139.—CONSCIENTIOUS ACTING AND SINGING.
The public does not realize the nervous and mental strain the great actors and singers undergo when on the stage, portraying the characters they represent for the pleasure and entertainment of their auditors. Of course, in many cases, the action becomes mechanical and the emotion a cut-and-dried counterfeit. But on this score it may be said that it is the highest art to present emotions from an intellectual standpoint, without being subject to the uncertain whim of the moment.
It is the highest art to conceal art.
Per contra, another school declares an actor should always feel the full extent of the emotion he portrays.
Be that as it may, the proper presentation of the composer's ideas and emotions is a serious study with the conscientious actor. He may study for weeks and months without being able to embody in action his own or the composer's ideas to his satisfaction.
A good example of this is given us in the words of one of the most dramatic singers of Beethoven's time, Madam Schroder-Devrient. This talented woman was the first to fill the rôle of "Leonora" in Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. She describes her efforts to adequately present the composer's intentions in the following words:
"When I was studying the character of 'Leonora,' at Vienna, I could not attain that which appeared to me to be the desired and natural expression at the moment when Leonora, throwing herself before her husband, holds out a pistol at the governor with the words, 'kill first his wife.' I studied and studied in vain, though I did all I could to place myself mentally in the situation of Leonora. I had pictured to myself the situation, but I felt that it was incomplete, without knowing why or wherefore.
"Well, the evening arrived. The audience knows not with what feelings an artiste who enters seriously into a part, dresses for the representation. The nearer the moment approached, the greater was my alarm. When it did arrive, and as I ought to have sung the ominous words and pointed the pistol at the governor, I fell into such utter tremor at the thought of not being perfect in my character, that my whole form trembled, and I thought I should have fallen.
"Now only fancy how I felt when the whole house broke forth into enthusiastic shouts of applause, and what I thought when, after the curtain fell, I was told that this moment was the most effective and powerful of my whole representation.
"That which I could not attain with every effort of mind and imagination, was produced at this decisive moment by my unaffected terror and anxiety. This result, and the effect it had upon the public, taught me how to seize and comprehend the incident; so that which at the first representation I had hit upon unconsciously, I adopted in full consciousness ever afterward in this part."