This generation seems to be particularly fortunate in regard to the
number and the quality of its singers. Not the least prominent among
these is Emma Calvé, the well-known prima donna, who has sung, so it
is said, in every civilized or semi-civilized country in the world and
in each and every instance has vindicated her professional reputation.
She was born in France in 1866 and was educated at a convent. After
some years of study under continental masters, she made her début in
grand opera in 1882 at the Theater De la Monnaie, Brussels, where she
appeared in Massenet’s Herodiade. Since then she has been intrusted
with a number of responsible operatic rôles and is well known in the
United States. No small portion of her current reputation rests upon
the success that she achieved in connection with her appearance in
Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana.”