s and remained with the celebrated teacher for two
years. At twenty-one she made her debut at the Grand Opera in Paris in
_Romeo et Juliette_. Two years later she appeared at Covent Garden,
London, with such success that she was immediately engaged for the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Few singers ever gained such a
strong hold upon the American and English public. Her voice is a fine
flexible soprano, capable of doing _Marguerite_ or _Elisabeth_ equally
well. Her husband, Emilio de Gogorza, with whom it is our privilege to
present a conference later in this book, is one of the foremost
baritones of our time.

[Illustration: MME. EMMA EAMES.]

HOW A GREAT MASTER COACHED OPERA SINGERS

MME. EMMA EAMES

GOUNOD AN IDEALIST

One does not need to review the works of Charles Gounod to any great
extent before discovering that above all things he was an idealist. His
whole aspect of life and art was that of a man imbued with a sense of
the beautiful and a longing to actualize some noble art purpose. He was
of an age of idealists. Coming at the artificial period of the Second
Empire, he was influenced by that artistic atmosphere, as were such
masters of the brush as Jean August Ingres and Eugene Delacroix. This,
however, was unconscious, and in no way affected his perfect sincerity
in all he did.

FIRST MEETING WITH GOUNOD

I was taken to Gounod by my master, Mme. Mathilde Marchesi, who,
perhaps, had some reason to regret her kindness in introducing me, since
Gounod did not favor what he conceived as the Italian method of singing.
He had a feeling that the Italian school, as he regarded it, was too
obvious, and that French taste demanded more sincerity, more subtlety,
better balance and a certain finesse which the purely vocal Italian
style slightly obscured. Mme. Marchesi was very irate over Gounod's
attitude, which she considered highly insulting; whereas, as a matter of
fact, Gounod was doing the only thing that a man of his convictions
could do, and that was to tell what he conceived as the truth.

Gounod's study was a room which fitted his character perfectly. His very
pronounced religious tendencies were marked by the stained glass windows
which cast a delicate golden tint over the little piano he occasionally
used when composing. On one side was a pipe organ upon which he was very
fond of playing. In fact, the whole atmosphere was that of a chapel,
which, together with the beautiful and dignifi