In the preparation of this companion volume of "Great Singers," the
same limitations of purpose have guided the author as in the case of
the earlier book, which sketched the lives of the greatest lyric artists
from Faustina Bordoni to Henrietta Sontag. It has been impossible to
include any but those who stand incontestably in the front rank of the
operatic profession, except so far as some account of the lesser lights
is essential to the study of those artistic lives whose names make the
captions of these sketches. So, too, it has been attempted to embody, in
several of the articles, intelligent, if not fully adequate, notice of
a few of the greatest men singers, who, if they have not aroused as
deep an enthusiasm as have those of the other sex, are perhaps justly
entitled to as much consideration on art grounds. It will be observed
that the great living vocalists have been excluded from this book,
except those who, having definitely retired from the stage, may be
considered as dead to their art. This plan has been pursued, not from
any undervaluation of the Pattis, the Nilssons, and the Luccas of the
present musical stage, but because, in obeying that necessity imposed by
limitation of space, it has seemed more desirable to exclude those whose
place in art is not yet finally settled, rather than those whose names
belong to history, and who may be seen in full perspective.
The material from which this little book is compiled has been drawn from
a variety of sources, among which may be mentioned the three works of
Henry F. Chorley, "Music and Manners in France and Germany," "Modern
German Music," and "Thirty Years' Musical Kecollections"; Sutherland
Edwards's "History of the Opera"; Fetis's "Biographie des Musiciens";
Ebers's "Seven Years of the King's Theatre"; Lumley's "Reminiscences";
Charles Hervey's "Theatres of Paris"; Arsène Houssaye's "Galerie
de Portraits"; Countess de Merlin's "Mémoires de Madame Malibran";
Ox-berry's "Dramatic Biography and Histrionic Anecdotes"; Crowest's
"Musical Anecdotes" and Mrs. Clayton's "Queens of Song."