success very largely through physical strength, all other factors
being present in the desired degree. That is, the singer must be strong
physically in order to succeed in opera. This applies to women as well
as to men. No one knows what the physical strain is, how hard the work
and study are. In front of you is a sea of highly intelligent, cultured
people, who for years have been trained in the best traditions of the
opera. They pay the highest prices paid anywhere for entertainment. They
are entitled to the best. To face such an audience and maintain the high
traditions of the house through three hours of a complicated modern
score is a musical, dramatic and intellectual feat that demands, first
of all, a superb physical condition. Every day of my life in New York I
go for a walk, mostly around the reservoir in Central Park, because it
is high and the air is pure and free. As a result I seldom have a cold,
even in mid-winter. I have not missed a performance in eight years, and
this, of course, is due to the fact that my health is my first daily
consideration.

[Illustration: PASQUALE AMATO.

(C) Mishkin.]

PASQUALE AMATO

BIOGRAPHICAL

Pasquale Amato, for so many years the leading baritone at the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York, was born at Naples March 21st,
1878. He was intended for the career of an engineer and was educated at
the Instituto Tecnico Domenico. He then studied at the Conservatory of
Naples from 1896 to 1899. His teachers there were Cucialla and Carelli.
He made his debut as Germont in _La Traviata_ in the Teatro Bellini at
Naples in 1900. Thereafter his successes have been exceptionally great
in the music centers of South America, Italy, Russia, England, Egypt,
and Germany. He has created numerous roles at the Metropolitan Opera
House, among them Jack Rance in the _Girl of the Golden West_; Golaud in
_Pelleas and Melisande_ (Milan); _L'Amore di Tre Re_; _Cyrano_
(Damrosch); _Lodoletta_ (Mascagni); _Madame Sans Gene_. He has visited
South America as an artist no less than ten times. His voice is
susceptible of fine dramatic feeling.

MODERN VOCAL METHODS IN ITALY

PASQUALE AMATO

When I was about sixteen years of age my voice was sufficiently settled
to encourage my friends and family to believe that I might become a
singer. This is a proud discovery for an Italian boy, as
singing--especially operatic singing--is held in such high regard in
Italy that one naturally look