Singers and Flowers

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3, 30 January 1908, Page 33

Singers and Flowers

Among the hundreds of amateur singers, scattered up and down, the country (says ' Woman's Life '), how many have "the slightest notion that the scent of flowers affects the voice one way or another ? .Yet flowers —certain flowers, at least— are admittedly detrimental to good voice production, and all the leading artists recognise the fact. Sims Reeves, the great tenor, was once down to sing in Aberdeen. The night before the concert he was with his wife in one of the hotels, when a lady came in carrying a huge bouquet offlowers, which she prestnted to Mrs. Reeves. The bouquet was handed to a gentleman friend that he might admire it, and he was '(thoughtlessly) in, the act of passing it on to the eminent vocalist, when Mrs. Reeves excitedly exclaimed : ' Don't, Jack, don't.' The gentleman naturally raised- his eyebrows in questioning surprise, and, obsening this, Mr®. Reeves explained that if the perfume of these flowers reached her husband's throat he would be off his singing form for nights. ' Sims ' himself quietly supported the statement ; and, in fact, in a posthumous manual for singers, he has expressly warned the vocalist against the incautious sniffing of flowers. " The consensus of opinion among oper>a«singers seems to be that tuberoses and mimosa are particularly harmful. Madame Christine Nilsson mentions the case of a celebrated lady singer who, after ' burying her nose ' for a 'moment in a wreath of tuberoses, went on the stage to find that she could not raise a note. - The vocal chords had been temporarily paralysed. A doctor was called, the flowers were thrown out of the window, and the vocalist, after her throat had been. treated, was able to sing later in the evening. Calve agrees with Nilsson. The only flowers she ever admits into her rooirs are roses and violets. The tuberose is her ' particular abhorrence,' not only because it suggests death, but because of its injurious effect on the voice. If she enters a room jwhere lilies are, Calve always wants to throw the windows open. Personally she exempts the violet from a charge of vocal injury, though other singers have told her that it has been detrimental in their case. Jenny Lind could never be in a room with strong-smelling flowers, and used to say that the scent of violet^ was especially bad .for her voice. Madame Patti would never dream of sniffing a bouquet before singing:"* Some celebrated teachers oven caution their pupils against having flowers in their, dressing-rooms. It is said that a jealous prima donna was, on one occasion, known to present her rival with a bouquet, with the special" object of rendering her singing less effective. An eminent French surgeon relates a number of cases which have come under his own observation, in which thickness, huskiness, and even complete loss of voice are caused by penetrating odors. In some . persons it is only the per- '« fume of particular flowers that produces the effect ; in others, the odor of incense or musk, or -the smells of the kitchen, tanyard, or smithy ,act iv the same way.