FOOD AND THE VOICE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 26 March 1891, Page 4

FOOD AND THE VOICE.

\ Singers have the reputation of being capricious because they are exacting in th« matter of food. The average landlord thinks that what is good enough for one of his guests is good enough for all, making no exception of the artist. Madame : Patti has encountered this landlord, sc I she travels with her own chef, whe 1 prepares her meals for her. This is not caprice ; it is a necessity. It is not that she wants such a variety of elaborately prepared food, but she wants it to be thoroughly nutritious and digestible. If she ; suffers from indigestion it affects her voice. 1 Colds are not the singers only enemies. 111- -. prepared and unsuitable food is as injurious ;to her voice as a draught of cold air. A celebrated professor in Rome told Charlotte Cushman that there were three thing neces- . sary for a prima donna to do — eat, sleep, ! ana sing. When a singer is singing, she has ito live the most regular and systematic life. I She eats her dinner at three o'clok in the afternoon, or four at the latest, and it is two ■or three hours before she goes to the theatre, and another hour and a half before j she sings, or four hours between eating and isinging. After the opera she may eat the Jlittle supper that is so highly prized by all "• professional" people, not' because of its conviviality, for it must be- very* "simple and flight, but rather because it can be eaten •with the knowledge that there is plenty ol rtime for digestion. Sweets, highly-spiced I food of any kind, and nuts, must be care[fully avoided by the, 3inger,'-and even ice-j-water ie one of the very worst things for ! the throat. It should never be drunk before I singing, for it leaves the singer as hoarse, as iif she had caught a violent cold. not drink, yet the exercise of singing makes jher want something to moisten her throat (with. Different singers use different drinks -for refreshing the throat, according as their experience has taught them.