These remarks are quite as applicable to America as to England. We
hear singers every week to whom we can listen attentively for five
minutes without being able to tell what language they are singing in.
Most of these singers were trained by the Italian method: And yet we
are told every day that this Italian method, which has so little
regard for the distinctively vocal side of singing, is the only true
method for the voice. It is time to call a halt in this matter, time
to ask if the Italian method is really the one best adapted for
teaching pupils to sing in English. That it is the best and only
method for singing in Italian, and for interpreting the style hitherto
cultivated by the Italians, no one will deny. But whether it is the
proper method for those who wish to sing in English, French, or
German, and to devote themselves to the modern dramatic style, is
quite another question, which must be, partly at least, answered in
the negative.

A careful examination of the situation, leaving aside all national
prejudice, will show us that each of the two principal methods, as
exemplified by Italian and German singers, has its dark and its
bright side, and that the cosmopolitan American style of the future
ought to try to combine the advantages of both, while avoiding their
shortcomings. The dark side of Italian singing has been sufficiently
dwelt upon; let us now consider the bright side.

Italy owes much of her fame as the cradle of artistic song and "The
Lord's own Conservatory," to climatic and linguistic advantages.
Thanks to the mild climate, men and women can spend most of their time
in the open air, and their voices are not liable to be ruined by
constantly passing from a dry, overheated room into the raw and chilly