot a grand
opera stage Iago.
But a wife! Apparently Miss Claire
thinks that state endurable. In her, Scottl
has found his long-sought exception.
Olive Fremstadt
Who Tired of See
ing a Scowling
Character About.
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Mary Garden Who Declined to Be Chesen.
Antonio Scotti at Iago.
the' engagement. But In this tnatance,
as In all others, the young women
who have attracted the baritone have
smilingly passed out of his sight. If not
out of hla heart. They have added other
names to their own. but never the name
Scottl. And always, contradicting the
adage about women's Inability to keep a
secret, they have refused to say why.
At last the secret baa been divulged, and
by one of the objects ot the baritone's love
and watted propotala of marriage. Said
she: "It Is the parts that Scottl plays. A
tenor never has any trouble to marry,
Why? Because the tenor Is generally the
hero and always the lovemaker tn the
opera, Ask any tenor you know. Caruso,
Rlecardo Martin. John MacCormack, Or
vllle Harrold. how he won his wife, and
every one of them will say. 'By singing
love songs on the stage to other women.'
And they might well have added. 'And by
looking like lovers and heroes we stirred
their hearts.'
"But Scottl. Poor man. He has been
playing and aioging villains ever since I
eaa remember, and looking as nearly like
Sataa as be could possibly make himself
look."
Ina Claire, the
Vaudeville Per
former, Who Will
Become Mrs. Scotti.
Recall the spectacle that Scottl made
to Metropolitan audiences the past fifteen
years. Tonio, ugly, beaten clown, in his
loose baglike clothes and with his peaked
hat and clown's painted cheeks in "Pag
llaocl." Who would want to wed with poor,
grovelling Tonlo?
Falstaff is as repulsive as Tonlo. In an
ampler way. Ever since Shakespeare
caused "The Merry Wives of Windsor" to
gibe and laugh at rotund Falstaff, it has
been understood by women that they,
would not willingly accept the lovemak
lng of a fat man.
The Count, In "La Travtata." It will be
recalled, waa no hero. And Scottl has
hundreds of times sung the Count. Iago?
That has been a favorite part of Seoul's,
and so realistic did he make It that It was
difficult for him to Induce any one to sup
with him after ihe opera. The memory of
the way he looked and the cruel words he
sung with such vehemence could not
easily be shaken off. Scarpla. In "La
Tosca." was no heroic lover. Nor waa
Salasa. In "Lohengrin." Scottl roles all.
The opportunity to woo by proxy never
Unit to Antonio Scotti. Instead be fright
ened his ladles off. While earning a huge
salary by each note be sang, he could not,
as tenors did. set the hearts of his auditors
aflatter. Caruso, while singing In "La
Boheme," addressed his stage adored one,
Miml by the name of his real life adored
'one, who sat In the audience. "Did you
not hear me sing 'Millie?' he asked her.
8rottl'a waa the task to overcome the
resistance offered by the more or less re
pulsive parte he sang.
The man who sings Romeo In the pres
ence ot one he wishes to win, has already
won her. But no Romeo was Scottl. In
bis stage life was he rather a Tonlo.
The mistake Scottl apparently made
was In relying upon the artistic discern
ment cf the ladlea ot his adoration. Ger
aldlne Farrar, though she sang Marguerite,
- could forget hla dlabcMcal Mephtstopheles,
becsuse she was an artist. So thought
Slgnor Scottl. Ia all things else he bent
the knee ot the lover. She said It was he
and her mother who were her pair of most
helpful critics. They taught her more
than the bad ever learned from any one
else of music. The friendship begun be
tween the singers while the young Amert
ran prima donna was in Germany, con
tinued in this country. The Italian's de
votion wss unmistakable. It came to be
said that wherever you saw Geraldine
Farrar. you saw Scotti. Together at a con
cert In Philadelphia they discovered Anna
Case, the girl with the dramatlo soprano
voice, the daughter of a blacksmith at
SoraervUle, N. J.
Again and again rumor said, not In a
whisper, but a shout, that Geraldine Far
rar would soon become Slgnora Scottl. But
after three years of devotion that It
seemed would surely be rewarded, a chill
began to be manifest In the air that sur
rounded tbem. The breach widened.
Bcottl was not a passenger on the steamer
that carried Miss Farrar to Europe M'ss
Farrar was tired. She wished to forget
Scottl as Tonlo, as Scarpla, aa Falstaff, as
Iago. That execrable Iago Into which he
flung such fervor that almost she believed
him Iago. No. Miss Farrar was tired of
baritone villains. Tonlo-Iago-Falstafffcar-pla-Scottl
had gotten on her nerves.
It must be remembered that before Far
rar stretch dozens of other prima donnae
who were wooed the same, and who re
fused the same. Lack of space prevents
anything except a presentation ot the
most modern.
Scottl sailed alone. In Europe he met
Miss Charlotte Ives, a charmma girl who
had but recently gone upon the stage.
Would she, could she. overlook his otlmr
selves, h's many villained s'age life? She
would at'.d could. It seemuJ when she re
turned from Europe and announced her
approaching marriage to the baritone, that
here was one who could dissociate the
man from the role. But alas and alack for
the staunchness of women. Miss Ives, too,
became obsessed by the "heavy" parts he
played. When alio met her betrothed it
was not Scottl, Immaculate, ideally
groomed, debonair whom she beheld, but
crouching Tonio. She heaitated. She
considered. She tried to reason with that
worst of rebels, a woman's heart. But
Scottl lost. His villain repertoire won.
Thus had it been with Lillian Nordlca.
in the brief Interval between her separa
tion from Zoltan Doehme and her mar
riage to George W. Young. Signor Scottl
it was thought was regarded with favor.
The life union of a great dramatic soprano
with a famous baritone waa predicted In
the music world. Then the accumulation
ot evil roles overwhelming her, the prima
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Geraldin Farrar Who Could Not Forget Ilia Villain Role.
Copy I Is ht. 1115. by th 8tar Compiuiy. Orat Britain Rights Ratervad,