Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-13
Americans Becoming Lovers OF True Art Work
in Music World, Declares MdrceHa Sen1brich
PR0PHESIES GREAT FUTURE
FOR NATIVE BORN SINGERS
SAYS STRIDES TAKEN IN FEW
YEARS ARE MARVELLOUS
believes That New York Will Remain
Real Center, with other Cities
Also Aiding In Taste
Cultivation
BY SHIRLEY A. OLYMPUS

America is becoming art-lovingl"
So says Madame Marcella Sembrich,
and she should know, for she has come
into as intimate touch with the people
who are artistic from wholesome de-
sire and not from mere pose as any
great artist in the world. She believes
that it will be but short time until
the artistic millennium will dawn ana
the artistic appreciation of the Amer
lean people will be more highly deVel-
oped than that of the old world peo-
pies.
AS Nine Sembrich sat In her draw
ing room at the Hotel Alexandria yes
.terday evening, dividing her time be-
tween answering questions OF news
paper interviewer and giving quiet or
ders for the care and comfort of her
sick husband, who lay in the next
room suffering from an attack OF
pneumonia, she presented more the
picture of a dutiful, loving wife than
q great diva. Still she had complete
mastery of her feelings, for she never
lost the thread of conversation, al
though her thoughts were more in the
sick room than in the drawing room.
Dlsproves Hammerstein's Theories
Oscar Hammerstein has said that all
great artists-singers, painters, actors
other words, said Mr.. Hammerstein,
artists, because of their highly sem
sitiVe nervous systems, are not nor
NAL, not like the average person.
Hence they must be petted and pam
pered; must be allowed to have their
own way in all things; must not be
crossed or harried by cares-mentaL
physical moral or financial.
Mr.. Hammerstein may be right in
Swing genius is a certain degree of
insanity, but If his words are true,
they are proved by Nine. Sembrich
being the exact opposite of all he has
said She is temperamental, yet not
obtrusively so. She is anything but
selfish and self-centered. Witness her
devotion to her husband. She is
normal enough to satisfy most any
person. In fact, she is charming in
every way, as simple and unaffected
as a child, and as sincere as an ardent
suffragette Possibly 1t is the pos
session of these qualities that makes
for her greatness and holds her in the
hearts of her audiences.
One could not mistake Nine. Sem
brich as a singer after hearing the
first few words she utters Her speak
ing voice is the embodiment of music
The tones are now throatys now pitched
high. She seems to run the scale
as she speaks, and 1t is a conversation
al concert TO NlSlt WITH ner LOT nan
an hour or so.
Has Time for Family
Naturally, she talks. dreams, lives
music, in Just the same manner that
a physician sees his science in every
thing or a lawyer his. But with 1t all
she has time enough to give attention
to something as near and dear to her
as her art-her husband.
"Your husband, how is he?'I asked,
by way of introducing a converse
ton.
''Oh, much, much better, thank you"
she answered, smiling her gratitude.
And then she talked on and on about
her husband, his Illness, and how she
feared for his life. HE is so deli
cate, you know" she repeated half
dozen times.
AS I had not intended getting an
interview about husbands of grand
opera stars, I had to bring the con
versation to n rather abrupt ending
along these lines.
one remark about her husband
struck me as a key to Madame Sem
brich's character. She said: "A wife's
dutv is greater to her husband than
to her art. Art can wait, but a sick
husband needs attention at once. Duty
to art is more or less duty to self
selflshness, II you will Duty to ones
husband-well, that's love, the great
est thing in the world.
Rapid Strides in Art
mo nation on EARTH" she declared
with vehemence, has made the rapid
and lasting strides in art-and that in
cludes music, painting. literature and
the drama-that America has mads> in
the last quarter century. 1t Is
enormous"
Nearly everything great or large is
enormous to Madame Sembrich The