Would you have me give the secret of my success at the very outstart? It
is very simple and centers around this subject of the artist's
responsibility to the audience. My secret is absolute devotion to the
audience. I love my audiences. They are all my friends. I feel a bond
with them the moment I step before them. Whether I am singing in blase
New York or before an audience of farmer folk in some Western
Chautauqua, my attitude toward my audience is quite the same. I take the
same care and thought with every audience. This even extends to my
dress. The singer, who wears an elaborate gown before a Metropolitan
audience and wears some worn-out old rag of a thing when singing at some
rural festival, shows that she has not the proper respect in her mind.
Respect is everything.
Therefore it is necessary for me to have my voice in the best of
condition every day of the year. It is my duty to my audience. The woman
who comes to a country Chautauqua and brings her baby with her and
perchance nurses the little one during the concert gets a great deal
closer to my heart than the stiff-backed aristocrat who has just left a
Pekingese spaniel outside of the opera house door in a $6000.00
limousine. That little country woman expects to hear the singer at her
best. Therefore, I practice just as carefully on the day of the
Chautauqua concert as I would if I were to sing _Ortrud_ the same night
at the Metropolitan in New York.
American audiences are becoming more and more discriminating. Likewise
they are more and more responsive. As an American citizen, I am devoted
to all the ideals of the new world. They have accepted me in the most
whole-souled manner and I am grateful to the land of my adoption.