"You ask if I hear myself, when I am singing for an audience. In a
general way, yes. Of course I do not get the full effect of what I am
doing; a singer never does. It takes the records to tell me that, and I
have been making records for a good number of years. But I know the
sensations which accompany correct tone production, and if I feel they
are different in any place or passage, I try to make a mental note of
the fact and the passage, that I may correct it afterwards. But I must
emphasize the point that when I sing, I cast away all thought of _how_ I
do anything technical; I want to get away from the mechanics of the
voice; I must keep my thought clear for the interpretation, for the
message I have brought to the audience. To be constantly thinking--how
am I doing this or that--would hamper me terribly. I should never get
anywhere. I must have my vocal apparatus under such control that it goes
of itself. A pianist does not think of technic when playing in public,
neither should a singer think of his vocal technic. Of course there may
be occasions when adverse circumstances thrust conditions upon me. If I
have a slight cold, or tightness of throat, I have to bring all my
resources to bear, to rise above the seeming handicap, and sing as well
as I can in spite of it. I can say gratefully, without any desire to
boast, that during the past eleven years, I have never once missed an
engagement or disappointed an audience. Of course I have had to keep
engagements when I did not feel in the mood, either physically or
mentally. Many singers would have refused under like conditions. But it
does not seem fair to the audience to disappoint, or to the manager
either; it puts him in a very difficult and unpleasant position. It
seems to me the artist should be more considerate of both manager and
audience, than to yield to a slight indisposition and so break his
engagement.