To the girl who aspires to have an operatic career, who has the
requisite vocal gifts, physical health, stage presence and--most
important of all--a high degree of intelligence, the great essential is
regular daily work. This implies regular lessons, regular practice,
regular exercise, regular sleep, regular meals--in fact, a life of
regularity. The daily lesson in most cases seems an imperative
necessity. Lessons strung over a series of years merely because it seems
more economical to take one lesson a week instead of seven rarely
produce the expected results. Marchesi, with her famous wisdom on vocal
matters, advised twenty minutes a day and then not more than ten minutes
at a time.
For nine months I studied with the great Parisian maestra and in my
tenth month I made my debut. Of course, I had sung a great deal before
that time and also could play both the piano and the violin. A thorough
musical knowledge is always valuable. The early years of the girl who is
destined for an operatic career may be much more safely spent with
Czerny exercises for the piano or Kreutzer studies for the violin than
with Concone Solfeggios for the voice. Most girls over-exercise their
voices during the years when they are too delicate. It always pays to
wait and spend the time in developing the purely musical side of study.