Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-06-19
American Ringers.
Utica Observer

The old stock sheer of Europe that
country which produced the buzzard
could never grow a song-bird is not heard
with the frequency which marked its use
ten years ago. During that period more
than one American woman has gone to
Europe with vocal training purely
American and challenged favorable COM
parison in the great cities of the CONT
nent with the Crisis, Lucas and Rozes of
the Old World. A private letter from
one of the European capitals furnishes
perhaps the most striking illustration of
the change time has wrought in the esti-
nation of our singers yet given
few years ago there was graduated
at the New England Conservatory of
Music, in Boston, a young girl possessed
of remarkably sweet voice, charming
face and form, and a grace of manner
which suggested the highest type of
womanhood and the choicest, because
simplest, form Of dramatic art. She was
a favorite among her classmates, and the
small circle af friends who knew her
capabilities indulged hopes of her future,
which then seemed almost wild in their
extravaganza, yet in the light of present
facts were small and moderate. With
no influential friends she earned GER
tain sum of money, first ny teaching mu-
sic, and then by short engagement
with Theodore Thomas. With this she
went to Europe, accompanied by her
mother. and devoted Il season to finishing
study with some of the foremost teachers
in Italy. y year ago, if we remember
Alright, she made her debut at Milan, the
home Of the opera. Her success was in
stantaneous-almost bewildering The
critics went into ecstacieS over her voice
and her face; from that moment her for
tune was made. After singing in other
cities in Southern Europe, she received
an offer last spring from st. Petersburg
to appear in the Imperial Opera there. 1t
was accepted, and she made a conquest
of the city of Cars The Golos declared
her to be the rarest singer that
the Capital had heard in years. She sang,
by command, at the court in the presence
of the late ear, and was made the guest
of one of the Grand Duchesses in the
Palace She left St Petersburg week |
before the assassination to spend sum- |
mer in Italy, after having signed con- |
tract to sing as prima donna assoluta at
the Imperial Opera at St Petersburg. All
through this wonderful success Miss Lii |
an Norton has kept herself absolutely |
free from the nolsome breath of scandal, |
has made no slight attempt to gain the |
notoriety which so many actresses and |
singers covet and risk much to gain, and |
has travelled and lived in modest quiet |
with her mother, devoted solely to her |
art Like that of Miss Thursby, another |
American girl can do IN competition with |
bo d;voc 81 E,rOna Mice Nortop1c nba |
nomenal triumph was made purely on the |
merits of her voice and art, and by legiti-
mate means Back of it lay no dubious !
compromises Of reputation, no sacrifices |
of the dignity and delicacy of woman
hood, no resort to clap-tr or bogus SEN
sations Her laurels belong to all that is
honest and fair and feminine in our |
American women.
We have cited the achievements of Miss |
Norton and Miss Thursby land Miss Kel-
logg might with justice be added to the |
list to show that the days of our depend
ence upon conceited songstresses Of Eu-
rope, who look upon Americans as semi
barbarians to be lied to, sung flat to, and
generally condemned as regards all save
their money, and upon the worse foreign
managers of the Strakosch and Maretzek
stamp, with their vulgar greed, their
shabby evasions, and their cheap tricks
of free advertising, are almost over 1t
has been demonstrated by these women,
as by the late Jules Perkins and Myron
W. Whitney, that American voices and
American vocal methods are capable of
rivaling the choicest organs and art the
Old World can send us. What we still
lack of schooling in the final stages, con-
servatories at Boston, at Cincinnati, and
the promised academy in New York, will
soon be able to supply, If indeed it is not
already offered. The popular taste for
English opera, as well as appreciation
for the finer shades of vocal interpreta-
ton, has grown with gratifying rapidity
of recent years 1t is not too much to be-
lieve that the American music-loving |
public will pay its highest tribute OF |
money and favor to singers whose train
ing, tastes and sympathies are all Ameri
can, and who themselves are to the man
ner born.