Garcia the Centenarian and His Times: Being a Memoir of Manuel Garcia's Life and Labours for the Advancement of Music and ScienceMackinlay, M. (Malcolm) Sterling
History
Garcia the Centenarian and His Times: Being a Memoir of Manuel Garcia's Life and Labours for the Advancement of Music and Science
"I have already had five lessons from Signor Garcia, the brother of
Madame Malibran. I have to begin again from the beginning, to sing
scales up and down slowly and with great care, then to practise the
shake--awfully slowly, and to try to get rid of the hoarseness if
possible. Moreover, he is very particular about the breathing. I
trust I have made a happy choice. Anyhow, he is the best master,
and expensive enough--twenty francs for an hour! But what does that
signify if only he can teach me to sing?"
A fortnight later she writes to Madame Lindblad:--
"I am well satisfied with my singing-master. With regard to my weak
points especially, he is excellent. I think it very fortunate for
me that there exists a Garcia. And I believe him also to be a very
good man. If he takes but little notice of us apart from his
lessons, well--that cannot be helped; but I am very much pleased,
nay, enchanted, with him as a teacher."
And again to Herr Forsberg:--
PARIS, _February 1, 1842_.
"Garcia's method is the best of our time, and the one which all
here are striving to follow."
In a still later letter she writes:--
PARIS, _March 7, 1842_.
"To-day, four years ago, I made my _début_ in 'Der Freischütz.'
"My singing is getting on quite satisfactorily now. I rejoice
heartily in my voice,--it is clear and sonorous, with more
firmness, and much greater agility. A great, great deal still
remains to be done; but the worst is over. Garcia is satisfied with
me."
The teaching she now received was evidently the exact thing she needed;
for of the management of the breath, the emission of the voice, the
blending of its registers, and other technical details upon which even
the most perfect singers must depend in great measure for success, she
knew nothing.
We have seen Jenny Lind's opinion of her master: what of Garcia's
opinion of his pupil? During my own lessons with him he would often
speak of the Swedish Nightingale, and hold her up as an example in the
most embarrassing way. Among other things he remarked that he had never
heard her sing even a hair's-breadth out of tune, so perfect was her
natural ear. Moreover, when she made a mistake, he only had to point it
out once, explain the cause of the error, and show how it could be
rectified: the fault would never be repeated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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