HERSELF

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY MDCCCCXVI

COPYRIGHT, 1915 AND 1916, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY GERALDINE FARRAR-TELLEGEN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published March 1916

A DEDICATION

In offering these little sketches of some of the interesting events that have helped shape a career now fairly familiar to the general public, it has not been my intention to weary the indulgent reader with a lengthy dissertation of literary pretension, or tiresome data resulting from the obvious and oft-recurring "I."

From out the storehouse of memory, impressions crystallized into form without regard to time or place, and it was more than a passing pleasure to jot them down at haphazard; in the quiet of my library, on the flying train, or again, beneath the witchery of California skies, I scribbled as the mood prompted, as I would converse with an interested and congenial listener.

It is not, perhaps, a New England characteristic to expand in affectionate eulogy for the satisfaction of a curious public, but the threads of these recollections are so closely interwoven with maternal love and devotion, that this volume would be incomplete without its rightful dedication to

MY MOTHER

G. F.

CONTENTS

I.My Life As a Child1

II.The Dramatic Impulse8

III.I Resolve To Sing "Carmen"18

IV.My First Days in My Dream World28

V.I Refuse To Sing at the Metropolitan36

VI.Paris42

VII.Germany: The Turning-Point50

VIII.Imperial Encouragement59

IX.On Tour; Monte Carlo and Stockholm68

X.My Fourth Season77

XI.Leaving Berlin84

XII.My First Appearance in New York89

XIII.Misunderstandings99

XIV.The Days I Now Enjoy108

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Columbia" (From a photograph by Ira L. Hill)Jacket illustration

Geraldine Farrar (From a recent photograph by Victor Georg)Frontispiece

Miss Farrar as a Little Girl in Melrose2

Mr. and Mrs. Sydney D. Farrar4

Miss Farrar and her First Singing Teacher, Mrs. Long8

A Young Girl with a Phenomenal Soprano Voice12

Growing up16

The Goose Girl and her Flock22

Calvé as "Carmen"24

Jean de Reszke26

Emma Thursby28

Melba as "Marguerite"30

Miss Farrar and her Mother32

Dr. Holbrook Curtis36

Maurice Grau38

Five Well-known Parts42

Camille Saint-Saëns46

"I spent the Summer in Brittany"50

The Royal Opera House, Berlin52

The Kaiser54

"My Third Season opened in 'Traviata'"56

At Frau von Rath's60

Lilli Lehmann62

The Crown Prince of Germany64

Cécile, Crown Princess of Germany, and her Children66

Massenet68

Marconi70

Caruso72

King Oscar of Sweden74

"Sans Gêne"80

"La Tosca"82

Wolf-Ferrari84

Leaving Berlin86

Mark Twain90

"Madame Butterfly"92

David Belasco94

Sarah Bernhardt96

"As Pretty a Flock of Birds as one could find"100

As the Goose Girl in "Königskinder"102

Kate Douglas Wiggin104

Miss Farrar and Caruso in "Julian"106

As "Carmen"108

Work and play in California110

Making New Friends in the Movies112

Miss Farrar and Mr. Tellegen (Photograph Reproduced by courtesy of the International Film Service, inc.)114