66.—OPERATIC SORE THROAT.
Opera singers have the name of being capricious people. While, on the whole, they undoubtedly average up about the same as the rest of humanity in this regard, that still leaves a margin for a good deal of caprice and unaccountable ideas.
Impossible colds and suspicious illness on the part of his singers are some of the most perplexing features an operatic manager encounters. The following incident gives a fair example of one kind of "operatic cold."
Ronconi and his wife were singing in the same troupe, and when the lady was irritated by being cast to sing with some one she did not like, or by being entirely omitted from the cast, peculiar as it may seem, this circumstance had an immediate effect on Ronconi's throat,—it would be impossible for him to sing.
On one occasion the manager, after receiving a note to the effect that it would be impossible for the singer to appear, took a physician with him and called on the invalid. Ronconi expressed his regrets in a hollow whisper; but the impresario, knowing the tenor's consummate powers as an actor, doubted the genuineness of this whispering performance. So he simply expressed his sympathy and proceeded to converse on certain topics that he knew would interest the singer.
In a few moments Ronconi forgot his assumption of vocal inability, and was talking in his full natural voice. When his attention was called to the fact he ascribed his wonderful recovery to the mere presence of so excellent a physician. He sang that night and with more than usual energy.