"I once saw a death—it sounds unfeeling to say it, but I now use the very expression I saw then in the finale of 'Boheme.'"
Geraldine Farrar's realism is a well-known phase of her art. A striking instance is her performance in the last act of Romeo and Juliet: she sings almost the entire scene lying down! An amazing innovation.
"Perhaps it is unusual," she commented, "but the simple repose seems to me more fully to accentuate the sublime and lyric climax of the tragedy."
This is a little rift into the prima-donna's viewpoint. She believes that "vocal intensity and dramatic value should so merge one into the other that they produce equalized sincerity of expression and constant changing of color, movement, and sentiment."
"Give your best always; take Sincerity for your guide, and Work, never-ending, for your master."
This is Geraldine Farrar's creed.
"Madame Butterfly"