tion is at the same time song,
and my song declamation." Scaria's method also afforded an eloquent
illustration of the wonderful manner in which, in Wagner's vocal
style, the melodic accent always falls on the proper rhetorical accent
of each word of the text, which is one of the secrets of clear
enunciation. He emphasized important syllables by dwelling on them,
thus producing that dramatic _rubato_ which Wagner considered of such
great importance in his operas that, when he brought out "Tannhaeuser"
in Dresden, he actually had the words of the text copied into the
parts of all the orchestral players, in order that they might be able
to follow these poetic licenses in the dramatic phrasing of the
singer. This dramatic _rubato_ is, of course, a very different thing
from the freedom which Italian singers often allow themselves on
favorable high notes, which they prolong, not in order to emphasize an
emotion but to show off the beauty and sustaining power of their
voices.

Scaria, unfortunately, was never heard in opera in this country. But
we have had Materna and Niemann and Brandt and Fischer, and Alvary
and Lehmann, who have given us correct ideas of the German vocal
style. Surely no one can say, on listening to Lehmann's _Bruennhilde_,
or Fischer's _Hans Sachs,_ or Alvary's _Siegfried_, that the vocal
part is inferior in beauty or importance to the orchestral. When
Alvary sang _Siegfried_ for the first time in New York, he presented a
creditable but uneven impersonation, not having sufficiently mastered
the details of the acting to feel quite at ease, and not being able to
husband his vocal resources for the grand duo at the close. But at the
end of the season, at the eleventh performance, he had become a
full-fledged _Siegfried_, acting the part as by instinct, while his
voice was as fresh at the close of the opera as at the beginning: thus
affording a striking proof of Wagner's assertion, that the greatest
vocal difficulties of his roles can be readily mastered if the singer
will only take the pains to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the
text and the dramatic situations. Alvary spent a whole year in
learning this role, availing himself of the hints given him by Herr
Seidl, who has the Wagnerian traditions by heart; and to-day he might,
if he felt so inclined, amass wealth and win honor by travelling about
Europe and singing nothing but this one role. Vienna and Brussels made
strenuous efforts to entice him away