Confessions of an Opera Singer

audiobook

Confessions of an Opera Singer

by Kathleen Howard

EN·~5 hours·26 chapters

Chapters

26 total

FOREWORD

2:20

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

0:16

CHAPTER I - THE WAY IT ALL HAPPENED

9:35

CHAPTER II - A STRUGGLE AND A SOLUTION

11:06

CHAPTER III - PARIS AT LAST

11:12

CHAPTER IV - PENSION PERSONALITIES

14:17

CHAPTER V - OPERATIC FRANCE VERSUS OPERATIC GERMANY

11:37

CHAPTER VI - PREPARING RÔLES IN BERLIN

9:48

CHAPTER VII - MY FIRST OPERATIC CONTRACT SIGNED

12:19

CHAPTER VIII - MY ONE LONE IMPROPOSITION

11:15

Description

The memoir opens with a young woman whose comfortable New York life is upended by a sudden financial crash. Engaged to a modest businessman, she stitches towels and dreams of domesticity, yet an inner voice—both literal and metaphorical—whispers that her destiny lies elsewhere. A childhood steeped in music, with her father's nightly improvisations, turns melody into a first language. This quiet revelation pushes her toward an operatic career.

She heads to Paris and then Germany, where conservatories and opera houses become a micro‑cosm of society. The book paints the pomp of officers in Metz, backstage friendships, and the clash between French lyricism and German rigor, all while exposing the daily sacrifices a singer must make. Vivid anecdotes of costumes, rehearsals, and the unglamorous grind offer a human portrait that will intrigue anyone curious about life behind the curtain.

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Details

Language

en

Duration

~5 hours (327K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Credits

Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material at The Internet Archive.)

Release date

2010-06-26

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

Kathleen Howard

Kathleen Howard

1884–1956

An acclaimed mezzo-soprano who later reinvented herself on screen, she moved from the Metropolitan Opera to Hollywood character roles with unusual ease. Her life also reached the page through writing and editorial work, making her career broader than most performers of her era.

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