The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-17

He heard me sing at Lampertis studio,
and we decided that Athens would be
the place for my debut. So l made
tentative appearance as Elvira' in
TPuritani' I sang for a short time,
and among my other roles was Lucia
But l retired for nearly two years al
ter that time. ! was still so young
that there was plenty of time to com
plete my education in a way that should
be satisfactory TO me and my teacher.
So I went to Dresden, and when / sang
again it was in the Royal opera house
but for years l have continued my
studies as a singer 1 still practice one
hour every day at the piano and devote
the same amount of time to singing
That hour, however, / divide into four
parts, and sing for only fifteen minutes
at a time. That is the history of my
musical studies. 1t is almost impossi-
BILE to say when they began. My I'm
gers were on the piano keys long be-
fore | could stretch an octave. My
studies have not ended yet and I can
not tell when they will. The person
who would continue to keep phase in
music must always struggle to improve.
1t is not enough to keep up to ones
own standard. There must be con-
slant effort at something better"
Coming from a woman who is ac-
knowledged to be the most absolute
mistress of her art in the world today,
this opinion has value of modesty
which is quite exceptional.
"One thing which seems strange to
me about this country" Nine. Sem
brfch said sis that the majority of peo-
pie here seem to know of only two opera
houses in Europe. Those are the Cow
ent Garden and Beyreuth. AS the Cow
ent Garden season only continues for a
month or two in the summer, l have
wondered what became of the European
singers during the rest of the time. And
at Beyreuth the performances are not
even given every year. Only the Wag-
ner singers go there as a general rule.
Yet several persons have asked me,
Where have you been, Madame for
the last ten years?' I say in Peters,
burg, which is of course, a long dis
lance away from New York at the I'm
perial opera in Vienna, in Berlin and
in Madrid. Yet of those places Amer
leans say nothing and rarely seem to
have heard. I have not sung in Lon
don for three years. After my long
seasons on the continent, | was usually
so tired that the trip from my home in
Dresden to London never seemed
worth the while for the few perform
ances that the artists usually give
there. The singers rarely appear oftener
than three or four times, and that is not
worth q trip from Dresden to London
and BACK again.
ut is in Russia that the purely italian
opera is kept up in better fashion than
in any other place The impressario
gives yearly a season of about two
months duration. The best of the Ital-
ian singers are brought there, and the
productions are the most elaborate
made anywhere in Europe. Wagner's
works have not taken the same hold
there with the public that they have in
the other European countries. Some of
them are sung in Italian, but the season
is devoted chiefly to the old classic
Italian works. When / say Italian, I
mean of the Italian school as well.
Meyerbeer and Gounod are, Of course,
popular. The enormous prices paid in
st. Petersburg and Moscow enable the
impressario to obtain the very best
singers from Italy. In the smaller
towns. too, the gains to a popular singer
are very great. But one must be known
and liked Then there is more wealth
for them in Russia than in any other
country of Europe"