CHOICE OF DÉBUT WORK
As regards the choice of opera for début purposes I need hardly say that
this is a matter of great importance which should be most carefully
considered. If you happen to be exceptionally gifted and possess the
advantage of powerful connections you may perhaps be able to appear at
once in a rôle of the first importance, but my opinion is that it is
usually much better to begin with smaller parts and acquire the
necessary stage experience before attempting one of the more exacting
rôles.
You may, of course, have such natural gifts and be so well trained and
coached for the purpose that you may achieve success at a bound, but the
chances are against this, and it is much more likely that you will fall
short of your expectations and thereby imperil your career at the outset
by making a false start. _C’est le premier pas_, etc., and it is much
better to begin modestly and learn your business thoroughly before
attempting the higher flights. Then when you are properly qualified and
have acquired the necessary experience you can take a more important
part with the assurance that you will be able at least to do full
justice to yourself and to make the utmost of your natural powers.
There is another reason, too, why it is a mistake, as a rule, to attempt
the heavier rôles too soon--namely, the fact that the voice and the
general physique, apart from the question of training and experience,
are seldom ready for these at first. I have, indeed, known more than one
case in which a career of promise has been ruined after a brilliant
start by subjecting a young singer too soon to the heavy strain of the
most important parts.
Study these rôles by all means and have them ready--or one or two of
them--in case some exceptional or unexpected opportunity should present
itself. But do not be in too great a hurry to appear in them. It is a
much safer course, as a rule, to make good at first in those of a less
ambitious kind; and you need never be afraid that good work in these
will go unnoticed or unrewarded. But whichever part you choose for the
purpose it should naturally be one which is well suited to your capacity
and in which you are confident of being able to do your best.
If the novice can attach himself or herself to some provincial opera
company at a nominal salary for the purpose of training and experience,
this is often a good plan. In Italy almost every provincial city has a
small season of opera, and impresarios in most cases are ready to give a
promising singer a début without pay in order to reduce their expenses.
But in some instances if a singer desires to make a début in a certain
rôle and imposes this on the impresario she will be required to help to
finance the opera by the payment of a few thousand lire. This is often
done, but in some instances with sad results, because it is usually an
indifferent artist who forces a début in this way, often against the
better judgment of the manager.
I have known instances, indeed, where a singer has obtained a début on
these terms, and the audience, after hearing the singer, has protested
so vigorously that the unfortunate novice has had to be withdrawn in
favour of a more satisfactory substitute in order to pacify the public.
In one instance I remember a Canadian tenor of tremendous size, but with
a voice more like a mad bull’s than that of a human being, who thought
he would make an ideal Othello. He was wealthy and paid the management
25,000 lire for a début. After the first act such a commotion was
created in the theatre that the carabinieri had to step in and decide
that either the show should be stopped or else continued by another
artist.
Shortly afterwards columns appeared in the American papers about the
harsh treatment of foreign singers in Italy. I can only say, however,
that in my judgment it is utterly wrong to force on the public artists
who are manifestly incapable, and that in this particular case the
punishment fitted the crime!
In cases where there really are voice and merit such methods should be
quite unnecessary, since managers are only too eager to secure fresh
talent and to offer suitable opportunities for appearing before the
public to those who possess it.
Just another suggestion. Don’t be induced to accept a dramatic rôle if
your voice is purely lyric. Don’t even be tempted. Certain _maestri_ are
always looking for voices that can be heard above their orchestras. They
never find one, because it doesn’t exist; but the path of their search
is strewn with wrecked voices.