“As much as any other country, and more, I should think. The higher
average of intelligence here should yield a greater percentage of
musical intelligence.”
“Then there ought to be a number of great American women singers in the
future?”
“There ought to be, but it is a question whether there will be. They
are not cut out for the work which it requires to develop a good voice.”
“You think there is good material for great voices in American women,
but not sufficient energy?”
“That is my fear, not my belief. I have noticed that young women here
seem to underestimate the cost of distinction. It means more than most
of them are prepared to give; and when they face the exactions of art
they falter and drop out. Hence we have many middle-class singers, but
few really powerful ones.”
“What are these exactions you speak of?”
“Time, money, and loss of friends, of pleasure. To be a great singer
means, first, to be a great student. To be a great student means that
you have no time for balls and parties, very little for friends, and
less for carriage rides and pleasant strolls. All that is really left
is a shortened allowance of sleep, of time for meals and time for
exercise.”
“Did you ever imagine that people leaped into permanent fame when still
young and without much effort on their part?”
“I did. But I discovered that real fame—permanent recognition which
cannot be taken away from you—is acquired only by a lifetime of most
earnest labor. People are never internationally recognized until they
have reached middle life. Many persons gain notoriety young, but that
goes as quickly as it comes. All true success is founded on real
accomplishment, acquired with difficulty; and so, when you see some
one accounted great, you will usually find him to be in the prime of
life or past it.”
“You grant that many young people have genius?”
“Certainly I do. Many of them have it. They will have waited long,
however, before it has been trained into valuable service. The world
gives very little recognition for a great deal of labor paid in; and
when I earn a thousand dollars for a half hour’s singing sometimes it
does not nearly average up for all the years and for the labor much
more difficult, which I contributed without recompense.”