slightly
backward direction towards the nasal cavities, I can produce a full rich
B flat, or even C, with the greatest ease. My family do not like it, but
family criticism is seldom satisfactory. Can you tell me whether this is
a legitimate use of my vocal resources or not; also, whether the
resinous quality of my voice is likely to be affected by my wearing
stand-up collars of more than 2-1/2 inches in height? I have read
somewhere that starched linen is a bad conductor of sound._--MARIO
JUNIOR.

ANSWER.--It is hard to tell whether you are a tenor or a forced-up
baritone without hearing or seeing you. Tenors are generally short,
stubby men with brief necks, while baritones are for the most part tall,
spare and long-necked. It was HANS VON BUELOW who said that a tenor was
a disease, but he was a pianist and a conductor. Do not "grouse" if you
can sing tenor parts and yet retain the volume and virility of a
baritone. JEAN DE RESZKE began as a baritone and is said to have earned
L20,000 a year. The nasal tone that you speak of, when it approximates
to the whinnying of a horse or, better still, the trumpeting of an
infuriated rogue elephant, is a most valuable asset, but should be used
with moderation in the family circle. Do not say "resinous"; "resonant"
is probably the word you mean. High stand-up collars are certainly to be
avoided, as they constrict the Adam's apple and muffle the tone of the
voice. A soft turn-down collar, such as those supplied by Pope Bros., is
greatly to be preferred and imparts a romantic and semi-Byronic
appearance highly desirable in an artist.

_I am a railway porter with a good bass voice, and having read that the
great Russian singer who has been appearing at Drury Lane began life in
that position and is now paid at the rate of L400 a night, I am anxious
to follow his example, if I can obtain adequate guarantees of
success._--CLAPHAM JUNCTION.

ANSWER.--It is always dangerous to generalise from exceptional
individual cases. Are you over six feet high, and have you corn-coloured
hair and blue yes, like CHALIAPINE? Again, Russian railway porters are
in the habit of shouting the names of stations, not only in a loud
voice, but with scrupulously clear articulation. Do not rashly abandon
your career on the railway on the off-chance of a vocal Bonanza.
Remember the words of the poet:--

O, ever since the world began,
There never was and never can
Be such a very useful man