In her native Millau in southern (unoccupied) France, a white-haired woman of 83 died last week. For a generation of operagoers, Emma Calvé and Carmen had been synonymous.
Of the divas of the "Golden Age," only 71-year-old Olive Fremstad and 76-year-old Emma Eames were left. Emma Calvé had outlived Tetrazzini, Sembrich, Schumann-Heink by a few years, Melba, Nordica, Patti by many.
Calvé's Carmen, which she first flaunted at U.S. audiences nearly 50 years ago, is poorly preserved by her bosomy photographs or the cavernous sounds of her model-T recordings. One critic, the late Henry...
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