THE ETUDE • JUNE 1920 Page 867 What Must I Go Through to Become a Prima Donna? An Interview Especially Secured for THE ETUDE with the Distinguished American Opera Star "WHA T must I do to become a prima donna? Let us reverse the usual method of discussing the question and begin with the artist upon the stage in a great opera house like the Metropolitan in New York on a gala night, every seat sold and hundreds standing. It is a modern opera with a 'heavy' score. What is the first consideration of the singer? "Primarily, an artist in grand opera must sing in some fashion to insure the proper projection of her role across the large spaces of the all-too-large auditoriums. Those admirable requisites of clear diction, facial ex-pression and emotional appeal will be sadly hampered unless the medium of sound carries their message. It is often from sad experience that one among many rises superior to some of the disadvantages of our modern opera repertoire. Gone are the days when the facile vocalist was supported by a small group of musi-cians intent upon a discreet accompaniment for the benefit of the singer's vocal exertions. Voices trained for the older repertoire were not at the mercy of an enlarged orchestra pit, wherein the over-zealous gentle-men now fight—furioso ad libitum—for the supremacy of operatic effects. "An amiable musical observer once asked me why we all shouted so in opera. I replied by a question, asking if he had ever made an after-dinner speech. He acquiesced. I asked him how many times he rapped on the table for attention and silence. He admitted it was rather often. I asked him why. He said, so that he might be heard. He answered his own ques-tion by conceding that the carrying timbre of a voice cannot compete successfully against even banquet hall festivities unless properly focused out of a normal speaking tone. The difference between a small room and one seating several hundreds are quite two alto-gether different propositions for the orator. If the mere rattling of silver and china will eclipse this vocal effort in speech I leave to your imagination what must transpire when the singer is called upon to dominate with one thread of song the tremendous onslaught of an orchestra and to rise triumphant above it in a theater so large that the faithful gatherers in the gallery tell me we all look like pigmies, and half the time are barely heard. Since the recesses where we must per-form are so exaggerated everything must be in like pro-portion, hence we are very often too noisy, but how can it be otherwise if we are to influence the eager tax-payer in row X ? After all, he has not come to hear us whisper, and his point of vantage is not so admi-rable as if he were sitting at a musical comedy in a small theater. For this condition the size of the theater and the instrumentation imposed by the composer are to be censured, and less blame placed upon the overburdened shoulders of the vocal competitor against these odds. Little shading in operatic tone color is possible unless an accompanying phrase permits it or the trumpeter swallows a pin! Lucia or Zaza "If your repertoire is The Barber, Lucia, Somnambula and all such Italian dainties, well and good. Nothing need disturb the complete enjoyment of this lace-work. But, if your auditors weep at Butterfly and Zaza or thrill to Pagliacci, they demand you use a quite different technic, which comes to the point of my story. "I believe it was Jean de Reszke who advocated the voice 'in the mask' united to breath support from the diaphragm. From personal observation I should say our coloratura charmers lay small emphasis on that highly important factor and use their head voices with a freedom more or less God given. But the power and life-giving quality of this fundamental cannot be too highly estimated for us who must color our phrases to suit modern dramatics and evolve a carrying quality that will not only eliminate the difficulty of vocal de-mands, but at the same time insure' immunity from harmful after effects. This indispensable twin of the GERALD IN E FARRAR [BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.—Although one of the youngest of the noted American singers, none has achieved such an ex-tensive international reputation as Miss Farrar. Born in Melrose, Mass., she was educated at the public schools in that city. At the school age she becp.m^ the pupil of Mrs. J. H. Long, in Boston. After studying with several teachers, including Emma Thursby, in New York, and Trabadello, in Paris, she went to Lilli Lehmann in Berlin, and under this, the greatest of dramatic singers of her time, Miss Farrar received a most thorough and careful training in all the elements of her art. She made her debut as Marguerite in Faust at the Royal Opera in Berlin, October 15th, 1901. Later, after touring European cities with ever increasing successes, she was engaged at the Opera Comique and Grand Opera, Paris, and then at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, where she has been the leading soprano for many seasons. The many enticing offers made for appearances in moving pictures led to a new phase of her career. In many pictures she has appeared with her husband, M. Lou Tel-legen, one of the most distinguished actors of the French school, who at one time was the leading man for Sarah Bernhardt. The following interview is rich in advice to any young woman who desires to know what she must do in order to become a prima donna.] head voice is the dynamo which alone must endure all the necessary fatigue, leaving the actual voice phases free to float unrestricted with no ignoble dis-tortions or possible signs of distress. Alas, it is not easy to write of this, but the experience of years proves how vital a point is its saving grace and how, unfortunately, it remains an unknown factor to many. "T o note two of our finest examples of greatness in this marvelous profession, Lilli Lehman and Jean de Reszke, neither of whom had phenomenal vocal gifts, I would point out their remarkable mental equip-ment, unceasing and passionate desire for perfection, paired with an unerring instinct for the noble and dis-tinguished such as has not been found in other ex-ponents of purely vocal virtuosity, with a few rare exceptions, as Melba and Galli-Curci, for instance, to mention two beautiful instruments of our generation. "The singing art is not a casual inspiration and it should never be treated as such. The real artist will have an organized mental strategy just as minute and reliable as any intricate machinery, and will under all circumstances (save complete physical disability) be able to control and dominate her gifts to their fullest extent. This is not learned in a few years within the four walls of a studio, but is the the result of a life-time of painstaking care and devotion. MIS S FARRAR'S LATEST PHOTOGRAPH, TAKE N EXPRESSLY FOR TH E ETUDE "There was a time when ambition and overwork so told upon me that mistakenly I allowed myself to minimize my vocal practice. How wrong that was I found out in short time and I have returned long since to my earlier precepts as taught me by Lilli Lehman. Keep the Voice Strong and Flexible "In her book How to Sing, there is much for the student to digest with profit, though possible reserva-tions are advisable, dependent upon one's individual health and vocal resistance. Her strong conviction was, and is, that a voice requires daily and conscientious exercise to keep it strong and flexible. Having suc-cessfully mastered the older Italian roles as a young singer, her incursion into the later-day dramatic and classic repertoire in no wise became an excuse to let languish the fundamental idea of beautiful sound. How vitally important and admirably bel canto sustained by the breath support has served her, is readily under-stood when one remembers that she has outdistanced all the colleagues of her earlier career and now well over sixty, she is as indefatigable in her daily prac-tice as we younger singers should be. "This brief extract about Patti (again quoting Lilli Lehman) will furnish an interesting comparison: " 'In Adelina Patti everything was united—the splen-did voice paired with great talent for singing, and the long oversight of her studies by her distinguished teacher, Strakosch. She never sang roles that did not suit her voice; in her earlier years she sSng only arias and duets or single solos, never taking part in ensem-bles. She never sang even her limited repertory when she was indisposed. She never attended rehearsals, but came to the theater in the evening and sang tri-umphantly, without ever having seen the persons who sang or acted with her. She spared herself rehearsals, which, on the day of the performance or the day before exhaust all singers because of the excitement of all kinds attending them, and which contribute neither to the freshness of the voice nor to the jo\ of the pro-fession. " 'Although she was a Spaniard by birth and an American by early adoption, she was, so to speak, the greatest Italian singer of my time. All was absolutely good, correct and flawless, the voice like a bell that you seemed to hear long after its singing had ceased. Yet she could give no explanation of her art, and answered all her colleagues questions concerning it with "Ah, je n'en sais rien!" She possessed unconsciously, as a gift of nature, a union of all those qualities that other singers must attain and possess consciously. Her vocal organs stood in the most favorable relations to each other. Her talent and her remarkably trained ear maintained control over the beauty of her singing and her voice. Fortunate circumstances of her life pre-served her from all injury. The purity and flawless-ness of her tone, the beautiful equalization of her whole voice constituted the magic by which she held her listeners entranced. Moreover, she was beautiful and gracious in appearance. The accent of great dramatic power she did not possess, yet I ascribe this more to her intellectual indolence than to her lack of ability.' "But how few of us would ever make a career if we waited for such favors from Nature! Lessons Must be Adequate "Bearing in mind the absolute necessity and real joy in vocal work, it confounds and amazes me that teachers of this art feel their duty has been accom-plished when they donate twenty minutes or half an hour to a pupil! I do not honestly believe this is a fair exchange, and it is certainly "not within reason to be-lieve that within so short a time a pupil can actually benefit by the concentration and instruction so hastily conferred upon her. If this be very plain speaking, it is said with the object to benefit the pupil only, for it
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