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Originally published in n France 1886 as “La Voix Et Le Chant Traité Pratique Par ” by   J.Faure

Graded exercises with explanatory essays, from the great French baritone: a thoughtful artist, balanced and articulate, who cares profoundly about the lyric art. His vocal longevity attests to his consummate technique, his distinguished career to his artistry.

Faure was invited to undertake the renovation of vocal pedagogy in the French Conservatoire system.This book is fruit of that project. At its publication in 1886, Faure announced, “Happily I have been able to convince them of the utility of these reforms and this has allowed me to contribute, as far as I am able, to serve the art which I have practiced since my childhood, that afterwards has become the object of my most constant and beloved preoccupations!”

This is not just another venerable vocal method. It is fresh and relevant, wise and helpful, and remarkably precise.

Jean-Baptiste Faure (Moulins 1830 – Paris 1914)
Faure was first among French baritones, indispensable Don Juan in the Salle Pelletier, a newer theater than the Palais Garnier. He had an authentic and clean bel canto sound. In La Voix et le Chant, he set forth the principles he learned from his teacher, Louis-Antione-Eléonore Ponchard, one of the best Rossini singers in France. At age 25, he made his debut at the Opéra-Comique inGalthée of Victor Masse. From 1861 – 1878 he was leading baritone at the Paris Opera where he sang Alphonse (La Favorite), Guillaume Tell, Pharaon (Moisée).  There he created Nelusko (L’Africaine), Posa (Don Carlos), Hamlet and in 1869, Méphisto in the definitive version of Faust.
He taught privately and at the Conservatoire. He is the author of numerous songs, and of the present treatise on singing in which he adapts the principles of bel canto to the requirements of the modern music of his day.
Michel Hart, Le Journal de l’AFPC, No 10, Septembre, 2003

(Click here to view Table of Contents…)

…Intriguing to anyone interested in the history of singing and singing technique, and conceivably useful to teachers and students willing to explore its extensive progressive exercises…this book helps fill out our picture of French pedagogy in the time when Paris was the go-to city for vocal training….aficionados will delight in the illustrative examples…this is a distinctly professionally oriented volume…It’s a valuable addition to the literature.

Conrad L. Osborne, Opera News, October 2006.

It is with great pleasure that I have received from our American colleagues the treatise of J-B Faure, published in 1886.
This work is a remarkable testimony on the teaching of singing in France in the second half of the nineteenth century, no longer published among us, but you can now order it in the English version from the United States.

Apart from its historic interest, this treatise presents an important contribution to pedagogy, notably in his Advice to young singers

…a very beautiful work from our American friends well printed in a format that is practical and easy to use. It is also the recognition of the legacy of one our greatest representatives of the French School of the nineteenth century.   Perhaps now he can become better known among us.
We salute the fervent passion that inspired these singers, teachers and lovers of good singing!

M. Hart.
(Journal AFPC, N° 10, September 2006.)

To speak of Mr. Faure, to evoke his personality, to merely mention his name, is to speak of singing, one is filled with the idea of singing…I remember that his singing, even while being remarkably sustained and legato…crisp…perhaps that came from the “coup de glotte”…admirable work: transcendent, and with exquisite coloration…economy of sound,…easy breath, abundant and inexhaustible. If the glottal stroke had any part in creating that sound, then I am a fan.

“The method of Mr. Faure … his very interesting book, “La Voix et le Chant”, is the most captivating book I have read on singing…..

Reynaldo Hahn: “On Studying Singing, Lectures and an Essay”, Leopold Simoneau, trans., Amadeus Press, 1990, and translated from the original French

 

Pol Plancon singing Les Rameaux by J Faure (1902)

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In honor of the International Day of Holocaust Commemoration, pianist Kathryn Goodson and soprano Caroline Helton offer this program of music by Italian-Jewish composers whose lives were affected by the events surrounding World War II.

The Collegiate Chorale presents

A CHILD OF OUR TIME (TIPPETT)

TE DEUM (BRUCKNER)

conducted by James Bagwell

with Nicole Cabell, Marietta Simpson, Russell Thomas, and John Relyea

February 3, 2012 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall

The Collegiate Chorale presents Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and Bruckner’s Te Deum on Friday, February 3, 2012 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, NYC. The performance features Nicole Cabell, Marietta Simpson, Russell Thomas, John Relyea and the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Bagwell. Single tickets start at $10 and are available online at carnegiehall.org, by phone through Carnegie Charge at (212) 247-7800 or in person at the Carnegie Hall Box Office.

Sarah Bernhardt in her own words

In My Double Life, Bernhardt talks about the development of her artistic life and a little bit about her family. Some of the biographers of Bernhard have been dismissive of this book. I found it delightful and informative.

It seems clear to me that rather than motivated by a desire for publicity, she was an unconventional person whose eccentricity got her noticed. She is very intelligent and does not suffer fools gladly. She did not accept the conventions of the theater at that time, and several times left the Comédie Française over artistic disputes. In general her female colleagues supported her, and she them.  I find that a quite telling indication that she was not nearly as difficult as people made her out to be for their own amusement.

Her personal social commitment needs no other example than her activities during the Franco-Prussian war. She personally converted the Odeon Theater into a hospital for war casualties. She rounded up donations from friends, colleagues and government officials. Her approach was 100% hands-on. She even went into the war zone and brought back casualties herself.

Throughout the book her social conscience remains quite evident. She also has a great actor’s curiosity about humankind. She freely admits when she has done something wrong. To me she is altogether a natural artist. She seems to have great peaks and valleys of energy.  She is easily distracted which explains her custom learning her lines inside a coffin that she kept in her bedroom.  This is her version of the study carrels, I believe.

The book is very much worth reading and tells you as much about Sarah Bernhardt as the biographies.  There is no reason why she should speak about her complicated love life.  That would be kissing and telling. But for a nice recounting of her life on the stage without any tendency to self-aggrandizement this is excellent.

My Double Life: The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhard… (Paperback)

by Sarah Bernhardt, Victoria Tietze Larson

  ]]> http://www.voxmentor.com/2012/01/sarah-bernhardt-in-her-own-words/feed/ 0 http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/12/book-review-singer-and-actor/ http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/12/book-review-singer-and-actor/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:00:05 +0000 admin http://www.voxmentor.com/?p=755 SINGER AND ACTOR Singer And Actor : acting technique and the operatic performer, Alan E Hicks, Amadeus Press,  USA, 2011, ISBN 978–1–57467–01–, paperback, 220 pages,  $19.99 

This is a succinct, and useful reference. It discusses the acting technique of Stanislavski and the various schools that developed under his influence: Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen, Stella Adler and of course Lee Strasberg. I was pleased to find that he differentiates between Stanislavski’s earlier work with emotional memory briefly the centerpiece, and his later practice.

Lee Strasberg of the Actors’ Studio seized upon emotional memory as the basis of his work. I believe that many actors become emotionally unhinged trying to motivate this kind of intensity, and later burned out.  For the singing actor to stress emotions so heavily that they outweigh the need to balance vocal technique with expression becomes far too freighted to be practical in opera, or for that matter on the stage.

Performing opera has now moved more towards the theatrical over the musical. The original Camerata Bardi conceptualized an all-encompassing art form. This is hardly the justification for more acting emphasis these days, because  opera has changed drastically since the likes of Monteverdi’s Orfeo. However it is true that Park and Bark is mainly unacceptable now that vocal prodigies do not stride the boards.

In making his case for better acting, the author gives plenty of good, specific advice on how to create a role with acting values and motivation.

There is a good discussion of the background of 19th Century acting, as taught by Delsarte and others. This is the schematized gestural system that the classically trained Sarah Bernhardt and Eleanora Duse, trained since childhood on the road with her family, objected to and began updating in their art.

He also gives a step-by-step approach to the score, through complete literal translation of the libretto, pronunciation of the text, reading of background material as preliminary work. He also stresses listening to others and to the music. It is the sine qua non of acting. Both Mozart and Verdi and of course other composers left instructions to their singers to inhabit their roles and act realistically.

This book is so well arranged that it could be a text for a class in conservatory, or for the singing/actor on his own. I rather wonder why the bass aria from Don Carlo, “Ella giammai m’amo” was discussed in the original French version rather than the more commonly performed Italian, but that is a quibble.

Buy the book and learn the study method. It can also be used for concert and recital repertoire as a way to deepen the approach to text, though all the activities will not be strictly analogous. Your teachers and directors will thank you for knowing your job, and you will take the stage with more self-assurance for having done the work.

12/11 RP ]]> http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/12/book-review-singer-and-actor/feed/ 0 http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/11/icamus-newly-discovered-puccini-letters-re-fanciulla-del-west/ http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/11/icamus-newly-discovered-puccini-letters-re-fanciulla-del-west/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:41:25 +0000 admin http://www.voxmentor.com/?p=750 Click here for link to ICAMUS page for newly discovered Puccini letters regarding Fanciulla del West.

Before you begin the preparation of any music, you must study with a good voice teacher, and find the sweet spot in the voice that is focused, in the center of the tone and perfectly in tune, or it will be hard to achieve the points I am going to outline for you. Your voice needs to resonate on pitch before we can receive your performance.

I. Understand what every word of your text means. If it is in a foreign language, translate it word for word, observing the word order of the original text to honor the intention of the composer.

Then answer the questions: Who am I? (Character, protagonist, narrator?) Where am I? What am I saying, both literally and in the intention (subtext).

Word Work:

Read each word of the text slowly and drink in the meaning of the word separately. Let it sink into your brain. Live with each word until you can feel it. Find the trigger words, those that resonate deeply with emotion. Physicalize each word with a gesture, like a bad actor. This helps you own the words.

II. Listen to the music — the accompaniment: notice the melody, rhythm, and harmony, so that you can be part of it. Be mindful of key changes and find out what they do to you.

III. Find an idiomatic recording, DVD or video and watch someone who is a master of the style. Understand the choices they are making in context. Do not try to imitate their vocal sound; the goal is to elicit your unique sound.

IV. Diction. Master the authentic sound of each syllable you are going to present.

Italian has 7 vocal sounds. French has 13, and English many more. Choose someone to be your coach who knows the language as it is sung, not spoken. You need to pronounce from an open throat, repeating the words until you master them, and the accent of the language.

V. Learn what the historical context of the poetry is, of your character, matters of code, etiquette, and dress. There are historical context coaches who specialize in these matters.

VI. Understand the rhythm that the composer has given you, so that your voice always arrives on time. Know how the conductor beats the measure, how you subdivide if necessary. Clap out the rhythm, including the inner rhythm to get it into your body. Understand the length of the phrase, and mentally remove the bar lines to understand the entire phrase, not its segments.

VII. Read the score. Be sure to find a good authentic edition for each style — Ricordi for Italian, Durand for French, etc. It is the map the composer has given you. Tempo? Dynamics? Sections? Over which words are there dynamic markings? What meaning do they have for what you are saying?

VIII. Style: know the style of the period; for example, dissonance is very important in baroque music, verismo is declaimed. This is the province of your coach.

IX. Say the words on a comfortable pitch, and in rhythm to master the phrase in your body.

X. Look at the melody without the words, using only the vowels, perhaps on a comfortable vowel, then on the vowels of the words. Then put together the words, melody and rhythm.

XI. Address any technical concerns that arise with your voice teacher. It is important that every note you sing remain within your portrayal of the character.

XII. Find a good acting teacher; who can help you to make the character live in your own body. Remember your singing is always a presentation. Sing with your head up, with an open face, without frowning or looking down. ]]> http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/11/william-hicks-preparation-for-performance-recital-and-concert/feed/ 0 http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/10/general-concepts-in-pre-school-eduacation-with-app/ http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/10/general-concepts-in-pre-school-eduacation-with-app/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:40:09 +0000 admin http://www.voxmentor.com/?p=706 PRESCHOOL PROJECT
Listening Training to prepare tbe preschooler for a Iife of learning.
When children begin their first grade at primary school level they should ideally have certain fundamental capabilities to allow them to cope with the leaming process:
Good physical health Good motor coordination Good sensory skills Attentiveness
Ability to concentrate Self-containment
Understandably a lot of factors contribute towards this readiness. Without discounting genetic inheritance, pre-nataI development plays a very important role. Let us have a look at life in the womb. This is what we mean when we use the expression ‘Ready for School’.
1. PREGNANCY.
During pregnancy the lifestyle of the mother strongly influences the foetal development. There can be a positive or negative effect on the foetus due to the health, behaviour and experiences of the mother during this time.
Within the womb the unbom child receives the stimulation of the sound ofhis mother’s voice from week twenty onwards, but it is only the high frequencies he is receiving via the mother’s voice. These high frequencies particularly the sibilant sounds (fff, VVV, sss, shhh, zzz) are clearly heard by the foetus. The first frequency range of hearing, using the auditory system, inutero is 4000Hz. and above. The low frequencies are not yet heard at this point in time. The child does receive the vibrations and low frequency tones of the movement of the amniotic fluid, the beating of mother’s heart, respiratory hissing, arterial whooshing of blood, the peristaltic intestinal movement of the mother, the vibration of mother’s footsteps. The rhythmic vibrations, for example facilitate the development of the foundation of ones structural capabilities, which for example, will enable ones ability in mathematics. This basic sound environment enables the development  

of the vestibular system and the development of the child. The physical movements of the mother, exercises the vestibular system and aids in its development. The vestibular system orientates the child and enables his physical balance after birth.
The development of the foetus is dependent on:
The foetal position:
The cephalic presentation offers a lot more contact with the bones of the pelvis compared to breech presentation. The pelvis acts as asounding board.
Controlled studies conducted by Dr. Klopfenstein in Vesoul France, in 1986 on 170 pregnant women showed elearly that vibrations on the mother’s skull c1early spread through the spine and into the pelvis increasing in intensity. The higher the frequencies, the greater the effect is on the pelvic area.
The physical condition ofthe mother during Pregnancy:
Should the mother have early contractions, have to take tocolytics, require bed rest, is the victim of an accident or require surgery, any or all of this may have an effect on the development of the unbom child.
The mental condition of the mother during pregnancy:
Did she previously have an aborti on or miscarriage and now have fears about this pregnancy?
Does she want this child?
Is she very young? (Is the father or her parents supportive.) Is she maybe mouming the death of someone close to her? Is she suffering from stress?
Are there marital problems?
Is she happy?
Is all going weIl with the pregnancy? Is she enjoying the pregnancy?
The mother’s voice, like any other person’s voice, is influenced by her physical and mental condition. A person who is weil and happy has a voice full of expression, melody and timbre. A depressed person’ s voice sounds monotonous and flat. Therefore, the state of the mother’s voice has a huge influence on the developing foetus.

BIRTH
During the past fifty years, medicine has advanced greatly and children born prematurely have a much better chance of survival. Unfortunately American studies show that premature babies present with a higher incidence of neurological defects.
Birth should be easy but sometimes complications happen unexpectedly which require the use of medication to induce labour or an epidural procedure (PDA) is performed resulting in the mother having no control over the contractions. Complications may cause oxygen deprivation during delivery. There may be the presence of meconium in the amniotic fluid. It may be necessary to perform an emergency caesarean. Kiss syndrome could result from a difficult delivery and or the use of forceps at delivery. All of these events may have an effect on the child.
Now lets have a look at life after leaving the womb.
FIRST WEEKS OF LIFE
The newborn is given a good start in life when mother is in a good emotional state and has bonded weIl with her baby.
HEALTH REQUIREMENTS AND ILLNESSES
During infancy the child is faced with the various vaccinations required at this time. He may be given antibiotics, require surgery have breathing problems and or ear problems requiring the need for ventilation medicines and or grommets.
FIRST MONTHS OF LIFE AND TODDLER STAGE
A loving horne environment, in which the child is able to express all emotions safely, is conducive to developing good communication skills. A stimulating interaction with parents and family members produces a well-developed child.
SCHOOL AGE
At 5 to 6 years of age the child requires a school readiness test to find out whether he is ready for 1 st Grade.
In many instances children are not yet ready for this major step in life for various reasons.
The child has to return to Preschool or Grade 0 and in some cases it is discovered that the child has to attend a school for children with special needs.

The Listening training Project in Preschools
A German TV documentary on Speech and language development clearly showed that the baby in the womb picks up the mother’s voice and then goes on to recognise her voice on the 4th day after birth.
Science studies were conducted in France on 64 babies, four days after birth. The babies all had pacifiers in their mouths and when given the sound of their mother’s voice they began sucking on their pacifiers, but only if the mother spoke in her 1 st language. When the mother spoke in other languages the baby did not recognise her and no reaction was noted.
HistoricaIly there was no real interest in the life of the baby in the womb i.e, the unborn child. Today there are international congresses concerning foetal development.
In the womb we hear by the conduction of sound through the bones. The bone conduction is our antenna to the outside. The mother is the outside, only the mother. This is our first experience with communication and it is a one- way communication from the mother to the unborn child. Based on this communication, ones first deep trust develops, as well as the longing to speak and communicate. Into this developing being, the mother, instils the baby’s sense of perception.
This interaction encourages the child to prepare to open hirnself to the outer world and to become interested in everything around hirnself, in preparation for his life after birth.
After birth we are now able to receive sound through air conduction, as weIl as the bone conduction, which we experienced in the womb. It is not only the physical capability that allows us to hear with the air conduction but through the deep trust that was developed during pregnancy. We now have the mental preparedness to listen to the outer world.
If this opening to the “outer world” did not happen as a result of prenatal disturbances, birth experiences or postnatal influences, developmental problems could occur.
All these problems ideally should be treated before the child starts school. Common treatments are usually tried first e.g. physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, neurology, psychology, psychiatry, medicine etc. and they an may have their place.

AUDIO PSYCHO PHONOLOGY APP (TOMATIS THERAPY)
Professor Tomatis said, ” What the ears do not hear the voice cannot deliver” He discovered the link between the frequencies we hear and receive and their influence on our senses, nervous system brain and voice.

The authenic TOMATIS Therapy has proven to be very successful in treating both slight and severe developmental problems in the young child

The TOMATIS Therapy puts the child back on track in line with his peers, by treating psychological disturbances as well as neurological dysfunctions.
In this Preschool project Mozart music is used in the therapy as it has two special qualities that emulate the prenatal sound environment.
Firstly it is full of high frequencies which are comparable with the high frequencies delivered by mother’s voice to baby in utero and secondly Mozart’s perfect rhythrn is in harmony with the foetal heart rate.
When listening to high filtered Mozart music prenatal memories are stirred in our unconscious.
These memories form the foundation of our lives and are impregnated deep inside all of us.
The listening training with high filtered Mozart music facilitates us in experiencing once again al1 the stages of our past development in an idyllic way without there being any disturbances.
The children will be given Tomatis therapy by using equipment called a Mozart Brain Activator, which delivers Mozart music, through headphones. The music has been filtered to allow only the required frequencies through. Programmes set for the different stages of preschool training deliver alternating high and low frequencies. The child is also given ascending and descending frequency sessions to reintroduce hirn in a safe way to all frequencies that his developing mind and body requires for a life of learning.
The low frequencies stimulate the vestibular system while the higher frequencies affect the cochlea.
Both parts of the ear are stimulated alternatively and in turn the central neurological system will receive the stimulation.
Connected to the vestibular system is the frontal lobe, the motor control area and the cerebellum.

The sounds passing through the cochlea stimulates the development of temporal, parietal and occipital areas.

-    The children love the listening program, and right away in the morning they ask when it will begin.
-     When they go on a field trip, they are sad to miss their listening hour.
Another one of the kindergarten teachers does all kinds of activities during the listening, such as sewing cards. The only thing she doesn’t allow is scissors, because it might accidentally cut the headphone wires… When one of the children is having his birthday, the teacher gives the other kids the assignment of making beautiful drawings for the birthday child. They all put a great deal of effort in their work. This is something the kindergarten teacher loves.
All the kindergarten teachers ask the children to choose their own activities; they put everything available and the children  choose what to do during their listening hour.
Those children who participated in listening training during the kindergarten year 2005/2006, were monitored in first grade. What were the results of this work?
The first grade teacher’s name is Ilse Geboers. Every year the children get a new teacher for the next grade. Mrs Geboers says: “ I have been teaching first grade for ten years. All the children who did the listening training, ended up with very good scores in all areas. It was immediately noticeable that they had good motor control and psychomotor function. In previous years, oral presentations were very difficult for the children. In this last year, it was totally different. In all of my ten years of teaching, I have never seen such an excellent class, which made my work an even greater joy.”
Math, writing and reading all went well for these children. The children worked very well and they had no difficulties. Their excellent fine motor control made written language much easier to learn.
The teacher of the second section of first grade is Daisy Wosniak and she notes that she is highly structured in her approach. She says that the children she taught this year would spontaneously ask for new tasks. The children themselves proposed activities for the class. The class is full of energy. The achievement far exceeds the level of previous classes. Eight or nine children read extraordinarily well.
Many of them quickly achieved the highest reading group. There were also better in math. They breezed through the planned curriculum, started earlier with division, and quickly mastered the groups of ten. As we expected, Mrs Wosniak reports that eight or nine of the thirteen children are extraordinarily intelligent and quick; four or five children are a bit behind them, but also got through first grade very well.
Due to the high motivation and intense desire to learn on the part of the students, the school organized a special place for more advanced projects and learning materials. These children are very high energy, well focused and alert, as long as they have work to do. When they were done with their work, they chose new projects for themselves immediately.
The gym teacher noticed that the children had remarkably good motor skills and coordination.
Looking back on the experience, the teachers note that they have never had a class so motivated to achieve and so quick in their work.

Several other grades in the schools that took part in the program have been added to the programThe program has been extended to additional schools who participate enthusiastically. Outside sponsorship has supplemented funding, and the PTA of each schools guards their sources jealously from outsiders.
The teachers are taught how to use administer the program, the programming and the testing at the beginning and end of the school year is done by the Mozart Brain Lab. The test results for each child are reviewed by school faculty and the MBL.
When they looked at the children, they observed that those children who had not received the program because they were not considered at risk, ended up achieving below the level of the Tomatis trained group. Now every kindergarten child in these first schools receives the listening training.

Translators: A. Vervoort, R. Prada 2011Genk Europaschool in German with Photos ]]> http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/10/success-with-listening-training-in-belgian-primary-school/feed/ 0 http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/10/the-art-of-sarah-bernhardt/ http://www.voxmentor.com/2011/10/the-art-of-sarah-bernhardt/#comments Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:58:09 +0000 admin http://www.voxmentor.com/?p=700 The Art of Sarah Bernhardt

As part of my reading on the 19th century in Paris, I came across a book about Sarah Bernhardt. As I went along in my reading I felt compelled to read other books about her. She was a fascinating character and she is part of all that change that was taking place in 19th-century Paris, about the time when G. B. Faure wrote his treatise, and following on into the first part of the 20th century.  This was a time of great social and cultural change.

I began by reading The Divine Sarah by the piano duo, Gold and Fizdale. It offered a rich tapestry of life at that time, and detailed Sarah’s life from her childhood on. What most interested me of course was her artistic life. She began her studies at the Conservatory and one of her teachers was the same Provost whom G. B. Faure mentions in the preface to his treatise, “The Voice and Singing”.

At that time, actors learned a very stringent set of gestures, each one tied to a specific situation. It was the sort of gestural repertoire, which was supposed to express visually and kinetically what was going on in the text. Sarah chafed against this education. She could not feel a genuine relationship to the text. When she was through Conservatory she went on to the Comédie-Française.  In that venerable institution where classic verse plays were recited, everyone was supposed to imitate artists had gone before.  Sarah was no more at home in the theater than she had been in the Conservatory. She thought this was somehow wrong and phony, but being young she did not yet have an alternative worked out. She soon got annoyed and left theater. They were glad to see her go, because at that point she was seen as merely young and rebellious.

This book is filled with stories about her life and attempts to sort out the truth from the fiction. That is not an easy task because the divine Sarah was the first great mistress of PR. She liked making a scandal and she started lots of stories about herself just to keep herself the public eye, to make herself the center of attention.

I went on to read Robert Gottlieb’s book, more compact. It attempts to further evaluate many of the conflicting stories about her. I found it in the main insightful but I was left with many questions about what kind of an artist she was and what kind of techniques she might have been using. In one of the books they made mention of the volume,  “Madame Sarah” by May Agate.  She was a student and protégée of Sarah’s.

It was here that I found that she was more than a narcissist and sensationalist. Perhaps it is that only another after could really understand what she was about. At the end of the book Agate says that in her early days Sarah may have been less sure of what she wanted, gradually trying to go beyond the formulas she learned as a student but perhaps not knowing exactly what her goal was. It seems to me entirely logical that she was a lifetime seeker of the truth in her acting, continually experimenting.

This is born out of by the way in which she taught her acting that she had in her later years. She never taught her students by example, and she told them that if they would find a psychological reality of being character for themselves that actions would come naturally to them. So you see she was working from the inside out. Her acting ensemble far from being a loose set of people had in view of the students a great deal of unity, and esprit de corps, something entirely lacking in French theater.

Both of the earlier volumes mentioned Sarah’s voice and her delivery, but they fail to understand the reasoning behind what she was doing. And they failed to reconcile several details of how she was received with what they thought she was doing. In this post I learned that her voice was weak, that she sometimes rushed things along and other times to claim very stronger material.  It was a student who explained that in order to make the poetry of the French classics more accessible she approached a good deal of the material as though it were written in a kind of prose.  In the case of lines that were written with a great and noble accent she would declaim in the heightened fashion of the classic theater, in order to bring out the text.  She had various degrees of recitation were more or less conventional speech that she applied to every text she acted.

She was very concerned with appearance, and she never used too much make up.  It is true that she had a great deal of charisma but she did not bank on it. Rather she penetrated the part. So in this I feel that she was a great deal more modern in her production she was generally given credit for.  She was not a method actress, probably closer to what we would consider the British style, but she did break definitively with the formulaic rules laid down for her in Conservatory.

There is a great deal in this volume that singers will appreciate.  She speaks of French poetry and the final “E” in poetry and in song.  She explains the Alexandrine in French poetry, entirely different from the scansion of feet in English poetry.  She quotes and sources people that she knew: Pauline Viardot, her mentor, Garcia Junior, her voice teacher, and Renaldo Hahn. By the way, the way Tosca first shows the audience her plan to stab Scarpia, and then to do it later was worked out not by Callas, but by Sarah in the original Sardou play. And she makes this rule: first thought, then action, then speech. It is one we all must live by.

In addition I read one more book, also by Gold and Fizdale: “Misia: The Life of Misia Sert.  She was an interesting woman who kept company with some of the greatest artists and writers of the time.  She came in later years to be involved with Diaghalev, Nijinsky and the Ballet Russe.  She knew a great many painters, sculptors, and writers and poets.
She was also a friend of Coco Chanel.  She was part of the world that was next door to Sarah but did not include her. Still it is excellent to see French artistic life in all its facets.

It would be very hard for me to tell you which of these books I think you should read. For me the most important one as a singer is the little book by May Agate.  However the other books are fascinating. There is still one book in my little collection, which I have not read yet and that is by Sarah herself, “My Double Life”.  I hear that it is fictionalized but it must be very amusing anyway, and there are probably many nuggets of truth in art.

Sarah: The life of Sarah Bernhardt, by Robert Gottlieb, Yale University Press, 2010 ISBN 978–C–300–14127–6

The Divine Sarah: a life of Sarah Bernhardt, Arthur Gold  and Robert Fizdale, Alfred A Knopf,  Inc.,  New York, 1991,ISBN  0–394–52879–4

Madame Sarah by May Agate, Home and Van Thal, LTD,  1945, Great Britain