pecially from the one whom you are going to try to supplant.
The theatre is like a cavern, and the acoustic is of course totally
unknown to you. Two or three pale spots down in the orchestra chairs
indicate the whereabouts of the director and perhaps the stage manager
and first Kapellmeister who have come to hear you. The overhead
"rehearsal lights" are very unbecoming and you are quite conscious of
it. If you are to sing with orchestra, the conductor presents you to the
players, "_Meine Herren, Fraeulein----._" You bow, and your insides slip
a few inches lower. My first _Vorsingen_ was with the piano. It stood at
one side of the stage, and a whipper-snapper of a third Kapellmeister
dashed more or less accurately into the prelude of the second aria from
"Samson et Dalila."

Then came a momentous interview in the Director's office. I had sung
such good German, thanks to Frau----, that he had no idea that I
understood only about three words in five of what he said. For form's
sake he kept saying, "_Sie verstehen mich, Fraeulein?_" and when I
answered "_Ja_," he was satisfied. His wife, who thought she spoke
English, was present, and tried to say a great deal, but my German
proved the more serviceable of the two. I gathered that I was offered a
two season contract, to sing the leading contralto parts, at the
princely salary of 150 marks a month! (about $35). There was no
_Spielgelt_. Salaries are usually divided into so much per month down,
and so much per performance, the number of performances per month
guaranteed; that is, one is paid for a certain number whether one sings
them or not, and any performances over and above this number are paid
extra. If a performance is lost by one's own fault, through illness for
example, the _Spielgelt_ for that performance is forfeited. Three days
absence from the cast through illness, even though one may be scheduled
to sing only once during those days, is counted as one _Spielgelt_.

Illness is, in fact, almost a crime. In addition to losing your money,
you have to have witnesses to prove that you are really ill, for theatre
directors in Germany are a suspicious lot and take nothing for granted.
If you wake on the morning of a performance with laryngitis, that dread
enemy of the voice, or if you fall downstairs on your way to the theatre
and sprain your ankle, you must notify the theatre before a certain
hour in the day, perhaps ten or twelve, or four o'clock, that you cannot
sing t