Show R r 1 w I l V dl Th r 0 cc ss r Almost as Many Dif Dif- m r m ti Trent Ideas as 10 31 c cs s j jY Y rf t G n e m y 6 a Re tp L x xI I Ie k e i v dF I IX X t S1 e 4 a arE rE 1 aft h a to tox tot x t 4 v Ai 1 Q s ss o y s r a Y 1 t x r Nf YI I Y Amelita Galli-Curti Galli and her very unusual pe pets THAt HAT is 16 the great underlying secret of success for for WHAT tho the prima donna of grand opera or the concert singer This has always been a fascinating and puzzling question for music lowers losers 10 ers who marvel at the way some singers leap to fame almost over night hi while Ie others attain it only after years of arduous struggle struggle Frederick H Martens a well-known well Ne New York musical critic recently had interviews on this subject with is tv twenty enty of the greatest living women stars of grand opera and the con con- concert concert concert cert stage Each of these artists was asked by Mr Martens to discuss her art and explain for the benefit of ambitious us young singers just what she thinks the greatest factors in HARD WORK Says Saya GaUi HARD work is the one thing with Ith which the singer 1 cannot dispense says Amelita Galli Galli-Curci the great mistress of coloratura singing I work all through the summer preparing new opera roles or older roles I expect e to sing during the season In tho the summer too I go over large heaps of of f new songs song for my next seasons season's program together with my husband up m in the mountains moun tams the most ideal place to work For I do not believe that much rest Is good for tor the voice I Z think too many students and singers once they have reached a certain point consider it quite quits safe safe to just go t along without much exertion Yet this neglect always lays shows The voice grows hard and rusty The singer cannot let her her- herself herself self get out of training no more than an athlete can y J SOUL Says Saya Anna Case II I T THINK that the spiritual factor in song interpretation interpretation 1 tion should be bo emphasized in the education of a great greatsinger greatsinger singer says Anna Case who is distinctly an American artist The more spiritual and poetic quality in song inter Inter- interpretation interpretation always s represents the finest nest and highest This quality quality the artist must develop out of herself It must come of her own heart and soul and cannot be acquired from others I always think of it as the greatest individual factor in my own work as a singer and it is for this reason that I earnestly commend its cultivation to all nil those who hope to make a career in song I as asI 4 I js eR r y yr yr r r J L f Ni q f t t r 6 r f 4 jW f s l ls s r y ys yr ys s 4 a tb Rosa Ponselle the former cabaret and h vaudeville singer who became an opera star in in record breaking time her success And the replies reveal almost as many different secrets as there are arc singers I I There are certain obvious points on which all of ot them are agreed but nearly every singer emphasizes some one point which the tha others either omit entirely or to which ruch they give only very slight importance An interesting idea or of the wide difference of opinion among great singers as to the essentials for success in their art is given on this page to-day to in quotations from s Mr KArt Martens's interviews as they appear in m his book The K Art of the Prima Donna and end Concert Singer published f by D Appleton Co s r EXPRESSION Says Tamaki MADAME MADAME X TAMAKI the only Madame Butterfly Butter Butter- Butterfly whom call to the fly one might manner born in a racial sense since the charming little prima donna is a Japanese artist thinks trunks the most essential quality in the up make up of a great singer is power of expression She must be able to give meaning to every tone she Sings expression 1 I Without expression the loveliest tone in inthe inthe inthe the world amounts to nothing just nothing at all And the tho singers singer's expression must be absolutely natural She must bi ba bali mg hung she is singing at atthe the moment and moment and this holds good for the song sung on the recital stage just as well a as asfor for foz the operatic role GOOD TEACHERS Say Says Rosa Ponselle I IF T F YOU wish me to give a message to the ambitious girl students of Rosa singing says Ponselle the best I can give them is this Be sure of proper guidance m inthe n the Initial stages when you study singing I And this applies to every student whether she have the opera or the concert stage ultimately in view I sPOIlt spent less than a year preparing for opera but when you ou ask me how I managed to accomplish so much in m a time so eo comparatively short the answer is simple I was studious working working with my mind as well ell as with my throat and throat and I had had correct teaching from the very beginning and there there- therefore therefore fore no faulty teaching to undo ATTENTION TO DETAIL Says Saya Jeritza ANY ANY A NY girl gul who wishes to succeed on the opera stage will find that taking infinite trouble in m perfection of details counts This is the opinion of Maria Jeritza the voiced voiced golden olden prima donna of the New York Metropolitan and the Vierna Whether it be a detail of singing of stage business of costume of glance or opera gesture gesture opera is a complete form no form no detail is gs too small to be overlooked I 1 s I can get up the most difficult operatic role rolo by heart in four or five days and sing its music in m the a rough And then comes the most difficult part of i outi the all all the filing down the polishing the working out of ever every least little de detail tall An Intricate piece of goldsmith work offers the nearest comparison perhaps to this part of opera study This is no eight-day eight process process but takes me from four to five weeks I take tako this work very seriously for I know of no other way of giving ing mg ing vitality real human quality to a role And no singer be she she sha ever so popular has a right to rely on her popularity to excuse poor preparation In the for instance when hen I prepared therole the therole therole role of Octavian a mans man's part it was very hard for me mo to get into the character I worked and end worked until my muscles were so 50 trained that I can now say I have a mans man's muscles artistI If I am to playa play a man mans man's part then if Iam I am a real artist artist I must make it convincing and It itis is worth any amount of trouble to get it right CULTURE Say Says Farrar Ferrer FerrerA A WIDE education that which we call caU culture Geraldine Farrar thinks is the first requisite for operatic suc- suc success success suc success cess I question whether any century has shown so strong a development of the mental of the intellectual factor in singing as this one says Miss Farrar I mean intellect which gives a 0 soul to emotion color to feeling mind to heart When I started twenty years ago I had student companions com com- companions girls vocally far more gifted than I They practiced In desultory fashion and sang for a few years They were only vocally not mentally gifted You would hear them sing and say Yes a lovely voice but not interesting I The singer must have havo her own vision of the character she desires to create from her point of feeling physical and mental And this vision must come out of ot her own brain and nd heart it it cannot be built up out of studio coaching That is why people and books mental and human in- in in interests stimulates anything and everything which awakens and lates the Intelligence which broadens the viewpoint are supremely necessary to the operatic singer t l There A Are re V Farrar Singers i Take iT Your l our r I V a f Choice 1 r t sn x 1 iI c i y i qa j 0 It J s q I b t d C xA ti w roKA 4 S tr I J Ii t J F pF s ps a p r e Y j I A r i b n 9 1 v 9 p gd d df a axy yG t f f t r h g gI V 41 I I l iki aM Madame p t Tamaki y At y P q r s k x j P 9 t CHARM Lucrezia Bori Boris Says Saya Nr BEAUTY IS not absolutely necessary to suc- suc success sue sue-r cess in grand opera says Lucrezia BOrl Bori whoso whose art liS as a singing actress as welt well as a singer a IS one of the delights of the Metropolitan I knows that because I Iam am not but beautiful charm Which l au auis IS so much more Important there must be And MIss Bor Boni does not think that charm in P FM a singing dramatic roles can be acquired before ther the r k mirror One must enter completely Into the spirit of the work she says feel the romance of ones CInes own role a and react to It Then comes the mUSIC There is really no danger In forgetting the mirror altogether alto alto- altogether s gether in preparing my role with respect to its acting for I i know that in the rehearsals when I have identified myself with the particular role I am to sing the bodily interpretation t tion facial expression and movements of hands and arms will develop quite unconsciously as I drop into my part r PERSONALITY Says Saya Cave Calve ri is one thing every student should remember remember b r whether her objective be the opera or the concert se- se sea a stage she must remember to be herself So sas sa's says Emma J Calve the great dramatic soprano h cy Only the artist who a personality of her own who expresses her own self her own mind her own soul instead of the traditions of others WinS to greater achieve achieve- achievement wry t rr meat ment and success g ait CLOTHES Says Saya Ursula Greville ri THE TIIE singers singer's frock is In helping her make clear the meaning of her songs in lending them rr r charm and color and desIgn to their interpretation says s r a U Ursula ula Greville the E English coloratura soprano It seems so stupid for Instance instance to to see a woman who singS away about spring spring which is so fresh and green erand and delicately joyous in a gown of flaming red brocade Y y x And Miss Greville Gr actually has frocks to match her songs This Tl s she explains to the interested visitors is my frock via P when I sing The Hymn to the Sun And she shows a lovely thing in gold Russian greens and blues with a dull gold golt buckle heavily studded with uncut rubies This she continues is my Moonlight frock It Is a Aw gossamer thing of soft shades of rich blues and silver I Iam am very fond of it because I used it to in England on the Maria a stage to try but ut my theories with regard to frocks as factors Jeritza in winning success in concert SingIng and it justified itself T Ts s I 1 i 1 |