One of the leading vocal teachers of New York is Mme. Lena Doria Devine, who has become known widely from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast through the success of her pupils.

Mme. Devine is a San Franciscan by birth. Early developing strong musical tastes, she was sent to Italy to study with the elder Lamperti. There she remained three years faithfully studying the great maestro’s methods. At the end of that time she received a certificate from Lamperti as to her ability as a singer and teacher. Mme. Devine made a successful debut as a concert singer, but above all she loved teaching, and finally she decided to devote herself entirely to the training of voices.

Each teacher is likely to have a scheme to teaching all his or her own. The fundamental basis of Mme. Devine’s principle in teaching is “the attack.” When asked about her method of tone production she said:

“I follow implicitly the teaching of Lamperti the elder, and through it have had the most marvelous results. In a voice that is perfectly placed, with a forward tone production, no difficulty is experienced in producing a perfectly even instrument, without breaks or registers. The voice always must be above the breath. This attack, as taught must be preceded by correct mental conception of he tone and an immediate adjustment of the vocal bands, and the amount of breath released to obtain this is a matter of long practice. Until a pupil has learned to understand and to feel when his effort is right and when wrong, any kind of practice that involves the use of the voice is useless.

“For this reason I advocate daily lessons until at least the pupils have ben guided in the right path long enough to know what they are striving for. I have trained pupils with great musical talent but with small voices who, thanks to this system of place the voice upon the breath, have become highly successful artists. For instance, there is Blanch Duffield, for two seasons soloist with Sousa’s band, and Bessie Abbott, who recently has appeared successfully in the Grand Opera in Paris. Both these singers began their first vocal studies with me at an early age, and by frequent lessons learned those vital principles which contributed so much to their ultimate success.”

By the method with which Miss Duffield was taught she sang in two hundred consecutive concerts, and Sousa said that it had been a matter of comment that she had never sung one note out of tune. When Mme. Lamperti visited this country the last time she spent a morning in Mme. Devine’s studio and heard some of her pupils sing. Among them ws Miss Duffield, who, although so young a girl yet had self-possession enough to sing well even before so critical a judge. After she had finished Mme. Lamperti turned to Mme. Devine and said: “I consider that a perfectly placed voice.”

At a recent meeting of the Manuscript Society Miss Duffield sang and made her usual success. Later in the evening a young girl came to her, saying, “Please tell me who was your teacher, for I am going to take lessons with her.”

When Mme. Devine appeared, first in Baden-Baden Dr. Richard Pohl, in his criticism, said: “Her voice is so perfectly schooled that one immediately asks with whom she has studied.” On many occasions this question is asked of Miss Duffield.

Mme. Devine has an enthusiasm for her art, and is young enough herself to inspire enthusiasm in her pupils. She is critical and earnest, and succeeds in getting the best possible work out of those who are comities to her care.

Little fault can be found with a method which has given a Sembrich to the world. The tine piano and legato effects that give to this great singer her artistic elegance came after her study with Lamperti.

Mme. Devine’s studio, at No. 136 Firth Avenue, is an artistic and a busy place. Among her noteworthy pupils, bedsides Miss Duffield and Miss Abbott, are Miss Josephine Mildenburg, soprano; Miss Marie Louise Gehle, contralto of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church; Edward W. Gray, tenor of the old First Presbyterian Church, and Miss Clara Hammer, a coloratura soprano, who has a phenomenally high voice.

—”Many Singers Owe Fame to Mme. Doria Devine,” The New York Press, Monday Morning, March 31, 1902, p 4.

Daily lessons until the student obtains the correct attack? I certainly see the need for them. It takes some students, especially those with guttural voices a long, long time to get this matter right.

Yes, you would be correct that the Lamperti School taught that the start of the tone must be at “the spot,” which was considered to be “on the breath.”

Yes, you would be correct that the Lamperti School spent a great deal of time working on the breath; that is, singing on it rather than with it.

Confusing?

You bet! Especially for those trained to think anatomically rather than auditorially.

For more context on Lampert’s teachings on the “breath”, see my posts on Giulia Valda.