The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-01
AMERICAN PRlMA DONNAS.
SUCCESSES OF SOME OF TMEM IN EUROPE AS WELL As 1T HOME.

SUCCESSES OF SOME OF TMEM I
 EUROPE AS WELL AS 1T HOME.
 Emma Nordica and Emma Flames Un
 deniabIy the Two Most Eminen
 Now-Their A Achicvemcn cnts on Operatt
 Stage.
 The American prnna donna is not
 new element in opera, although she i
 occasionally discussed as if she ha,
 just apeared on the musical horizon
 There has indeed rarely been a time il
 the last forty years when some Amari
 can prima donna was not conspicuous
 ly before the European public. Th
 names of Minnie Hauck, Marie Du
 rand, Clara Louise Kellogg, Anni,
 Louise Cary, Emma Albani, Emms
 Nevada, Marie Van Zandt and many
 others in the list show how the Amerl
 can singer has been able to hold hel
 own in Europe.
 | Nowadays the most noted of An1eri
 can singers comes to this city, just as
 all the famous singers of every natior
 seek out this golden land. But the
 American soprano is still to be found | everywhere in Europe, and the sing
 CTS who are engaged in Europe find it | no disadvantage to come from this 1 country. So many successful singers
 have come from this country that managers abroad are rather prejudiced tr, fhnt, C. t1o,, Dt hny tcn Nor are these American singers with out honor in their own country It can
 no longer be said that the foreign IT, tist is in any degree preferred over the American. The reverse, indeed, is true today, and the native singer is likely
 to be more warmly admired than her foreign sister.
 Undeniably the two most eminent American singers of the day are Emma Nordca and Emma Flames. Both of them have attained high place on the operatic stage of the world although countries as in their own, where for the later years of their careers they have chiefly appeared.
 Mime. Nordica has gained her fame by her ambition in attempting the most exacting tasks possible to the opera singer and the degree of success with which she has come through ev- cry ordeal has won the highest appre- citation from her countrymen. She has also won some degree of favor as Wagnerian singer in Germany and London, and indeed this stage of her career began at Bayreuth under the eye of Mime. Cosima Wagner.
 It was in this last phase of her work that Mime. Nordica was to win her greatest fame. It was her lot to spend many years of her career in eompara- tive obscurity, seeing others pass her in the race for glory. But she stuck to her work, convinced that her re- ward was to come some day. It did come, and Mime. Nordica, after having worked for more than twenty years, now finds herself more appreciated than she ever was before Practically her career dates from that night six years ago when she sang Isolde at the M stro- politan opera house. That was the cll- max of her career as 8 Wagner singer. just as that role always marks the highest point of any Wagnerian so- prano's achievements. Mime. Nordca up her, success in this part by singing the Brunhlldes, thus compet- ing the gallery of the later Wagner heroines. Before that time she had sung Elsa Venus and other Wagner roles in Italian. a
 The later years of Mime. Nordica's career are more familiar to New Iock CTS than her early story which began | In Italy as an opera singer after a ca | reer as concert singer in this coun- try. Her birthplace was Farmington, | Me, and her grandfather was a well | known singer preacher of that region. | Her name was Norton. She went to 1 Boston to cultivate her voice, and in 1875 was the soprano of Dr. Osgood's ,hurch, in which she attracted atten- ion. In 1876 she sang first in New York at the Grand opera house with band.
 She went to Europe with the organi- ,ation the next year, and then decided Q study for the operatic stage in Mi an She was there a pupil of San 1iovani and in 1878 made her debut IS Violetta in small town near Mi an. For one season she sang only that ole The next year she went to St. Petersburg and sang the secondary oles until the death of the czar the season to premature lose Then Mime. Nordca sang in )antzic, Berlin and other North Ger nan cities.
 In 1881 she sang in Paris at the Grand pera house, and revealed none of the ualities destined to make her famous n her own country later. The follow ng year she sang at the Academy of Iusic in this city. She had sung in ratorio in England, and returned here 0 appear in opera With Tamagno and 'atti.
 During all these years Mme. Nordica ias looked upon as useful artist but bloody yet detected in her the woman ,ho was to become one of the great sopranos of the time in her wn country. When she sang for the rst season at the Metropolitan under .bbey and Grau it was usually as a ubstitute for Mime. Flames, although l he attracted attention in 1S93-94 by otably good performances of Valen- , ne and Marguerite. The next season found her a regular lember of the company, and she re- eated here the performance of Elsa lat was so much praised at Bayreuth. l f rom that time her career as a Wag- zrian soprano began. The greatest tri- l
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