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 Tellegen, one of the most
distinguished actors of the French school, who at one time was the
leading man for Sarah Bernhardt.

The following conference is rich in advice to any young woman who
desires to know what she must do in order to become a prima donna.

WHAT MUST I GO THROUGH TO BECOME A PRIMA DONNA?

MME. GERALDINE FARRAR

What 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 expression and emotional appeal will be sadly hampered unless the
medium of sound carries their message. It is only 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 musicians 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 gentlemen 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
question 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 hundred is far greater than the average
auditor reali