Daniel Mayer, to say that he had received from Harris a note asking if I knew the part of Beckmesser; as, if I did, I was to come at once to Covent Garden to rehearse it for performance with Jean de Reszke, Madame Albani, and Jean Lassalle, the barytone.

As I read I thought I should die of excitement, for now was the prophecy come true. "In a couple of months you will know," it said, and at that time I had been asked to do the least likely and most difficult of the parts I had been working on. Needless to say I accepted at once; but the rehearsals had not proceeded many days, when De Reszke caught a cold, because of which he asked to be excused temporarily from further preparation of so difficult a rôle as Walther, in view of his necessary appearances in other operas of the repertory. The rehearsals for "Die Meistersinger" were therefore postponed.

As I left the stage, much discouraged, I was accosted by Sir Augustus Harris, whom I had never met personally up to that moment, but who shook me cordially by the hand, saying: "I'm sorry that you can't sing the part of Beckmesser now, for it is going to suit you very well. Never mind, you shall have it when we do it. I like people who know things and are ready. By the way," added he, putting his hand into his breast pocket, " I have just had a letter from the German barytone who is here with the company from Hamburg to say that he has a bad cold and cannot sing the part of Kurwenal tomorrow night. I wonder if you know that part?"

I was standing on the stage of Covent Garden where the trap is that in the old version of "Faust" opened and let Mephistopheles through into another region. When Harris asked me the question I felt as if I should sink into the depths, such a failing was there of my heart at being asked to do the second one of the characters which Planchette had advised me to study. I remained on deck, however, and, pulling myself together, I answered, "Yes; I know that part." "Good!" said he. "Mahler is having a rehearsal of the orchestra at Drury Lane

now.

You had better go over there and take your book with you. Watch carefully; it is catchy stuff, you know." I knew that it was "catchy stuff "; had I not for more than two months been caught in its toils? I went over and, sitting in a stage box with my book before me, paid every atom of attention of which I was capable to the music of my part as it came along. After the rehearsal I was taken by Gustav Mahler into the classic foyer of the theatre, where there was a piano at which he seated himself and took me through the whole rôle of Kurwenal, which I knew perfectly, leaving him satisfied that I could do it. It became mine on the following evening, June 25, 1892, without further rehearsal, except that Max Alvary, the greatest Tristan of his time, showed me the positions upon the stage before the curtain arose upon each successive act.

I may say without boasting, for it is merely a matter of record, that for a number of years I had no rival in the part of Kurwenal, nor in the part of Beckmesser. When this latter was finally produced I performed it so as to insure me the part, which, much as I enjoyed performing it, was so strenuous that had I not been blessed with what my mother called "the voice of a bull of Bashan" I should never have been able to live through it and the many other parts which immediately began to crowd upon

me.

When people say to me, "What but foolishness did any one ever get out of Planchette or any other so-called

spiritistic advice?" I tell them the story just narrated. My action in taking the advice I received whence it came, I know not - resulted at the time indicated in my being fully prepared for what I was asked to do. In accepting this counsel and being ready with the parts I had been told to learn, I was undoubtedly enabled to accept the responsibilities whose execution straightway resulted in the foundation of my operatic career.

So I was engaged at Covent Garden, and was given opportunities by Harris to do anything and everything. I was in no position to pick and choose, and was only too glad of the chance to obtain experience in my profession.

It is to be remembered that I had been advised to pay particular attention to the operas of Verdi and Wagner; that I had been told to study the rôles of Amonasro, Wolfram, Kurwenal, and Beckmesser; that "a couple of months " later I was actually engaged to sing Beckmesser, and that, upon the postponement of that part, I did in reality perform the rôle of Kurwenal.

Now occurred another curious thing. One day as I was leaving Covent Garden after a rehearsal, I was accosted by Castelmary, the régisseur of the company, and asked whether I knew the part of Amonasro well enough to take it that evening in the place of Victor Maurel, who had notified the management of his sudden indisposition. The state of internal panic that ensued for the prophecy had now come true for the third time left me outwardly calm and I accepted the responsibility with the understanding that I should have nothing to think of but my part, the costumes and make-up being supplied me. Castelmary in loyalty to his old friend Maurel requested me to wait a while, saying that he thought, after all, that the management should give the