umber of the best
years of my life to singing in Italian opera in this wonderful country,
and one cannot help noticing, first of all, the almost indescribable
advance that America has made along all lines. It is so marvelous that
those who reside continually in this country do not stop to consider it.
Musicians of Europe who have never visited America can form no
conception of it, and when they once have had an opportunity to observe
musical conditions in America, the great opera houses, the music
schools, the theatres and the bustling, hustling activity, together with
the extraordinary casts of world-famous operatic stars presented in our
leading cities, they are amazed in the extreme.

It is very gratifying for me to realize that the operatic compositions
of my countrymen must play a very important part in the operatic future
of America. It has always seemed to me that there is far more variety in
the works of the modern Italian composers than in those of other
nations. Almost all of the later German operas bear the unmistakable
stamp of Wagner. Those which do not, show decided Italian influences.
The operas of Mozart are largely founded on Italian models, although
they show a marvelous genius peculiar to the great master who created
them.

OPERATIC TENDENCIES

The Italian opera of the future will without doubt follow the lead of
Verdi, that is, the later works of Verdi. To me _Falstaff_ seems the
most remarkable of all Italian operas. The public is not well enough
acquainted with this work to demand it with the same force that they
demand some of the more popular works of Verdi. Verdi was always
melodious. His compositions are a beautiful lace-work of melodies. It
has seemed to me that some of the Italian operatic composers who have
been strongly influenced by Wagner have made the mistake of supposing
that Wagner was not a master of melody. Consequently they have
sacrificed their Italian birthright of melody for all kinds of
cacophony. Wagner was really wonderfully melodious. Some of his melodies
are among the most beautiful ever conceived. I do not refer only to the
melodies such as "Oh, Thou Sublime Evening Star" of _Tannhaeuser_ or the
"Bridal March" of _Lohengrin_, but also to the inexhaustible fund of
melodies that one may find in most every one of his astonishing works.
True, these melodies are different in type from most melodies of Italian
origin, but they are none the less melodies, and beautiful ones.