What is the open door to opera in America? Is there an open door, and if
not, how can one be made? Who may go through that door and what are the
terms of admission? These are questions which thousands of young
American opera aspirants are asking just now.
The prospect of singing at a great opera house is so alluring and the
reward in money is often so great that students center their attentions
upon the grand prize and are willing to take a chance of winning, even
though they know that only one in a very few may succeed and then often
at bitter sacrifice.
The question is a most interesting one to me, as I think that I know
what the open door to opera in this country might be--what it may be if
enough patriotic Americans could be found to cut through the hard walls
of materialism, conventionalism and indifference. It lies through the
small opera company--the only real and great school which the opera
singer of the future can have.