"Yes, as you say, it requires constant study to keep the various rôles
in review, especially at the Metropolitan, where the operas are changed
from day to day. Of course at performance the prompter is always there
to give the cue--yet the words must always be in mind. I have never yet
forgotten a word or phrase. On one occasion--it was in the _Damnation of
Faust_, a part I had already sung a number of times--I thought of a word
that was coming, and seemed utterly unable to remember it. I grew quite
cold with fear--I am inclined to be a little nervous anyway--but it was
quite impossible to think of the word. Luckily at the moment when I
needed the word I was so fearful about, it suddenly came to me.