then the top notes became shrill, unreliable—at last, usually not there at all. . . one knows why. Perhaps her mind, —No ravenous, still insatiable, sensed that to struggle with the of a voice shreds must make her artistry subtler, more refined, more capable of expressing humiliation, rage, betrayal. . . the opposite. Perhaps her spirit —Perhaps loathed the unending struggle to itself, to itself, on a whose embody manifest mechanics, and suffocating customs, seemed expressly designed to annihilate spirit. . . know that in in the second act, Tosca, —I when, humiliated, hounded by Scarpia, she sang Vissi d'arte lived for art"— —"I and in torment, bewilderment, at the end she asks, with a voice reaching harrowingly for the "Art has me LIKE THIS?" repaid I felt I was watching autobiography— an art; virtuosity miles distant from the usual soprano's athleticism,— the usual musician's dream of virtuosity content. . . without wonder what she feels, now, —I listening to her recordings. For they have already, within a few years,
then the top notes became shrill, unreliable—at last, usually not there at all. . . —No one knows why. Perhaps her mind, ravenous, still insatiable, sensed that to struggle with the shreds of a voice must make her artistry subtler, more refined, more capable of expressing humiliation, rage, betrayal. . . —Perhaps the opposite. Perhaps her spirit loathed the unending struggle to embody itself, to manifest itself, on a whose mechanics, and suffocating customs, seemed expressly designed to annihilate spirit. . . —I know that in Tosca, in the second act, when, humiliated, hounded by Scarpia, she sang Vissi d'arte —"I lived for art"— and in torment, bewilderment, at the end she asks, with a voice reaching harrowingly for the "Art has repaid me LIKE THIS?" I felt I was watching autobiography— an art; virtuosity miles distant from the usual soprano's athleticism,— the usual musician's dream of virtuosity without content. . . —I wonder what she feels, now, listening to her recordings. For they have already, within a few years,