Thirty Years of Musical Life in London 1870 1900

ated becoming a public singer, it was no great disappointment when I found, after a couple of years' study, that my voice gave no signs of developing to proportions requisite for a stage career. Aut CcBsar, aut nulhis! I would either be an operatic tenor or I would be content to be simply a good amateur. The concert-room had no charms for me. Nevertheless, while continuing my lessons regularly with Signor Garcia, I had also to consider the best means for earning a livelihood; and, as I have previously hinted, the opportunity presented itself in a highly congenial direction?that of musical journalism. The work was calculated to aid rather than impede my studies. It lay in a field which, at the time I speak of, was far less overrun than now, and it afforded me an entree to every kind of musical performance, which in itself was a liberal education for a young man with my instincts and training. I commenced active work as a journalist, then, in 1875, as London correspondent of my uncle's paper, the "Norwich Argus." In 1877 I undertook the direction of a publication called the "Operatic and Dramatic Album,'' the duties of which brought me into personal contact with some of the foremost personages in the lyric and theatrical worlds. A year later I was appointed musical and dramatic critic of the "Citizen," which post (during 1879 and part of 1880) I filled while acting as musical critic upon the staff of that fine old weekly paper? long since defunct?the '' Examiner....