On my return to London I received a message from my principals at home
suggesting that, in view of the possibilities of opera next winter, an
interview with the famous brothers De Reszke would be interesting to the
readers of the United States. I immediately started for Warsaw, where, I
was given to understand, these wonderful operatic stars were spending
the summer on their justly famous stock-farm.
I arrived late at night, and put up comfortably at a small and
inexpensive inn on the outskirts of the city. Mine host was a jolly old
Polander, who, having emigrated to and then returned from America,
spoke English almost as well as a citizen of the United States. He was
very cordial, and assigned me the best room in his house without a
murmur or a tip. Anxious to learn how genius is respected in its own
country, I inquired of him if he knew where the De Reszkes lived, and
what kind of people they were.
"Oh, yais," he said, "I know dem De Reszkes ferry vell already. Dey haf
one big farm back on dher hills. I gets my butter undt eggs from dhose
De Reszkes."
"Indeed!" said I, somewhat amused. "They are fine fellows, both of
them."
"Yais," he said. "I like dem vell enough. Deir butter is goot, undt deir
eggs is goot, but deir milk is alvays skimmed. I do not understandt it
vy dey shouldt skim deir milk."
"I presume," said I, "that their voices are in good condition?"
"Vell," he replied, "I dondt know much apout deir foices. I dondt effer
speak to dem much. Ven I saw dem lost dey could make demselves heardt.
But, you know, dey dondt needt deir foices much already. Dey keep a man
to sell deir butter undt eggs."
"But of course you know that they are renowned for their vocal powers,"
I suggested.
"I dondt know much apout 'em," he said, simply. "Dey go avay for a year
or two every six months, undt dey come back mit plenty ohf money ohf one
kind undt anodder, but I subbosed dey made it all oudt ohf butter undt
eggs. Vot is dose focal bowers you iss dalking apout? Iss dot some new
kindt ohf chiggens?"
I gave the landlord up as a difficult case; but the next day, when I
called at the castle of the two famous singers, I perceived why it was
that in their own land they were known chiefly as farmers.
"The De Reszkes?" said I, as I entered their castle, some ten miles out
of Warsaw, and held out my hands for the brothers to clasp.
[Illustration: IT WAS A SUPERB BUILDING]
It was a superb building, with a facade of imposing quality, and not,
as I had supposed, built of painted canvas, but of granite. To be sure,
there were romantic little balconies distributed about it for Jean to
practise on, with here and there a dark, forbidding casement which
suggested the most base of Edouard's bass notes; but generally the
castle suggested anything but the flimsy structure of a grand-opera
scene.
Their reply was instant, and I shall never forget the magnificent
harmony of their tones as they sang in unison:
"Miss Witherup--Miss Wi-hith-hith-erup?" they inquired.
"The sa-ha-ha-hay-hame!" I sang, and I haven't a bad voice at all.
"We are glad," sang Jean, in tenor tones.
"We are glad," echoed Edouard, only in bass notes, and then they joined
together in, "We are glad, we are glad, to see-hee-hee-hee you."
I wish I could write music, so that I could convey the delightful
harmonies of the moment to the reader's ear, particularly the last
phrase. If a typographical subterfuge may be employed, it went like
this:
"To see--
hee--
hee--
hee
you!"
Start on C, and go a note lower on each line, and you will get some idea
of the exquisite musical phrasing of my greeting.
"Excuse me, Jean," said Edouard, "but we are forgetting ourselves. It is
only abroad that we are singers. Here we are farmers, and not even
yodellists."
"True," said Jean. "Miss Witherup, we must apologize. We recognized in
you a matinee girl from New York, and succumbed to the temptation to try
to impress you; but here we are not operatic people. We run a farm. Do
you come to interview us as singers or farmers?"
"I've come to interview you in any old way you please," said I. "I want
to see you at home."
"Well, here we are," said Edouard, with one of his most fascinating
smiles. "Look at us."
"Tell me," said I, "how did you know I was a matinee girl? You just said
you recognized me as one."
"Easy!" laughed Jean, with a wink at his brother. "By the size of your
hat."
"Ah, but you said from the United States," I urged. "How did you know
that? Don't English matinee girls wear large hats?"
"Yes," returned Edouard, with a courteous bow, "but yours is in
exquisite taste."
Just then the telephone-bell rang, and Jean ran to the receiver. Edouard
looked a trifle uneasy, and I kept silent.
"What is it, Jean?" Edouard asked in a moment.
"It's a message from the Countess Poniatowska. She says the milk this
morning was sour. Those cows must have been at the green apples again,"
replied the tenor, moodily.
"It's very annoying," put in Edouard, impatiently. "That stage-carpenter
we brought over from the Metropolitan isn't worth a cent. I told him to
build a coop large enough for those cows to run around in, and strong
enough to keep them from breaking out and eating the apples, and this is
the third time they've done this. I really think we ought to send him
back to New York. He'd make a good target for the gunners to shoot at
over at the Navy Yard."
"What are the prospects for grand opera next year, Mr. De Reszke?" I
asked, after a slight pause.
"Pretty good," replied Jean, absently. "Of course, if the milk was sour,
we'll have to send another can over to the Countess."
"I suppose so," said Edouard; "but the thing's got to stop. I don't mind
losing a little money on this farm at the outset, but when it costs us
$1500 a quart to raise milk, I don't much like having to provide
substitute quarts, when it sours, at sixteen cents a gallon, just
because a fool of a carpenter can't build a cow-coop strong enough to
keep the beasts away from green apples."
I had to laugh quietly; for, as the daughter of a farmer, I could see
that these spoiled children of fortune knew as much about farming as I
knew about building light-houses.
"Perhaps," I suggested, "it wasn't the green apples that soured the
milk. It may have been the thunder-storm last night that did it."
[Illustration: READY FOR THE STORM]
"That can't be," said Jean, positively. "We have provided against that.
All our cows have lightning-rods on them; we bought them from a
Connecticut man, who was in here the other day, for $500 apiece, so you
see no electrical disturbance could possibly affect them. It must have
been the apples."
"I suppose I had better tell Plancon to take the extra quart over
himself at once and explain to the Countess," said Edouard.
"Plancon here too?" I cried, in sheer delight.
"Yes; but it's a secret," said Jean. "The whole troupe is here. Plancon
has charge of the cows, but nobody knows it. I wouldn't send Plancon,"
he added, reverting to Edouard's suggestion. "He'll stay over there all
day singing duets with the ladies. Why not ask Scalchi to attend to it?
She's going to town after the turnip seed this morning, and she can stop
on her way."
"All right," said Edouard; "I imagine that will be better. Plancon's got
all he can do to get the hay in, anyhow."
Edouard looked at me and laughed.
"We are hard workers here, Miss Witherup," he cried. "And I can tell you
what it is, there is no business on earth so exacting and yet so
delightful as farming."
"And you are all in it together?" I said.
"Yes. You see, last time we were all in New York we were the most
harmonious opera troupe there ever was," Edouard explained, "and it was
such a novel situation that Jean and I invited them all here for the
farming season, and have put the various branches of the work into the
hands of our guests, we two retaining executive control."
"Delightful!" I cried.
[Illustration: MELBA, THE DAIRY MAID]
"Melba has charge of the dairy, and does a great deal of satisfactory
rehearsing while churning the butter. You should hear the Spinning Song
from 'Faust' as she does it to the accompaniment of a churn.
Magnificent!"
"And you ought to see little Russitano and Cremonini rounding up the
chickens every night, while Bauermeister collects the eggs," put in
Jean; "and Plancon milking the cows after Maurel has called them home;
and that huge old chap Tamagno pushing the lawn-mower up and down the
hay-fields through the summer sun--those are sights that even the gods
rarely witness."
"It must be a picture!" I ejaculated, with enthusiasm. "And Ancona? Is
he with you?"
"He is, and he's as useful a man as ever was," said Edouard. "He is our
head ploughboy. And Calve's vegetable garden--well, Jean and I do not
wish to seem vain, Miss Witherup, but really if there is a vegetable
garden in the world that produces cabbages that are cabbages, and
artichokes that are artichokes, and Bermuda potatoes that are Bermuda
potatoes, it is Calve's garden right here."
"And what becomes of all the product of your farm?" I asked.
"We sell it all," said Jean. "We supply the Czar of Russia with green
pease and radishes. The Emperor of Germany buys all his asparagus from
us; and we have secured the broiled-chicken contract for the Austrian
court for the next five years."
"And you don't feel, Mr. De Reszke," I asked, "that all this interferes
with your work?"
"It is my work," replied the great tenor.
"Then why," I queried, "do you not take it up exclusively? Singing in
grand opera must be very exhausting."
"It is," sighed Jean. "It is indeed. Siegfried is harder than haying,
and I would rather shear six hundred sheep than sing Tristan; but, alas,
Edouard and I cannot afford to give it up, for if we did, what would
become of our farm? The estimated expense of producing one can of pease
on this estate, Miss Witherup, is $300, but we have to let it go at 50
cents. Asparagus costs us $14.80 a spear. A lamb chop from the De Reszke
Lambery sells for 60 cents in a Paris restaurant, but it costs us $97 a
pound to raise them. So you see why it is that my brother and I still
appear periodically in public, and also why it is that our services are
very expensive. We didn't want to take the gross receipts of opera the
last time we were in New York, and when the company went to the wall
we'd have gladly compromised for 99 cents on the dollar, had we not at
that very time received our semi-annual statement from the agent of our
farm, showing an expenditure of $800,000, as against gross receipts of
$1650."
"Sixteen hundred and thirty dollars," said Edouard, correcting his
brother. "We had to deduct $20 from our bill against Queen Victoria for
those pheasants' eggs we sent to Windsor. Three crates of them turned
out to be Shanghai roosters."
"True," said Jean. "I had forgotten."
I rose, and after presenting the singers with the usual check and my
cordial thanks for their hospitality, prepared to take my leave.
"You must have a souvenir of your visit, Miss Witherup," said Jean.
"What shall it be--a radish or an Alderney cow? They both cost us about
the same."
"Thank you," I said. "I do not eat radishes, and I have no place to keep
a cow; but if you will sing the 'Lohengrin' farewell for me, it will
rest with me forever."
The brothers laughed.
"You ask too much!" they cried. "That would be like giving you $10,000."
"Oh, very well," said I. "I'll take the will for the deed."
"We'll send you our pictures autographed," said Edouard. "How will that
do?"
"I shall be delighted," I replied, as I bowed myself out.
"You can use 'em to illustrate the interview with," Jean called out
after me.
And so I left them. I hope their anxiety over their crops will not
damage their "focal bowers," as the landlord called them, for with their
voices gone I believe their farm would prove a good deal of a burden.