"This brings us to another point, the study of languages. The Italian
sings nearly all his rôles in his own tongue, with a few learned in
French. With the Frenchman, it is the same: he sings in his own tongue
and learns some parts in Italian. But we poor Americans are forced to
learn our parts in all three languages. This, of itself, greatly adds to
our difficulties. We complain that the American sings his own language
so carelessly. An Italian, singing his own language for his own people,
may not be any more careful than we are, but he will make English, if he
attempts it, more intelligible than we do, because he takes extra care
to do so. The duty is laid upon Americans to study other languages, if
they expect to sing. I know how often this study is neglected by the
student. It is another phase of that haste to make one's way which is
characteristic of the young student and singer.
"Take, for example, the girl in the small town, who is trying to do
something with her voice. She believes if she can get to New York, or
some other music center, and have six months' lessons with some well
known teacher, she will emerge a singer. She comes and finds living
expenses so great that only one lesson a week with the professor is
possible. There is no chance for language or diction study, or piano
lessons; yet all these she ought to have. And one vocal lesson a week is
entirely inadequate. The old way of having daily lessons was far more
successful. The present way vocal teachers give lessons is not conducive
to the best development. The pupils come in a hurry, one after another,
to get their fifteen or twenty minutes of instruction. Yet one cannot
blame the teacher for he must live.