“‘Terms!’ he exclaimed; ‘terms! Don’t let such little details stand in your way. What is money compared to this? Ignore money. Think of the honor, of the memories of the place, of what people think of it;’ and then he waved his arms dramatically.
“Well, we came to terms, not wholly sacrificial on my part, and the season began. Covent Garden had not been open for a long time. It was in the spring of the year, cold and damp. There was a crowded house, though, because fashion accompanied the Prince of Wales there. He came, night after night, and heard the opera through with an overcoat on.
“It was no blessed task for me, or healthy, either, but the Lord has blessed me with a sound constitution. I sang my parts, as they should be sung, some in bare arms and shoulders, with too little clothing for such a temperature. But it was Covent Garden, and so I bore up under it.”
“Nothing much more interesting. The summer after that season I visited Ems, where the De Reszkes were. One day they said: ‘We are going to Bayreuth to hear the music, don’t you want to go along?’
“I thought it over, and decided that I did. My mother and I packed up and departed. When I got there and saw those splendid performances I was entranced. It was perfectly beautiful. Everything was arranged after an ideal fashion. I had a great desire to sing there, and boasted to my mother that I would. When I came away I was fully determined to carry out that boast.”
“Not at all. I began, though, at once, to study it; and when I could talk it sufficiently I went to Bayreuth and saw Madame Wagner.”
“Did you find her the imperious old lady she is said to be?”
“Not at all. She welcomed me most heartily; and when I told her that I had come to see if I could not sing there she seemed much pleased. She treated me like a daughter, explained all that she was trying to do, and gave me a world of encouragement. Finally I arranged to sing and create ‘Elsa’ after my own idea of it during the season following the one then approaching.”
“I came to New York to fulfil my contract for the season of 1894-1895. While doing that I made a study of Wagner’s, and, indeed, of all German music; and when the season was over went back and sang it.”