,
but Campanini more than justified the reports about his singing as soon
as he made his first appearance on the stage.

An American who had the honor of being for three years first tenor at
the Royal Opera House, Berlin, and nine years first tenor at the Vienna
opera house, is Charles R. Adams. He was born in Charlestown, Mass., in
1834, and after some study with Boston teachers went abroad, where he
became a pupil of Barbiere in Vienna. After acquiring a high reputation
in Europe, he came to America as a member of the Strakosch opera company
in 1878, being associated with Miss Kellogg, Miss Cary, Miss Litta, and
others. In the following year he decided to remain in Boston, and has
since devoted his time chiefly to teaching.

The latter half of the nineteenth century has witnessed the growth of
the Wagner opera. In several ways has the doctrine of Wagner made itself
felt in musical art. Operas no longer consist of a series of solos,
duets, and concerted numbers, with an opening and closing chorus, all
strung together in such a manner as to give the greatest opportunities
to the soloist. An opera at the present day must be a drama set to
music. The action of the play must not be interrupted by applause,
encores, and the presentation of flowers. This continuity of action is
noticeable in every opera of modern times, whether German, Italian, or
French, and in itself marks a decided forward movement in the annals of
lyric art.

[Illustration: _Ed. de Reszke as Mephistopheles._]

There have been many complaints that the singing of Wagner opera ruins
the voice, but to contradict this statement we have only to look at the
careers of the greatest Wagnerian singers,--Materna, Lehmann, Brandt,
Niemann, Winkelmann, Vogl, the De Reszkes, Nordica, Brema, and others
who have sung the music of Wagner for years without any unlooked-for
deterioration. The fact is that they learned the art of vocalization,
while many who have come before the public as Wagnerian singers have
been practically ignorant of the first principles of voice production.
To shout and declaim does not by any means constitute the Wagnerian
idea. The music is as singable as the most mellifluous Italian opera of
the old school, although it does not call for the flexibility and
execution which were considered the great charm of singing in the time
of Malibran, Jenny Lind, and Grisi. An eminent London critic writes: "We
were tired to death of German coughing, barkin