Bedouins Author:James Huneker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II INTIMATE "Et on fait la guerre avec de la musique, des panaches, des drapeaus, des hanches d'or. . . ." —Tentation de Saint Antoine (slightly altered... more »). The penalty of publicity is one which singers seldom evade. Little need to give the reason, nevertheless, for sensitive souls it is a trial to see one's personality put in the wash, squeezed, and hung up to dry with other linen in the pitiless laundry of the press. Some singers are born advertisers, some achieve advertising, but few have advertising thrust upon them. That sort usually fade into shadow-land rather than face the fierce white light which beats about the operatic throne. Really, it must be disconcerting for a woman singer to hear herself discussed as if she were a race-horse. Every point in her make-up is put on a platter ready to serve hot in the newspapers. You fancy yourself overhearing the conversation of jockeys and trainers. "Oi sye, Bill, that there filly is goin' queer. Jest look at her fetlocks, and her crupper is gettin' too heavy. Take her out for an hour's spin on the downs. Breathe her a bit and then give her a hard sweatin' run and arub down. No water, Bill, mind ye, or I'll knock yer block off." The private life of a prim.a donna is not unlike that of a racing mare's. Flesh reduction, with all the succulent food—and champagne—are banished; indulgence spells decadence, and decadence is eagerly noted by the psychic detectives known as music-critics. We are not in the game to find fault as simple souls imagine, but to register values, vocal and personal. It's a pity, but this is a condition and not a theory. We have heard of a Mary Garden cult. Now, as has been said by Dr. Wicksteed, a cult is always annoying to those who do not join in it, and generally hurtful to those who do. But is the...« less