hestra dropped their instruments and
fled affrighted. It was not long, however, before she succeeded in
winning their confidence, and all went well at the evening performance.

Six more radiant queens of song whose reign belongs to these modern
times must be mentioned in conclusion: Sembrich, Nordica, Calve, Melba,
Sanderson and Eames. These are but a few of the many present day rulers
in the realms of song.

Marcella Sembrich, a coloratura soprano from Galicia, has a light,
penetrating, marvelously sweet, and exceedingly flexible voice, with an
almost perfect vocal mechanism. As one of her admirers has said, her
tones are as clear as silver bells, and there is something buoyant and
jubilant in her mode of song. With her genuine art and engaging
personality she holds her audiences entranced and, being wise enough to
keep within her special genre, she always succeeds as an actress. She is
a pupil of the Lampertis, father and son, studied the piano with Liszt,
becoming an excellent interpreter of Chopin, and is no mean violinist.

An American, born in Farmington, Me., Lillian Nordica pursued her vocal
and musical studies at the New England Conservatory, in Boston, and
after much experience in church, concert and oratorio singing, studied
for the opera in Milan, under Signor Sangiovanni. She made her operatic
debut at Brescia in "Traviata," and in Paris as Marguerite, in "Faust."
Her superb, liquid soprano is pure, smooth and equal throughout its
entire large compass. She combines feeling with that artistic
understanding which regulates it, and has been pronounced one of the
most conscientious and intelligent singers of the day. An admirable
actress and extremely versatile, she has been successful in Mozart's
operas, and has won high renown in her Wagnerian roles.

Emma Calve, a Spaniard, possessed of all a Spaniard's fire, thrills,
bewilders, her hearers, though the more thoughtful among them wonder if
they were not moved rather by her tremendous passionate force and
powerful magnetism than by her vocal and histrionic art. Her voice is
superb, yet she often loses a vocal opportunity for dramatic effect,
often mars its beauty in the excitement that tears a passion to
tatters. Withal there is a charm to her singing that can never be
forgotten by those who have heard it. Her first triumph was won as the
interpreter of Santuzza, in "Cavalleria Rusticana," Mascagni himself
preparing her for the role. She next created a furo