Her training in acting would depend largely upon her natural talent.
Some children are born actors--natural mimics. They act from their
childhood right up to old age. They can learn more in five minutes than
others can learn in years. Some seem to require little or no training in
the art of acting. As a rule they become the most forceful acting
singers. Others improve wonderfully under the direction of a clever
teacher.
The new school of opera demands higher histrionic ability from the
singer. In fact, we have come to a time when opera is a real drama set
to music which is largely recitative and which does not distract from
the action of the drama. The librettos of other days were, to say the
least, ridiculous. If the music had not had a marvelous hold upon the
people they could not have remained in popular favor. To my mind it is
an indication of the wonderful power of music that these operas retain
their favor. There is something about the melodies which seems to
preserve them for all time; and the public is just as anxious to hear
them to-day as it was twenty-five and fifty years ago.
Richard Wagner turned the tide of acting in opera by his music dramas.
Gluck and von Weber had already made an effort in the right direction;
but it remained for the mighty power of Wagner to accomplish the final
work. Now we are witnessing the rise of a school of musical dramatic
actors such as Garden, Maurel, Renaud, and others which promises to
raise the public taste in this matter and which will add vastly to the
pleasure of opera going, as it will make the illusion appear more real.
This also imposes upon the impresario a new contingency which threatens
to make opera more and more expensive. Costumes, scenery and all the
settings nowadays must be both historically authentic and costly. The
collection of wigs, robes, and armor, together with a few sets of
scenery, often with the chairs and other furniture actually painted on
the scenes, which a few years ago were thought adequate for the
equipment of an opera company, have now given way to equipment more
elaborate than that of a Belasco or a Henry Irving. Nothing is left
undone to make the picture real and beautiful. In fact operatic
productions, as now given in America, are as complete and luxurious as
any performances given anywhere in the world.