walk around, act, sing and
at the same time watch the conductor with his ninety men. Only he can
know what the difference between singing in concert and on the operatic
stage really is. Yet old opera singers who enter the recital field
invariably say that it is far harder to get up alone in a large hall and
become the whole performance, aided and abetted only by an able
accompanist, than it is to sing in opera.

The recital has the effect of preserving the fineness of many operatic
voices. Modern opera has ruined dozens of fine vocal organs because of
the tremendous strain made upon them and the tendency to neglect vocal
art for dramatic impression.

If there were more of the better _singing_ in opera, such as one hears
from Mr. Caruso, there would be less comment upon opera as a bastard
art. Operatic work is very exhilarating. The difference between concert
and opera for the singer is that between oatmeal porridge and an old
vintage champagne. There is no time at the Metropolitan for raw singers.
The works in the repertoire must be known so well in the singing and the
acting that they may be put on perfectly with the least possible
rehearsals. Therefore, the singer has no time for routine. The lack of a
foreign name will keep no American singer out of the Metropolitan; but
the lack of the ability to save the company hundreds of dollars through
needless waits at rehearsals will.

NATURAL METHODS OF SINGING

Certainly no country in recent years has produced so many "corking" good
singers as America. Our voices are fresh, virile, pure and rich; when
the teaching is right. Our singers are for the most part finely educated
and know how to interpret the texts intelligently. Mr. W. J. Henderson,
the eminent New York critic, in his "Art of Singing," gave the following
definition, which my former teacher, the late Dr. Carl Dufft, endorsed
very highly: "Singing is the expression of a text by means of tones made
by the human voice." More and more the truth of this comes to me.
Singing is not merely vocalizing but always a means of communication in
which the artist must convey the message of the two great minds of the
poet and the composer to his fellow man. In this the voice must be as
natural as possible, as human as possible, and not merely a sugary tone.
The German, the Frenchman, the Englishman and the American strive first
for an intelligent interpretation of the text. The Italian thinks of
tone first and the text aft