es is little less than farcical. The
voice, above all things, needs careful and constant attention. Moreover,
many are lacking lamentably in the right preparations. Some are
evidently so benighted as to believe that preparation is unnecessary. Or
do they believe that the singing teacher must also provide a musical and
general education?

"Is there one among them, for instance, who can enunciate her own
language faultlessly; that is, as the stage demands? Many fail to
realize that they should, first of all, be taught elocution (diction) by
teachers who can show them how to pronounce vowels purely and
beautifully, and consonants correctly and distinctly, so as to give
words their proper sounds. How can anyone expect to sing in a foreign
language when he has no idea of his own language--no idea how this
wonderful member, the tongue, should be used--to say nothing of the
terrible faults in speaking? I endorse the study of elocution as a
preparatory study for all singing. No one can realize how much simpler
and how much more efficient it would make the work of the singing
teacher."

Finally, the writer feels that there is much to be inferred from the
popular criticism of the man in the street--"There is no music in that
voice." Mr. Hoipolloi knows just what he means when he says that. As a
matter of fact, the average voice has very little music in it. By music
the man means that the pitch of the tones that he hears shall be so
unmistakable and so accurate, that the quality shall be so pure and the
thought of the singer so sincere and so worth-while, that the auditor
feels the wonderful human emotion that comes only from listening to a
beautiful human voice. Put real music in every tone and your success
will not be far distant.

JAMES FRANCIS COOKE.

Bala, Pa.

THE TECHNIC OF OPERATIC PRODUCTION

WHAT THE STUDENT WHO ASPIRES TO GO INTO OPERA SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE
MECHANICAL SIDE OF GIVING AN OPERATIC PERFORMANCE

Even after one has mastered the art of singing there is still much that
the artist must learn about the actual working of the opera house
itself. This of course is best done by actual experience; but the writer
has found that much can be gained by insight into some of the conditions
that exist in the modern opera house.

In the childhood of hundreds of people now living opera was given with
scenery and costumes that would be ridiculed in vaudeville if seen
to-day. Pianos, lamps, chairs and even bir