Majestic Soprano Nellie Melba was once asked by an eager young man if she would sing at a Manhattan morning musicale. "Sing!" snapped Melba. "I can't even spit at 11 a.m." But sing she did, and a whopping fee she got. That was nearly 50 years ago. After Melba, other great and near-great musicians jostled one another to perform for the dowagers at Albert Morris Bagby's Musical Mornings. Last January, in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria, the 50th year of "the Bagbys," the 429th concert reached its end. For the first time dapper, ruddy, wax-mustached little Mr. Bagby, 81,...
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