by an eye witness that before a first appearance in a German city she was borne furiously on the stage at rehearsal by her spirited, prancing steed, and when she drew him up suddenly, rearing and pawing the air, near the footlights, the members of the orchestra dropped their instruments and fled affrighted.  It was not long, however, before she succeeded in winning their confidence, and all went well at the evening performance.

Six more radiant queens of song whose reign belongs to these modern times must be mentioned in conclusion:  Sembrich, Nordica, Calve, Melba, Sanderson and Eames.  These are but a few of the many present day rulers in the realms of song.

Marcella Sembrich, a coloratura soprano from Galicia, has a light, penetrating, marvelously sweet, and exceedingly flexible voice, with an almost perfect vocal mechanism.  As one of her admirers has said, her tones are as clear as silver bells, and there is something buoyant and jubilant in her mode of song.  With her genuine art and engaging personality she holds her audiences entranced and, being wise enough to keep within her special genre, she always succeeds as an actress.  She is a pupil of the Lampertis, father and son, studied the piano with Liszt, becoming an excellent interpreter of Chopin, and is no mean violinist.

An American, born in Farmington, Me., Lillian Nordica pursued her vocal and musical studies at the New England Conservatory, in Boston, and after much experience in church, concert and oratorio singing, studied for the opera in Milan, under Signor Sangiovanni.  She made her operatic debut at Brescia in “Traviata,” and in Paris as Marguerite, in “Faust.”  Her superb, liquid soprano is pure, smooth and equal throughout its entire large compass.  She combines feeling with that artistic understanding which regulates it, and has been pronounced one of the most conscientious and intelligent singers of the day.  An admirable actress and extremely versatile, she has been successful in Mozart’s operas, and has won high renown in her Wagnerian roles.

Emma Calve, a Spaniard, possessed of all a Spaniard’s fire, thrills, bewilders, her hearers, though the more thoughtful among them wonder if they were not moved rather by her tremendous passionate force and powerful magnetism than by her vocal and histrionic art.  Her voice is superb, yet she often loses a vocal opportunity for dramatic effect, often mars its beauty in the excitement that tears a passion to tatters.  Withal there is a charm to her singing that can never be forgotten by those who have heard it.  Her first triumph was won as the interpreter of Santuzza, in “Cavalleria Rusticana,” Mascagni himself preparing her for the role.  She next created a furore as Carmen, and with her fascinating gestures, complete abandon, grace, and dazzling beauty made the part one of the most original and bewitching impersonations on the stage.