April 19, 1923
personality, dramatic ability, experience, an immense amount of hard work and study, a special knack of getting along with all kinds of persons and finally, and most important, the opportunity. There are a few other requirements, but these, I am sure, are sufficient to show why, out of so many who think they are called, so few are chosen.”
An Increasing Interest in Opera.
Miss Lucchese finds an ever-awakening interest in opera in this country—it has been noticeable even in her short experience—and it must be remembered that this brilliant young singer is only in her second professional year. With the natural increase of this interest more opportunities will be provided for singers to get the experience necessary through the formation of many grand opera companies and then, _ if they have the requisite qualifications, it is only a question of time until they can enter the big companies as stars.
Miss Lucchese’s experience is especially interesting and valuable because she is one of the very few young Americans who have successfully entered grand opera without the glamour of a European training and prestige. H. W.
12	MUSICAL COURIER
IS EUROPEAN TRAINING INDISPENSABLE
TO A GRAND OPERA STAR?
Lucchese’s Extraordinary Successes Prove the Contrary—“American Nightingale” Discusses Grand Opera Situation in
America
Matzenauer First Soloist at Goldman Concerts
All details of the twelve weeks’ season of summer concerts to be given on the Mall in Central Park have been completed and an interesting series that will be educational in character may be looked forward to. The Goldman Band, under its popular conductor, Edwin Franko Goldman, will soon begin to rehearse its sixty programs. Of these programs not one is to be repeated and the new repertory promises many novel and interesting works. The programs will again be issued in booklet form containing short explanations of the music rendered. These explanatory notes are written by Mr. Goldman and give educational value to the concerts. The season will start on June 4 and end August 26.
Besides the band, which has so often been referred to as “A Symphony Orchestra in Brass,” there will be vocal and instrumental soloists. Margarete Matzenauer will sing at the opening concert. Other soloists who will sing during the season are Lotta Madden and Dicie Howell, sopranos; Frieda _ Klink, contralto; Suzanne Clough, mezzo-soprano, and William Simmonds, baritone. Vincent Buono, the well known cornet virtuoso, has been engaged for the season. Salvatore Cucchiara will appear as euphonium soloist. It is quite possible that several prominent violinists and pianists will appear at these concerts during the season.
No admission tickets will be required for these concerts, but concert schedules have been printed which give all information as to the various programs. These schedules will be mailed to anyone making a request, the only requirement being that a self-addressed stamped envelope be enclosed with the request.
Mitja Nikisch to Play in Pittsburgh
Mitja Nikisch will be heard in recital at Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh, on October 25, under the local direction of Edith Taylor Thomson. This engagement will follow by two days his American debut in Carnegie Hall, New York.
in for musical comedies and vaudeville, at enormous salaries. It may surprise you to know that I have also received numbers of extremely flattering offers to appear in the movies. No, I cannot even entertain such offers—art is art and to me it is vital, it is a part of my very life and when one has decided, as I have, to become a priestess in the Temple of Art, nothing should be permitted to interfere with the determination to keep brightly burning the sacred fire before the altar of the Goddess.”
Miss Lucchese is wholly the product of American training and she prides herself on the fact that she has been able to be “discovered” by American audiences without ever putting her foot outside of the good old U. S. A.
“Of course I shall be very happy to sing also abroad and it looks very much as if I would have to do it very soon. I would love to sing throughout the world and I will not be entirely happy until I have realized this dream of mine.”
Although feeling that in art there is always a great deal to learn every day and that the life of an artist is nothing short of constant training, study and continuous application, Miss Lucchese is glad to admit that all the things necessary for an artist’s success can be easily obtained in this country without the need of going abroad.
“If I do want to go to Europe it is only to sing there, not to study. All that is required in a finished artist is right at our doors in this blessed country of ours; and it will be here that I will continue my studies. But I do not hide from you that while it is the ambition of my life to sing throughout the world, I am anxious to do it also because of the fact that, no matter what we say, no matter what we do, in our country, no American artist is ever considered worthy of all absolute superlatives until the successes,_ triumphs, fame and glory acquired in this land have received the sanction of at least one of the other four parts of the world.”
Repertory Includes Twelve Operas.
־ Notwithstanding her youth, notwithstanding her very short career, Miss Lucchese’s repertory includes sixteen operas: Lucia, Barber, Traviata, La Juive, L’Africaine, Rigoletto, Lakme, Hamlet, Sonnambula, Dinorah, Carmen, Tales of Hoffman, Romeo and Juliette, L’Oracolo, II Flauto Magico and Martha, some of which she can sing both in French and Italian and even in English.
“The hardest kind of work is necessary to master the vocal technic,” she said, “and this continues all during the life of the singer, because you must not only learn roles but you must retain them so as to be able to sing them at a moment’s notice, as often is the case in America. The coloratura above all other voices, not even excepting the tenor, must keep in perfect condition all the time. To become an operatic star requires voice, stage presence,
A sensation of North America for the 1922-23 season 1 That is saying a great deal—but it is as near the truth as any sweeping statement can be—probably nearer.
She has only sung on the concert and opera stage for this and the preceding season and yet, having performed and appeared in nearly all the most important cities of North America, her friends and admirers are legion.
She has already become the idol of many an audience although it is doubtful whether she has reached the age of twenty-five. But she is not only young, beautiful and exceptionally gifted; she is modest, and what is more, her modesty is not pose or affectation. Proof of her modesty is found in the fact that her name is Josephine Lucchese, being an American born (she hails from San Antonio, Texas), of Italian parentage. Recently, having changed her civil status by becoming the wife of a Philadelphian, Capt. Adolfo Caruso, she is by every right entitled to use that distinguished name. A name like that in the lyric world, especially when coupled with such an excellent reputation in art as the one earned by Josephine Lucchese in the last two seasons, would unquestionably be of immense commercial value in her artistic career. Joining the sobriquet of “American Nightingale,” which has been bestowed upon her by many eminent critics, to the name of Josephine Caruso and adding to this combination the very eulogistic criticisms she has received everywhere and the reports of the furore she has created wherever she has appeared, who would, who could blame her if she yielded to the temptation of impressing herself upon the memory of music lovers by using the name of Caruso to which she is, by every consideration, entitled?
Probably there are few, in her place, who would not have jumped at the opportunity to “make a name” for themselves. Josephine Lucchese not only has not succumbed to this temptation, but what is more, she never will.
Would Not Trade on Name of King of Tenors.
“No, no, no.”—she said to the interviewer when the •subject was brought to her attention—“I do not want to trade on the name of the King of Tenors. The name of Caruso means too much to art and to the world. I am only a nightingale and Caruso was the eagle in the heaven of music and art. I certainly expect, I certainly aim to soar high, very high in the sky and to take my place alongside of the other constellations—it is my ambition in life—but I want to earn my glory, my renown, as Josephine Lucchese, the ‘American Nightingale,’ by building all my artistic fame on my personal efforts and not on expedients. No, no, no! Not for anything in the world will I change my name. Lucchese is the name with which I began my operatic career and Lucchese is the one with which I will end it.
Not Willing to Commercialize Her Art.
“Had I been willing to commercialize my art, even by avoiding the use of the Caruso name, I could have gone
REIMHERR

Tenor
Scores Again in Russian Master Song Recital

V
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N. Y. Evening Sun:
George Reimherr, American tenor, joined the Russians last night by singing in the National Theater a program entirely of their master songs. He restricted himself to English translations, but his list was picturesque and of a sort to bring out the pleasantness of his voice, which, when he brought it up to top notes, broadened out into rarer metal. One of Oscar Schminke’s harmonizations, “Song of the Young Peddler,” was especially to the audience’s liking.
N. Y. Globe:
George Reimherr, an admirable interpreter of songs, gave a recital of Russian music last night in the National Theater.
N. Y. Evening World:
In the evening George Reimherr, tenor, at the National Theater, sang in English four groups of “Russian Master Songs.” There were five folk songs harmonized by Oscar Schminke and numbers by Bleichmann, Moussorgsky, Tschaikowsky, Gretchaninoff, Rachmaninoff and others. Mr. Reimherr, whose voice־ we have often had occasion to laud, nicely caught the spirit and flavor of the folk tunes. He gave them a simple, appealing touch, and his diction was excellent.
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Sketch by George Peixotto.
N. Y. Telegram:
An interesting program of unusual Russian songs was presented by George Reimherr, tenor, last night at the National Theater. Mr. Reimherr is an expert in. English diction and a very talented interpreter of songs.
Music Review:
On March 25th George Reimherr, the well known young American tenor, gave a recital of Russian Master Songs at the National Theater. The program, which was sung throughout in English, was made up mainly from the compositions of Tschaikowsky, Bleichmann, Moussorgsky, Bala-kireff, Rimsky-Korsakoff, and Rachmaninoff. In addition to this there were five Russian and Siberian folk-songs harmonized by Oscar Schminke. In all these numbers Mr. Reimherr had full opportunity of showing the strong and effective powers of diction which his audiences always expect of him. But, apart from this familiar feature of his singing, it was a pleasure to note a decided improvement in the freedom and resonance of his fine tenor voice. His musical standardes always a high one. And this gives him an enviable position among his fellow vocalists.
N. Y. Mail:
Mr. Ziegfeld, John Murray Anderson and other managers are overlooking a bet when they allow such young American tenors as George Reimherr to devote their talents to the concert stage.
With a colorful background of glorified femininity Mr. Reimherr would hypnotize the most tired of playgoers by the dulcet quality of his tones. Moreover, he is far from homely, and if his name were only Serge Stepanovitch, or something like that, he might be a sensation in almost any line.
The Russian program which Mr. Reimherr gave at the National Theater last night was interesting, and it was excellently sung. But there are too few such voices and personalities at large to limit them to three or four New York recitals in a year.
Mr. Reimherr deserves a bigger audience than any concert hall can give him.
N. Y. Herald:
George Reimherr, tenor, assisted by Frank Braun at the piano, gave a recital of Russian master songs at the National Theater last evening. His program included an interesting group of folk songs harmonized by Oscar Schminke. Mr. Reimherr sang Bleichmann’s “My Lips Are Sealed With Grief,” Moussorgsky’s “King Saul” and several compositions by Tschaikowsky, Gretchaninov, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov and others. Mr. Reimherr has been heard often in local concert halls. He used his vocal assets well, displaying good enunciation and an artistic and commendable style.
N. Y. Times:
George Reimherr In Russian Songs
George Reimherr gave a recital of Russian songs at the National Theater last evening, including in the program many familiar melodies as well as some new ones. The large audience expressed its enjoyment of the numbers, especially Rimsky-Korsakoff’s “Waves Dashing and Breaking,” which he sang with clear enunciation and artistic shading of tone. Frank Braun played the accompaniments.
EMPIRE CONCERTS, 1700 Times Bldg., Times Sq., New York