My desire to improve in my art had its origin in my instinctive
impulse to rise above mediocrity--an instinct that must have been born
in me, since, when still a little boy, I used to put forth all my
energies to eclipse what I saw accomplished by my companions of like
age. When I was sixteen, and at Naples, there were in the
boarding-house, at two francs and a half a day, two young men who were
studying music and singing, and to surpass them in their own field I
practised the scales until I could take B natural. Later on, when the
tone of my voice; had lowered to the barytone, impelled always by my
desire to accomplish something, I took lessons in music from the
Maestro Terziani, and appeared at a benefit with the famous tenor
Boucarde, and Signora Monti, the soprano, and sang in a duet from
"Belisaria," the aria from "Maria di Rohan,"and "La Settimana
d'Amore," by Niccolai; and I venture to say that I was not third best
in that triad. But I recognised that singing and declamation were
incompatible pursuits, since the method of producing the voice is
totally different, and they must therefore be mutually harmful.
Financially, I was not in a condition to be free to choose between the
two careers, and I persevered of necessity in the dramatic profession.
Whether my choice was for the best I do not know; it is certain that
if my success had been in proportion to my love of music, and I have
reason to believe that it might have been, I should not have remained
in obscurity.