zes. If the mere rattling of silver and china will eclipse
this vocal effort in speech I leave to your imagination what must
transpire when the singer is called upon to dominate with one thread of
song the tremendous onslaught of an orchestra and to rise triumphant
above it in a theater so large that the faithful gatherers in the
gallery tell me we all look like pigmies, and half the time are barely
heard. Since the recesses where we must perform are so exaggerated
everything must be in like proportion, hence we are very often too
noisy, but how can it be otherwise if we are to influence the eager
taxpayer in row X? After all, he has not come to hear us _whisper_, and
his point of vantage is not so admirable as if he were sitting at a
musical comedy in a small theater. For this condition the size of the
theater and the instrumentation imposed by the composer are to be
censured, and less blame placed upon the overburdened shoulders of the
vocal competitor against these odds. Little shading in operatic tone
color is possible unless an accompanying phrase permits it or the
trumpeter swallows a pin!

LUCIA OR ZAZA

If your repertoire is _The Barber_, _Lucia_, _Somnambula_ and all such
Italian dainties, well and good. Nothing need disturb the complete
enjoyment of this lace-work. But if your auditors weep at _Butterfly_
and _Zaza_ or thrill to _Pagliacci_, they demand you use a quite
different technic, which comes to the point of my story.

I believe it was Jean de Reszke who advocated the voice "in the mask"
united to breath support from the diaphragm. From personal observation I
should say our coloratura charmers lay small emphasis on that highly
important factor and use their head voices with a freedom more or less
God given. But the power and life-giving quality of this fundamental
cannot be too highly estimated for us who must color our phrases to suit
modern dramatics and evolve a carrying quality that will not only
eliminate the difficulty of vocal demands, but at the same time insure
immunity from harmful after-effects. This indispensable twin of the head
voice is the dynamo which alone must endure all the necessary fatigue,
leaving the actual voice phrases free to float unrestricted with no
ignoble distortions or possible signs of distress. Alas! it is not easy
to write of this, but the experience of years proves how vital a point
is its saving grace and how, unfortunately, it remains an unknown factor
to many.