With 1879 Charlotte Thudicum entered the Royal Academy of Music as his pupil. Success soon came to her, for after a year's tuition she won the Parepa-Rosa scholarship, and two years later the Westmoreland. On leaving his hands the young soprano went over to Paris to study opera with his sister, Mme. Viardot, and upon her return in 1883 was at once secured for the "Pops," Crystal Palace Saturday Concerts, and other important engagements, while in the following season she sang with the Birmingham Festival Choral Society.
In due course she secured fresh laurels by taking part in "Ivanhoe" at the Royal English Opera House, in which opera she played Rebecca on alternative nights with another of Garcia's pupils, Margaret Macintyre.
1881 brought Garcia's third recognition for his invention.
The International Medical Congress was to hold its seventh session in London from the 2nd to the 9th of August, Dr de Havilland Hall, Dr (now Sir) Felix Semon, and Dr Thomas J. Walker being appointed honorary secretaries of the section devoted to "Diseases of the Throat," which was to meet with Dr George Johnson, F.R.S., in the chair.
At the suggestion of the late Sir James Paget, Señor Garcia received an invitation to read a paper before the Congress, describing his work in connection with his invention. The invitation was gladly accepted. He attended, and was introduced to the assembled doctors in the most flattering terms during the inaugural address by the chairman, who was one of the vice-presidents of the medical section.
In connection with the friendship which existed between Manuel Garcia and Sir Felix Semon, one may recall an amusing anecdote recounted in the latter's short memoir, published for Garcia's 100th birthday.
"On a certain occasion," the doctor writes, "I delivered a lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on the culture of the singing voice. In the course of my remarks I attacked the dogmatic way in which the question of the registers was treated by different authorities, and showed there and then, by the aid of some excellent photographs of the larynx during the emission of tone, that the mechanism of the registers, even in relation to the same kind of voice, may in some cases be totally different from others.
"The lecture had a humorous sequel, for among my audience were a number of the best known singing teachers in London. When I had finished, one of these, well known for his obstinate dogmas, came up to me in a state of visible annoyance and said, 'You should not speak on things that you know nothing about.' A second expressed his recognition of the fact that I had taken up arms against the theorists, and then proceeded to describe an entirely new theory on the register formation discovered by himself.
"But, last of all, Garcia came up to me with a smile, and remarked, 'Good heavens, how much I must have taught during my life that is wrong!'"
In 1882 Margaret Macintyre and Marie Tempest commenced studying under the maestro.