Respecting “make-up” this should be done as carefully and artistically as possible, bearing in mind always that although some of the audience may be a long way off, others will be much nearer, while opera glasses will further help to abridge the distance and to reveal every detail.
Chapter XXVI
CHOICE OF DÉBUT WORK
AS regards the choice of opera for début purposes I need hardly say that this is a matter of great importance which should be most carefully considered. If you happen to be exceptionally gifted and possess the advantage of powerful connections you may perhaps be able to appear at once in a rôle of the first importance, but my opinion is that it is usually much better to begin with smaller parts and acquire the necessary stage experience before attempting one of the more exacting rôles.
You may, of course, have such natural gifts and be so well trained and coached for the purpose that you may achieve success at a bound, but the chances are against this, and it is much more likely that you will fall short of your expectations and thereby imperil your career at the outset by making a false start. C’est le premier pas, etc., and it is much better to begin modestly and learn your business thoroughly before attempting the higher flights. Then when you are properly qualified and have acquired the necessary experience you can take a more important part with the assurance that you will be able at least to do full justice to yourself and to make the utmost of your natural powers.
There is another reason, too, why it is a mistake, as a rule, to attempt the heavier rôles too soon—namely, the fact that the voice and the general physique, apart from the question of training and experience, are seldom ready for these at first. I have, indeed, known more than one case in which a career of promise has been ruined after a brilliant start by subjecting a young singer too soon to the heavy strain of the most important parts.
Study these rôles by all means and have them ready—or one or two of them—in case some exceptional or unexpected opportunity should present itself. But do not be in too great a hurry to appear in them. It is a much safer course, as a rule, to make good at first in those of a less ambitious kind; and you need never be afraid that good work in these will go unnoticed or unrewarded. But whichever part you choose for the purpose it should naturally be one which is well suited to your capacity and in which you are confident of being able to do your best.
If the novice can attach himself or herself to some provincial opera company at a nominal salary for the purpose of training and experience, this is often a good plan. In Italy almost every provincial city has a small season of opera, and impresarios in most cases are ready to give a promising singer a début without pay in order to reduce their expenses. But in some instances if a singer desires to make a début in a certain rôle and imposes this on the impresario she will be required to help to finance the opera by the payment of a few thousand lire. This is often done, but in some instances with sad results, because it is usually an indifferent artist who forces a début in this way, often against the better judgment of the manager.
I have known instances, indeed, where a singer has obtained a début on these terms, and the audience, after hearing the singer, has protested so vigorously that the unfortunate novice has had to be withdrawn in favour of a more satisfactory substitute in order to pacify the public.
In one instance I remember a Canadian tenor of tremendous size, but with a voice more like a mad bull’s than that of a human being, who thought he would make an ideal Othello. He was wealthy and paid the management 25,000 lire for a début. After the first act such a commotion was created in the theatre that the carabinieri had to step in and decide that either the show should be stopped or else continued by another artist.
Shortly afterwards columns appeared in the American papers about the harsh treatment of foreign singers in Italy. I can only say, however, that in my judgment it is utterly wrong to force on the public artists who are manifestly incapable, and that in this particular case the punishment fitted the crime!