The voice can never be kept in prime condition if it is obliged to carry
a load that it has not been prepared to carry. Most voices that wear out
are voices that have been overburdened. Either the singer does not know
how to sing or the role is too heavy. I think that I may be forgiven for
pointing out that I have repeatedly sung the heaviest and most exacting
roles in opera. My voice would have been shattered years ago if I had
not prepared myself for these roles and sung them properly. A man may be
able to carry a load of fifty pounds for miles if he carries it on his
back, but he will not be able to carry it a quarter of a mile if he
holds it out at arm's length from the body, with one arm. Does this not
make the point clear?
Some roles demand maturity. It is suicidal for the young singer to
attempt them. The composer and the conductor naturally think only of the
effect at the performance. The singer's welfare with them is a secondary
consideration. I have sung under the great composers and conductors,
from Richard Wagner to Richard Strauss. Some of the Strauss roles are
even more strenuous than those of Wagner. They call for great energy as
well as great vocal ability. Young singers essay these heavy roles and
the voices go to pieces. Why not wait a little while? Why not be
patient?
The singer is haunted by the delusion that success can only come to her
if she sings great roles. If she can not ape Melba in _Traviata_, Emma
Eames as Elizabeth in _Tannhaeuser_ or Geraldine Farrar in _Butterfly_,
she pouts and refuses to do anything. Offer her a small part and she
sneers at it. Ha! Ha! All my earliest successes were made in the
smallest kinds of parts. I realized that I had only a little to do and
only very little time to do it in. Consequently, I gave myself heart and
soul to that part. It must be done so artistically, so intelligently, so
beautifully that it would command success. Imagine the roles of Erda and
Norna, and Marie in _Flying Dutchman_. They are so small that they can
hardly be seen. Yet these roles were my first door to success and fame.
Wagner did not think of them as little things. He was a real master and
knew that in every art-work a small part is just as important as a great
part. It is a part of a beautiful whole. Don't turn up your nose at
little things. Take every opportunity, and treat it as though it were
the greatest thing in your life. It pays.
Everything that amounts to anything in my entire career has come through
struggle. At first a horrible struggle with poverty. No girl student in
a hall bedroom to-day (and my heart goes out to them now) endures more
than I went through. It was work, work, work, from morning to night,
with domestic cares and worries enough all the time to drive a woman
mad. Keep up your spirits, girls. If you have the right kind of fight in
you, success will surely come. Never think of discouragement, no matter
what happens. Keep working every day and always hoping. It will come
out all right if you have the gift and the perseverance. Compulsion is
the greatest element in the vocalist's success. Poverty has a knout in
its hand driving you on. Well, let it,--and remember that under that
knout you will travel twice as fast as the rich girl possibly can with
her fifty-horse-power automobile. Keep true to the best. _Muss_--"I
MUST," "I will," the mere necessity is a help not a hindrance, if you
have the right stuff in you. Learn to depend upon yourself, and know
that when you have something that the public wants it will not be slow
in running after you. Don't ask for help. I never had any help. Tell
that to the aspiring geese who think that I have some magic power
whereby I can help a mediocre singer to success by the mere twist of the
hand.