ties in many lands. Agnes G. Murphy, in her biography of
Mme. Melba, says that one day the singer, Joachim, and a party of
friends stopped at a peasant's cottage near Bergamo, where they were
regaled with such delicious macaroni that Melba persuaded her friends
to return another day and wait while the peasant taught her the exact
method of preparing the dish. In at least one New York restaurant
_oeuf Toscanini_ is to be found on the bill. I have heard Olive
Fremstad complain of the cooking in this hotel in Paris, or that hotel
in New York, or the other hotel in Munich, and when she found herself
in an apartment of her own she immediately set about to cook a few
special dishes for herself.

Two musicians I know not only keep restaurants in New York, but
actually prepare the dinners themselves. One of them is at the same
time a singer in the Metropolitan Opera Company. Have you seen Bernard
Begue standing before his cook stove preparing food for his patrons?
His huge form, clad in white, viewed through the open doorway
connecting the dining room with the kitchen, almost conceals the great
stove, but occasionally you can catch sight of the pots and pans, the
_casseroles_ of _pot-au-feu_, the roasting chicken, the filets of
sole, all the ingredients of a dinner, _cuisine bourgeoise_ ... and
after dining, you can hear Begue sing the Uncle-priest in _Madama
Butterfly_ at the Opera House.

Or have you seen Giacomo (and have not Meyerbeer and Puccini been
bearers of this name?) Pogliani turning from the _spaghetti_ theme
chromatically to that of the _risotto_, the most succulent and
appetizing _risotto_ to be tasted this side of Bonvecchiati's in
Venice ... or the _polenta_ with _funghi_.... But, best of all, the
roasts, and were it not that the Prince Troubetskoy is a vegetarian
you would fancy that he came to Pogliani's for these viands. And it
must not be forgotten that this supreme cook is--or was--a bassoon
player of the first rank, that he is a graduate of the Milan
Conservatory. The bassoon is a difficult instrument. It is sometimes
called the "comedian of the orchestra," but there are few who can play
it at all, still fewer who can play it well. Bassoonists are highly
paid and they are in demand. Walter Damrosch used to say that when he
was engaging a bassoon player he would ask him to play a passage from
the bassoon part in _Scheherazade_. If he could play that, he could
play anything else written for his instrument.