It was mainly because of thit excellent librettos written by tha, old scholar, Lo Ying-kung, that Chiénge sealed pore quickly' Indder of success., Among th Playa is the "Romance of 1 Flower Boats," or "Itua Yunn," a comedy fall of action and interesting to the foreign spectator, When Mr. Lo died," the actor shouldered alone the heavy funeral expenses. So it was that the but s few of the preliminary rites indispensable to the initia] entrance of first magnitude, Invariably, the factor will sing a few measures from behind the door-curtain, or he may merely declaim a few words, pro-Tonging the last vowel to what seems musical length. And he had hardly completed his vocalization before the entire theatre bursts forth like n veritable volcano Voice of Paramount Importance The attention an audience gives an actor's voice even before he steps upon the great stage-rag bears out the point that real lovers of Chinese drama go to hear rather than to see a play. Accordingly, some of the more striking aspects. of Mr, Ch'éng Yen-chin's vocal art will be considered. Having endeared himself to the public mainly og a inger, Ch'éng is even now thought by many to possess a better singing voice than his great teacher, Mel Lan-fang. Another instructor of his, Mr, Wang Yao-ching, who per. fected a mellow tone that made clear cunuciation possible, has One of. Mr. Cheng' played so important a part in the development of the. actor's voice that the ordinary public and: not a {few writers are under the erroneous scholar, Lin Wu Shar Jen; ° among. impression that the youthful artist other things, wrote ug,. Yano, is an exponent of the Wang School, chin's. not' forgetting his. friend, That is a gross mistake, cetuss Lo Kung, has. in: it the admirable Ch'éng has. natural gifts: that-differ sentiment existing between teacher markedly from those of his teacher, and pupil....,.T ask, 'In: my aged With a full rich tone, an. excellent mind. can there really exis control of " legato ip, the slower feeling of, class prejudice: Tegister, und unusual method dey why should' I, not write of ce) Sémmous, general, a renowned. act the production of, cresee tel oh tags may onto Gal) Pamalihind,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.