A meeting was easily arranged and we arrived at the appointed hour, just in time to hear one of the brilliant students of this American-French singing master.

Mr. Duval is young, slim and lithe of figure, with sensitive, refined features, which grow very animated as he speaks.  He has a rich fund of humor and an intensity of utterance that at once arrests the listener.  He came forward to greet the visitor with simple cordiality, saying he was pleased we could hear one of his latest “finds.”

The young tenor was at work on an air from Tosca.  His rich, vibrant voice, of large power and range and of real Caruso-like quality, poured forth with free and natural emission.  With what painstaking care this wise teacher aided him to mold each tone, each phrase, till it attained the desired effect.  Being a singer himself, Mr. Duval is able to show and demonstrate as well as explain.  He does both with the utmost clearness and with unfailing interest and enthusiasm.  Indeed his interest in each pupil in his charge is unstinted.

The lesson over, Mr. Duval came over to us.  “There is a singer I shall be proud of,” he said.  “Several years ago I taught him for a few months, giving him the principles of voice placement and tone production.  This was in Europe.  I had not seen him since then till recently, when circumstances led him to New York.  He never forgot what he had previously learned with me.  He now has a lesson every day and is a most industrious worker.  I believe he has a fortune in that voice.  Next season will see him launched, and he will surely make a sensation.”

“Will you give some idea of the means by which you accomplish such results?”

“The means are very simple and natural.  So many students are set on the wrong track by being told to do a multitude of things that are unnecessary, even positively harmful.  For instance, they are required to sing scales on the vowels, A, E, I, O, U. I only use the vowel Ah, for exercises, finding the others are not needed, especially excluding E and U as injurious.  Indeed one of the worst things a young voice can do is to sing scales on E and U, for these contract the muscles of the lips.  Another injurious custom is to sing long, sustained tones in the beginning.  This I do not permit.

“After telling you the things I forbid, I must enlighten you as to our plan of study.

“The secret of correct tone emission is entire relaxation of the lips.  I tell the pupil, the beginner, at the first lesson, to sing the vowel Ah as loudly and as deeply as possible, thinking constantly of relaxed lips and loose lower jaw.  Ah is the most natural vowel and was used exclusively in the old Italian school of Bel Canto.  Long sustained tones are too difficult.  One should sing medium fast scales at first.  If we begin with the long sustained tone, the young singer is sure to hold the voice in his throat, or if he lets go, a tremolo will result.  Either a throaty, stiff tone or a tremolo will result from practicing the single sustained tone.