"NEXT TO MELBA AND SEMBRICH, [PINKERT] WOULD HAVE CUT THE FIGURE OF A STAND-IN" CARUSO, ENRICO. Autograph Letter Signed, to Pasquale Simonelli ("Dear D[on] Pasqualino"), in Italian, thanking for sending collectible postcards and describing his large collection, thanking for the caricature of [Eugenio?] Giraldoni, announcing the birth of his son [Enrico] and the health of the mother [Ada Giachetti], explaining a misunderstanding relating to the caricatures he sent to be published by [Giovanni] Viafora, assuring him that he ought not to worry about failing to obtain a contract with [Regina] Pinkert, sharing news of the possibility of performances before the King in London, hoping for postcards relating to the St. Louis Exposition or coins for his collections, and, in the upper margin of first page, a postscript: "Concerning the coins, if it's a collection, get the whole thing. If they're all the same, get five." 8 pages, small 8vo, personal stationery, written on two folded sheets; tiny holes at fold intersections. - [Florence], 8 September 1904

". . . I was very pleased to receive . . . the caricature of Giraldoni and the postcard about the St. Louis coins which I am going to ask you to hold on to until I get over there.
"I have waited and waited in the hope of receiving news of the birth of a son in your home, but now it appears that I have beaten you to it. Yesterday morning, in fact, at 7:00 am, after a terrible night, I became the father of a beautiful baby boy who, thank God, did not harm his mother, who is now resting after her labor. And believe me, what labor! . . .
"[Giovanni] Viafora wrote to tell me that he planned to put together an album of caricatures of artists. So, I sent him several of mine as well as some of me by others and asked him to include them in his album under his own name; instead, they were published under my name as I can see from what you sent me. . . .
"I understand how upset you must have been when the Pinkert deal fell through, but what can one do? [Heinrich?] Conried is very cunning and does the exact opposite of what he . . . says he is doing. However, I believe that Pinkert is right not to come because next to [Nellie] Melba and [Marcella] Sembrich, she would have cut the figure of a stand-in, even if she sang very little. . . .
". . . [D]on't distress yourself too much over the loss of . . . that contract, because there are individuals who form whole companies on the basis of slipshod work and then, at the last moment, they see the whole thing collapse and don't turn a hair. Then, too, there are so many things you still don't know--and that cannot be written about here--that can leave a man aghast. But let's not speak about such things and, rather, think about our health. After all, if one enjoys good health, who gives a damn about anything else?
"I may be going back to London for 4 or 5 performances to be held at Covent Garden . . . . at the request of the King! It has not yet been confirmed . . . ."
Giovanni Viafora (1870-1930) was an Italian photographer and caricaturist who created numerous portraits of musicians and other notables published in the New York Times and elsewhere; in 1899, he married Gina Ciaparelli, a singing instructor who tutored Caruso, later settling in New York where he became employed at Columbia Records.