t-lesson. Well--it
was. They saw a fine-looking woman with a mediocre voice and a worse
method, a method so hopelessly bad that even her undoubted musicianship
could not atone for it.

All this goes to prove that a method, to be elastic and adaptable,
should be based on a knowledge of the physiology of the voice-producing
organs, for such a method naturally adapts itself to physical
differences in different individuals. Without doubt Mme. Marchesi's
method was admirably adapted to Melba, but not to Eames or to her own
daughter.

Bear these circumstances in mind in selecting a teacher. The great
singers are not always safe guides in the choice of a teacher, because
their own superlative gifts and willingness to slave for the object of
their ambition may have been as important factors in their success as
the instruction they received. Probably a singer of only fair natural
gifts who yet has made a success--which shows that he must have been
well taught--can give better advice as to the choice of an instructor
than the great artist who owes so much to himself. Moreover, great
artists who have studied with the same teacher will, like Melba and
Eames, differ in their estimate of that teacher.

There is, however, one great singer, Lillian Nordica, who knows to whom
to give credit for that skill in voice-production which enables her to
sing Valentine, Aida and Isolde with equal success. The foundation for
her career was laid in this country. Afterward she studied with Mme.
Maretzek and in Milan with San Giovanni, but only interpretation. Her
voice-production she acquired not from Madame this or Signor that, but
from plain John O'Neill, of Boston, "a scholarly man who had made a
profound study of the physiology of the voice," and she took good care
not to allow any other teacher, however "famous," to undo the work of
the man who had taught her voice-production based on correct knowledge
of the physiology of the voice-producing organs.

This matter of choosing a teacher is, of course, of the greatest
importance, but it barely can be touched on in this book. The selection
should be made most cautiously, but, once made, the pupil's parents
should not go to the teacher a few weeks later and ask, "Why don't you
give Clara some 'pieces'?" They should recall the story of Porpora and
Caffarelli which I related in the previous chapter. "Pieces" are not in
order until the voice is prepared for them, and the teacher is the best
judge