Men Women and Tenors Quotes

“They all want to sing, but not to study.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“Toujours la voix de tête,”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“Verdi, ‘An opera house exists to be filled,”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“During his stay in New York, Puccini wrote in my score of Bohème: Alle gentile diva    Frances Alda    Gatti-Casazza della voce pura, dolce, & chiara con amicizia sincere offre ammirando         Giacomo Puccini N.Y. 1910”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“My heart is going like a contrabass,’ Puccini said.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“Women opera singers! Bah! they are more maddening than tenors.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“Si, mi chiamano Mimi.’ I have sung it with all the great tenors America has heard in the past twenty-five years. With Caruso, Bonci, Riccardo Martin, Luca Botta, McCormack, Crimi, Orville Harrold, Gigli, Hackett, Lauri-Volpi, Johnson, and Martinelli.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“New Year’s Day in 1909 I was up at eight in the morning, and at nine was out in Central Park for an hour’s stiff walk around the reservoir. Then, while last night’s revellers were just stirring in their beds, back to the Ansonia for an hour’s practice at the piano. Then lunch, and a rest and a drive. At four o’clock two cups of strong clear tea, and at six o’clock I was going in the stage door of the Metropolitan.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“Listen to me, Eddy,’ I said. ‘Maybe you think you can’t sing this afternoon. Maybe you’ll sing like a pig. But you’ve got to sing. That’s the point. You’ve got to do it, no matter how scared you feel, because if you don’t—if you give in to it—you’ll never sing again.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“The interior of the Metropolitan, when it was lighted and the boxes were filled, was impressive. But backstage was a disgrace. The dressing-rooms were ill ventilated and unbelievably dirty. They had no toilet facilities and not even running water. There were several with no windows at all.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“Now, my dear Frances, take the advice of Maman Marchesi: 1—Sign up for next year. That marks your success. Melba did that. 2—Do not sing four times a week. That tires the voice and makes it tremble, and the public ends by treating you with indifference. With tenderness, MATHILDE MARCHESI”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“my début at the Opéra Comique. That was on April 15, 1904. Massenet himself, the composer of the opera, had taught me the rôle, word by word.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“my first appearances under my new name ‘Alda,’ which Marchesi had given me. She had given Nellie Mitchell Armstrong her name ‘Melba’ from the city Melbourne, where she was born.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“when I made my début at Covent Garden, at the close of the performance of Rigoletto, a gentle old man and a very exquisite old lady came round to my dressing-room to offer me their congratulations. They were Paolo Tosti and Adelina Patti!”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“line. That doesn’t mean she was not often arbitrary and temperamental and even ridiculous. There were plenty of times when her temper, always quick, flew away from her. Once she flung the music book at my head, and ordered me out of her sight. ‘And don’t come back. I will teach you no more.’ I took her at her word. Next day Georges, her old valet, came round to the hotel with a note. She demanded to know why I had not presented myself that morning for my lesson as usual. But she could be loving and even tender, too. ‘You know how much I love you, my dear Frances,’ she wrote me after I was singing in Brussels and was officially at least, no longer under her direction. ‘I have proved it to you, and I love you like my own child. But there are times when it is necessary to tell the truth to those whom one loves . . .’ and she went on to give me stern and sound advice about my voice and my care of it. ‘Toujours”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“Salvatore, viens. J’ai trouvé la nouvelle Melba.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors

“Verdi had said to him when he went to La Scala: ‘An opera house exists to be filled.”
― Frances Alda, FRANCES ALDA: Men, Women and Tenors