Nordica made her debut at fifteen, and is still one of the greatest and loveliest of our singers.
Sembrich sang solos in church when she could scarcely see over the railing, and was in grand opera at the age of twenty.
You may have doubts as to the art of singing of those whom you have read about, but I am sure you have heard at least Scalchi, Melba, Patti, Nordica and Sembrich, and you can have no doubt as to their being classed both as singers and artists.
It is needless to say that these people must have studied these operas in order to sing them, and when you take into consideration that they were not "music dramas" that require really more proficiency in acting than in singing, but the Italian operas, requiring most perfect coloratura work, and the Wagner operas, demanding heavy dramatic singing, I think you must be convinced that if early study were injurious to the voice, these great "songsters" would not be living examples of my assertion.
Someone will say, "This may be the case with women, but what of the men?"
We find the great German tenor, Albert Nieman, singing the grand opera roles at eighteen.
Heinrich Vogl, styled the "Interpreter of Wagner," sang these opera roles at the age of twenty.
Italo Campanini was singing in grand opera at twenty-one.
Guilliam Ibos, the grand French tenor, and Van Dyck, were both singing the grand opera roles at the age of twenty-two.
Jean de Reszke was soloist at the cathedral at Warsaw at the age of twelve, and was singing in grand opera at twenty-two. I am sure many of you have heard him sing after his forty-fifth year, and will not deny that he is both singer and artist.