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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 27, 1903)
The Dark Hours of Great Singers . ,,, -. :0 ; -, -.v. r 4 h- if n ' f i ;. fit 1 V fc ' i hf II 1. 1 ; miij, .... , J MMT3. MELBA. (Copyright, 19?3, by Lawrence Reamer.) F ALU the great singers of today rcarceiy one haa failed to ex perience the dirk hour In which there seems no light ahead. But with each singer It has been a case of "darkest before dawn;" the dark hour has invariably proved a blescing in disguise. Mine. Sembrich met with her obstacle at the irnd of her first season on the stage. Sho had overcome other troubles beforo that time, but the necessity of leaving the Dresden Opera house. In which she had been engaged, looked to her a crush ing blow she was not likely to survive. "I had sung there for a part of the sea son," Bhe tells, "when it became perfectly cliar that there was to be no place for me in the company. T had made my first ap pearance ns Lucia and was to have sung all the coloratura soprano roles. But I found that these were taken from me, given to another singer, or allowed to me only when sho was occupied in some other way. . - "I knew then that for the sake of my career I mutt leave the Dresden Opera house. I had not sung before that year and had saved no money, so the prospect of having to seek another engagement un der those circumstances was not agreeable. I asked the Intendant for my release from the company. It was lmmeJlately granted. I had expected to r;maln In Dresden for years. But I made my farewell appear ance, aroused a strong feeling against the dlroctor of the opera for permitting me to leave, and then wondored what I was gcing to do. I was an unknown singer with Just four months' experience behind me. "I decided to go to London to seek an engagement with Qye ut Covent Qarden. That was audacious, but possible, I was engaged as tho fcololst of the musical fes tival at Cologne to sing 'The Seasons.' I received enough money there to make the journey to London. I sang for Mr. Gye, was engaged for five years at Covent Oarden, and In reality begun my career. "The necessity of leaving Dresden was the most fortunate thing that could havo happened to me, although It seemed a . catastrophe at the time, ir I had sung there year In and year out I might never have been anything more than a German singer In a provincial town. The minute I was engaged at Covent Garden I had to sing In Italian. " Bo the best thing that could htve happened to me came in dis guise.. It drove me out of the first opera house in which I ever "sang, but it gave lue the opportunity for a career that would never have been possible there." Mme. Calve's dark hours came when she was studying in Paris with Rosina La borde. The French . soprano went there late in the '70s to begin her musical educa tion, and she carried from the peasant home at Auvergne no large allowance for her expenses. Bhe was Indeed very poor, and, liko many another singer, It was through the generosity of her teachers that ahe was able to complete her musical edu cation. They were willing to wait for their recompense, as they usually are in the case of such a talented pupil as Emma Ca'.vo was. But the struggle with poverty grew very fierce at times, and the singer, who has been described by thofo who knew her then as an uncommonly beautiful girl, felt that she ought to be able to enjoy some thing In her youth besides work and pov erty. "It seemed to me that I was waiting too MME. SEMBRICH. A long." she said. "I still had a year of study beforo I could expect to earn a sou, and the struggles of my'family to keep me In Paris were too great, I thought, to bo allowed. So I determined to earn loms money at once, whether It ended my study for grand opera or not. "I'nknown to anybedy, 1 found out the address of a cafe chantant in which I thought I would be able to get un engage ment. It was a email place of (he second or third-c'.nss, where I had heard I could appear In evening drees and not to com pelled, to sing comic sonRS or wear fantas tic costume. I saw trie director, to'd him that I warned to Ring and brpged for an opportunity to show what I cou'd do. He told me to come back tho next morrlng and slug for the conductor cf the orchestra. "I did not sleep a wink the r.lght before. The next day I sent word to Mme. Luberdo that I could not porslbly come to my lesion that morning nt 11, and went in a 'b;:s to the cafe, which looked more dlsreput-bli and dingy than cvr In the morning light. "It was extremely ' necessary for me to have some money, howevc. and I prjy, d .hat the conductor would l'ke me. I sanj for him several arias, and I naturally e lected thone I thought I could do best. But he was not .impressed " 'My dear child.' he said kindly, 'you might do very, well 'some d:iy for opi ra. But you'll never do at all for a cufe chant ant. It takes great talent to succeed here. I should ray that you would bo best In a church or grand opera." "I was terribly disappointed, could scarcely keep the tears cut of my eyes, and hurried home to cry myself to slec-p. "I only lesrncd later what good fortune It was I failed to get an engagement In the cafe chantant. Tho satisfaction of earning money might have been so great that I would have (liven up my study to devote my time to the sort of singing that would never havu led me anywhere. Within a year I was ablo to make my first appearance in opera. But I was al most crushed by the disappointment when it happened." ( When Mme. Melba, or Mrs. Armstrong, as she was called then, went to London, determined to become a professional singer, She was already n wife and mother, and, unlike Sembrich and Calve, she hud never known the sting of poverty. But she was anxiousto start her enreerat once. Bo before she went to Mme. Marclienl, In Pails. th Australian soprano determined to save tho time It would take to learn French and Italian by appearing, if posxible, with the Carl Rosa company. Mme. Melba finally succeeded in securing an appointment with Mr. Rosa, to whose house she was to go nt a certain hour. Mme. Melba was cn hand, but Mr. Rosa was not at home. She waited one hour and did not lose .patience. She even waited four hours. Then she left without seeing the manager, who had forgotten ell about the appointment . and gone out of town. Mme. Melba has since that day ex pressed her delight at the chance which prevented her meeting with Mr. Rosa, although she wrote to her father In Aus tralia that night that she was coming home, because her disappointments were so great she would never have the pa tience to become a singer. If Mr. Rosa had kept his appointment and heard Mme. Melba sing he would in all likelihood have engaged her for his opera company, and her entire career would in all probability have been different. It Is the misfortune of English opera to stand always on a lower level than opera In fyher tongue. Mme. Melba would never havo had the opportunity of which she availed herself so successfully at the opera In Paris and at Brussels. Hut she could not know all thhi on the summer day In 1SS5 when she sat waiting four hours for the Impressarlo who never arrived, and she siys laughingly now that the toai'H were streaming down her fuce when rhe Anally left tho house to start homeward. Two curs inter Emma Fames was a fellow pu.H of Mme Melba at Mathilde Mnri'hcHi'a school in Purls. Mme. Fumes made h-.r debut two yours after the Aus tralian soprano. Slio wus engaged first by one of the directors of the Opera Coml eiue. and it was settled that sho would appear there as Vloletta In "La Travluta." a rolo which she has, curiously enough, never sung during her career. M. Pornvey waa the director by whom the was engaged. It was Impossible for her, however, to mako the manager fix a pobitixc date for her appearance. There was a satisfaction in having be-en engaged, but the dispense! of having no Idea as to when she would finally got before the footlights wora on her until Bhe deter mined, in the vigorous style that has el Ways be-en characteristic of the soprano, to have the date definitely settled or to try to m; ke an arrangement with some other director. Months had elapsed and Bho was no r.carer a debut than on the day she hid put her nnme to the contract. Bho went to the office of M. Paravcy and lnld her ultimatum before him. Bho must know positively the date of her first appearnnce or she must be free to make other arrangements. Bho said that boldly, although her volco was tremulous and she wondered where in the world that other debut was coming from. M, le Dlrecteur fc tared at her in astonishment and tried to advise patience. But the resolute young woman from Malno had come there with a purpose. In the end she obtained her re lease and 'was in the same position as when she had left Mme. Marc-heel's lessops. "There was to be all the struggle over again, I thought to myself as I left the Opera Corrlque," Mme. Eames says, when ho tells the story now, "and I wondered whether I hod not been foolish In giving up a chance when nothing elso was In sight. I have a habit of never losing courage In -myself, however, and that thought kept me from being as desperate as I might have been. I came back to my apartment to find my mother radiant with delight. Bhe saw how gloomy I looked, but that did rot depress her." During Mme. Eames' absence a messen ger had come from M. Gallhard of the Opera, He wanted to speak to the Ameri can soprano about an engagement at the theater known officially as the National Academy cf Music of France. He hoped that the young singer had no contract that might interfere with this plan. Bhe had not, although only a few hour before she had been bound to the Opera Conilqua for a first oppearance that was Indefinite In the future. Charles Gounod, for whom she had sung some of Juliette's music, had suggested the beautiful Ameri can as the best representative of the heroine In the Shakespearean opera. Mme. Pattl, who had taken part in the first per formance of Gounod's work at the Opera, was about to leave and Mme. Eames was to be one of her successors In the part. Her debut was triumphant and the rest Is operatic history. "And suppose," Mme. Eames asks, "I had been willing to wait until the manager of the Opera Comlejue was ready to let EMMA CALVH. mo appear, how different that debut would have been. I have never sung 'Lit Travlatu,' and never want to. Nor would I havo been able to ting flrM with artists of such reputation as tho two do Reszken, or under such brilliant auspices as only a debut at the opera makes possible." Mme. Schumunn-IIeink made her dbut at the opera house In Dresden and then went, in 1U, to the Btadt theater In Hamburg, whero she sang for years tinder the munlHgcmcnt of Bernard Polllnl, acting as the musical maid of all work, that Is the fate of so many German singers. She was Prince Orlolt in "Die Fledermaus" and Ortrud In "Lohengrin," and she went to the dramatic er.'orn.nnces at the theater when singing was needed. One year, while singing in Berlin, Mme, Setnbiich urged the director of Kroli's t send to Hamburg for this wonderful con tralto. They were beginners tojether In Drcrden, but Mme. Sembrich had not heard her od friend for ten yours after she left tho opera rompuny there. They had met again when the Polish singer went to Hamburg to give a comcert. Mme. Se-humann-Helnk, who was then unkown outside of Hamburg, had begun to feel that her t'llents were not ap preciated there and that rho had betleP make an effort to advance herself. So she went to Director Polllnl, who never en Joyed the reputation of great generosity to his artists, and told him that th) time hal come for botno greater material ap preciation of what she was doing. "You're not un opera singer," replied the manager, "nnd you will never be heard of as one. You're a comic old woman." Those last' three words detcrlbe tech nically the position of the net rem who plays tho part of the old .woman In the German comedies and operettas. Mme. Bchumann-Hclnk's contract was drawing to a close and she refused to renew It with Polllnl, who tried to iwrsuudo her that he was making a fatal inUtake. Bhe was not certain of that herHelf. She had a largo family, was all but unknown outs de tbj Btadt theater, and hud been able to eke out her meagre salary with the sums her husband earned as un actor. But she determined to take the liatard. She ac cepted the Berlin engagement on her own respontlbillty. and rang there with Mme. Sembrich In "Dlo Lustigen Wclber von Windsor." Then her fame begun to spread. She was Invited to sing at Buyreuth. Within two years the "Komltcho Alte" of the Hamburg theater was Ernestine Sch'umann-Heliik, the. greatest contralto of her day. Yet when she said good-by to her eight children at Hamburg and took the train for Berlin sho was almost sick at the thought that she might have made the greatest mis take of her life; and she was not at all sure that she 'might not have to come back to Hamburg very soon to beg her former director for an engagement as comic old woman." LAWRENCE REAMER. A Bachelor's Reflections Men with brains make big money by mar rying it. There's many a slip 'twlxt the vote and the ballot box. When a man meets a woman ten years after she refused to marry him he feels like going out and buying champagne for th town. A girl Isn't half as afraid to be alone with a man in the dark as she la that somebody might turn the light on from the outside with one of those new-fangled modern Im provements. New York Tress.