11 APRIL 1941, Page 20

Last Appearance

John AlcCormack, the Story of a Singer. By L. A. G. Strong- (Methuen. 153.) JoHN MCCoFtmacx has made his official farewell to his concert- public—he said good-bye to opera long ago—and now he performs the last sad rites of a singer's career and tells the tale of his success. For, although Mr. Strong's name is there on the title-page and his presence is felt whenever there is need for objective comment, this is in essence Mr. McCormack's autobiography. It differs from the autobiographies of most other singers only in its frank acknowledgement of literary aid. And Mr. McCormack has been fortunate in securing an artist of Mr. Strong's calibre to put his reminiscences into writing. And even though Mr. Strong has not achieved the impossible of making a masterpiece of his material, he has put together an interesting, and at times amusing, book. For his subject has a fund of good stories and all an Irishman's gusto in their telling.

McCormack is about the last survivor of that galaxy which shone so brilliantly in Covent Garden thirty years ago, and of which tht bright particular stars were Melba, Caruso and Scotti, Tetrazzini and Emmy Destinn. He was but a minor luminary himself—a lyric tenor with a sweet, soft voice, a little too nasal, perhaps, in quality, and a master of legato phrasing. He aspired to none of the great roles—the Duke in Rigoletto and Don Ottavio were his highest flights ; and Ottavio is only_a secondo uomo. He names it as his favourite part, but he was most at home in Boheme. After 1914 he gave up opera, for though he pays tribute to various efforts to establish opera in English, he did not feel himself called upon to assist those efforts in any practical way. He took instead to the concert-platform in its most enormous form. Those who have heard him in private claim McCormack as a great Lieder singer, especially of Wolf. But those not so privileged had to judge from one or two specimens among the old classical airs and sentimental Irish songs which he knew so well how to put across, in an Albert Hall programme, and in the circumstances judgement on such a fine point was of little value. From the public point of view McCormack's contribution to music was negligible, great though the pleasure he gave with his voice.

Mr. Strong has added to these reminiscences a list of the records made by the singer and his contemporaries which will be of service to gramophone enthusiasts.- That his musical

judgements, however, and even his factual accuracy are not above suspicion may be gathered from the following passage : The Covent Garden season of 1913 was chiefly remarkable for the advent of Chaliapin. . . People had not realised that a bass could not only be the hero of an opera, but could sing with the flexibility, the appeal, the finish, the dramatic power of a Caruso.

To anyone who has heard the two singers this is the higher nonsense. You might as well talk of the Pheidian grace and restraint of El Greco. And Chaliapin made his London debut not at Covent Garden, but at Drury Lane. DYNELEY HUSSEY.