siveness. The new art of the
singer should develop to the highest degree the significance of the
text. Calve once said that she did not become a real artist until she
forgot that she had a beautiful voice and thought only of the proper
expression the music demanded.

Of the old method of singing only one quality will persist in the late
Twentieth Century (mind you, this is deliberate prophecy but it is
about as safe as it would be to predict that Sarah Bernhardt will live
to give several hundred more performances of _La Dame aux Camelias_)
and that is style. The performance of any work demands a knowledge of
and a feeling for its style but style is about the last thing a singer
ever studies. When, however, you find a singer who understands style,
there you have an artist!

Style is the quality which endures long after the singer has lost the
power to produce a pure tone or to contrive accurate phrasing and so
makes it possible for artists to hold their places on the stage long
after their voices have become partially defective or, indeed, have
actually departed. It is knowledge of style that accounts for the long
careers of Marcella Sembrich and Lilli Lehmann or of Yvette Guilbert
and Maggie Cline for that matter. It is knowledge of style that makes
De Wolf Hopper a great artist in his interpretation of the music of
Sullivan and the words of Gilbert. Some artists, indeed, with barely a
shred of voice, have managed to maintain their positions on the stage
for many years through a knowledge of style. I might mention Victor
Maurel, Max Heinrich (not on the opera stage, of course), Antonio
Scotti, and Maurice Renaud.

A singer may be born with the ability to produce pure tones (I doubt
if Mme. Melba learned much about tone production from her teachers),
she may even phrase naturally, although this is more doubtful, but the
acquirement of style is a long and tedious process and one which
generally requires specialization. For style is elusive. An auditor, a
critic, will recognize it at once but very few can tell of what it
consists. Nevertheless it is fairly obvious to the casual listener
that Olive Fremstad is more at home in the music dramas of Gluck and
Wagner than she is in _Carmen_ and _Tosca_, and that Marcella Sembrich
is happier when she is singing Zerlina (as a Mozart singer she has had
no equal in the past three decades) than when she is singing _Lakme_.
Mme. Melba sings _Lucia_ in excellent style but she probab