I was born at Nancy on the 31st of December, 1871. I gave evidences of
having musical talent and my musical instruction commenced at the age of
six years. I studied first at the Conservatory at Nancy, intending to
make a specialty of the violin. Then I had the misfortune of breaking my
arm. It was decided thereafter that I had better study the French horn.
This I did with much success and attribute my control of the breath at
this day very largely to my elementary struggles with that most
difficult of instruments. At the age of fourteen I played the second
horn at Nancy. Finally, I went, with a purse made up by some citizens of
my home town, to enter the great Conservatory at Paris. There I studied
very hard and succeeded in winning my goal in the way of receiving the
first prize for playing the French horn.
For a time I played under Colonne, and between the ages of seventeen and
twenty-three in Paris I played with the Lamoureaux Orchestra. All this
time I had my heart set upon becoming a singer and paid particular
attention to all of the wonderful orchestral works we rehearsed. The
very mention of the fact that I desired to become a singer was met with
huge ridicule by my friends, who evidently thought that it was a form of
fanaticism. For a time I studied the 'cello and managed to acquire a
very creditable technic upon that instrument.