Great Singers on the Art of Singing

Great Singers on the Art of Singing by James Francis Cooke is a series of personal study talks with the most renowned opera concert and oratorio singers of the time, especially planned for voice students. The contents list pairs chapter titles with singers, among them Frances Alda, Pasquale Amato, David Bispham, Enrico Caruso and Emma Eames. The writer says that surely nothing can be more helpful to the ambitious vocal student than the direct advice, personal suggestions and hints of the greatest singers of the time. The writer also notes that all of the great singers of the day have attained their triumphs only after years of hard work, and that sacrifice is often the seed kernel of large success.

A section on the master songs of Robert Schumann, headed with the name Mme. Johanna Gadski, says that one cannot delve very far into the works of Schumann without discovering that his gifts are peculiarly lyric. A separate section describes how nasal resonance is introduced gradually with different spoken vowels while every effort is made to preserve ease and flexibility of the entire body.