that it is possible to write both grand and light operas with true,
characteristic German thoroughness. Even German opera requires a
constant attention to the right use of the voice, and a methodical,
effective mode of singing. It tolerates no murderous attacks on single
male and female voices, or on the full opera company; it is opposed to
that eager searching after superficial effect, which every sincere
friend of the opera must lament.

Is it, then, so difficult to obtain the requisite knowledge of the human
voice, and to study the scores of Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini,
Bellini, and Donizetti with a special regard to this? Do our vocal
composers make too great a sacrifice to their creative genius in making
a study of those things which are essential? You consider it mortifying
to inquire of those who understand singing, and you are sensitive about
any disturbance of your vain over-estimate of your own powers; but you
are not ashamed to cause the destruction of man's noblest gift,--the
human voice! If taste, feeling, and a fine ear are, and always must be,
the chief requirements in composing for the great public, I ask you how
you can lay claim to these three trifles, when you constantly violate
them?

COMPOSER. If Mrs. N. had executed my aria to-day in as earnest and
masterly a style, and with as agreeable a voice, as she did that of
Rossini yesterday, she would have given as much satisfaction; for it is
much more interesting and expressive both musically and harmonically,
and written with more dramatic effect.

SINGER. You make a mistake, and you always will do so, as long as you
consider the study of the voice as of secondary importance, or, in fact,
pay no attention whatever to it. The latter aria, which is composed with