moreover, "with so much judition," as an old man I know in the country says. But it was not until after the Russian engagement that she went to Sbriglia in Paris and worked with him until she could sing a high _C_ that thrilled the soul. That _C_ of hers in the Inflammatus in Rossini's _Stabat Mater_ was something superb. Not many singers can do it as successfully as Nordica, although they can all accomplish a certain amount in "manufactured" notes. Fursch-Nadi, also a mezzo, had to acquire upper notes as a business proposition in order to enlarge her _répertoire_. She secured the notes and the requisite _rôles_; yet her voice lost greatly in quality. Nordica's never did. She gained all and lost nothing. Her voice, while increasing in register, never suffered the least detriment in tone nor _timbre_. It was Nordica who first told me of Sbriglia, giving him honest credit for the help he had been to her. Like all truly big natures she has always been ready to acknowledge assistance wherever she has received it. Some people--and among them artists to whom Sbriglia's teaching has been of incalculable value--maintain a discreet silence on the subject of their study with him, preferring, no doubt, to have the public think that they have arrived at vocal perfection by their own incomparable genius alone. All of my training had been in my native country and I had always been very proud of the fact that critics and experts on two continents cited me as a shining example of what American musical education could do. All the same, when I was in Paris during an off season, I took advantage of being near the great teacher, Sbriglia, to consult him. I really did not want him actually to do anything to my voice as much as I wanted him to tell me there was nothing that needed doing. At the time I went to him I had been singing for twenty years. Sbriglia tried my voice carefully and said: "Mademoiselle, you have saved your voice by singing far _forward_." "That's because I've been worked hard," I told him, "and have had to place it so in self-defence. Many a night I've been so tired it was like _pumping_ to sing! Then I would sing 'way, _'way_ in front and, by so doing, was able to get through." "Ah, that's it!" said he. "You've sung against your teeth--the best thing in the world for the preservation of the voice. You get a _white_, flat sound that way." "Then I don't sing wrong?" I asked, for I knew that the first thing great vocal masters usually have to do is to tell one how not to sing. "Mademoiselle," said Sbriglia, "you breathe by the grace of God! Breathing is all of singing and I can teach you nothing of either."