warrants your making a life work of
music, then I would suggest that you go to Europe in order to get the
broadening and the finishing touches that are necessary in order to
become an artist.

[Illustration: VICTOR MAUREL

The noted baritone for whom Verdi composed Otello and Falstaff, thinks
that Americans are as much entitled to hear their language at the Opera
Houses as the German, French and Italians. To further this project he
will include opera in English during his present Grand Opera season in
New York City. Mr. Maurel also believes strongly in giving young
American artists of real promise, an occasion to make their debut in
this country and under favorable artistic patronage and he is going to
give them a chance to do so.]

For your German songs and operas you should go to Germany. For the
Italian operas to Italy, where it is possible for you to live in the
atmosphere of the opera and hear the language every day. The same also
applies to the French, who, of all people insist emphatically on perfect
diction.

You can, of course, take up and to some extent learn the languages here,
but you are liable to meet with the same disappointment as a young lady
from the west who studied French in school for several years and thought
herself proficient in that language. She went to Paris to study music
and it was fully six months before she was able to either understand or
to be understood in common, every-day conversation.

I am in favor of the class lessons so popular in Europe, and hope some
day we will be able to make them universal. Ten or twelve pupils
assemble at one time and each takes his lesson in turn. In this way each
gets the benefit of the other lessons. This also enables the pupils to
become accustomed to singing before each other, which is invaluable in
overcoming nervousness. Some pupils desire to take their lessons in
private, as they do not care to sing before a class. This feeling will
gradually disappear and it is much better to have it over with in the
beginning, than later when you are expected to go before a critic or
manager to sing.

The expense of studying abroad may be adjusted entirely according to
your pocketbook. When anyone tells you it is cheaper to study on the
other side, they display their ignorance of the subject. I have studied
in this country, Germany, France and Italy, and I have found that,
including everything, it costs about the same everywhere. You can
secure board and r