be
determined by responsible judges. At the same time, the singers may see
how possible it is for even experienced musicians, like my colleagues in
Lyons, to be mistaken. If I had depended upon them and not fought my own
way out, I would probably be an obscure teacher in the same old city
earning the munificent salary of one hundred dollars a month.

FIGHTING YOUR OWN WAY

The student who has to fight his own way has a much harder battle of it;
but he has a satisfaction which certainly does not come to the one who
has all his instruction fees and living expenses paid for him. He feels
that he has earned his success; and, by the processes of exploration
through which the self-help student must invariably pass, he becomes
invested with a confidence and "I know" feeling which is a great asset
to him. The main thing is for him to keep busy all the time. He has not
a minute to spare upon dreaming. He has no one to carry his burden but
himself; and the exercise of carrying it himself is the thing which will
do most to make him strong and successful.

The artists who leap into success are very rare. Hundreds who have held
mediocre positions come to the front, while those who appear most
favored stay in the background. Do not seek to gain eminence by any
influence but that of real earnest work; and if you do not intend to
work and to work hard, drop all of your aspirations for operatic
laurels.

[Illustration: ANDREAS DIPPEL.

(C) Dupont.]

ANDREAS DIPPEL

BIOGRAPHICAL

Andreas Dippel was born at Cassel, 1866. His father was a manufacturer
who had the boy educated at the local gymnasium, with the view to making
him a banker. After five years in a banking house he decided to become a
singer and studied with Mme. Zottmayr. Later he went to Berlin, Milan
and Vienna, where he studied with Julius Hey, Alberto Leoni and Johann
Ress. In 1887 he made his debut at Bremen, in _The Flying Dutchman_. He
remained with that company until 1892. In the meantime, however, he had
appeared at the Metropolitan in New York, with such success that he
toured America as a concert singer with Anton Seidl, Arthur Nikisch, and
Theodore Thomas. From 1893 to 1898 he was a member of the Imperial Court
Opera at Vienna. In 1898 he returned to America to the Metropolitan. In
1908 he was appointed administrative manager of the Metropolitan
Company, later becoming the manager of the Philadelphia-Chicago Opera
Company. Mr. Dippel is a fine dr