With an uncle leading the theater band, it was inevitable that I should become a comparatively assiduous operetta-goer, so that I was far removed from the traditional picture of the earnest “white hope” of his conservatory who saves his pennies in order to buy scores and to frequent the gallery seats of the Opera and of Symphony Hall. No, the facts were quite otherwise: operettas, gypsy bands, “King of Harmonics,” and the little childish rivalries of the classroom where Carmen Fantasias fired us with a passion worthy of better causes!