This great star of the operatic firmament is practically unknown to the vast majority of English opera-goers. For several seasons the well-known star of the Opera Comique in Paris, she is probably the most admired and popular operatic singer on the Continent, while she received the signal honour of a personal request from Richard Strauss to play the principal role in "Salome" and "Electra" when these works were produced in the French capital. Miss Garden's mother was an American, and her father a Scotch doctor resident in New York. On the death of her parents she went to Paris, entering a rich and influential French family as English governess to their children. It was while there that she made the acquaintance of Gustave Charpentier, in whose lovely opera "Louise" she was to make the first enormous success of her life. Subsequently she appeared in Debussy's opera, "Pelleas et Melisande," and her performance in that work drew forth a long and eloquent eulogy from M. Maeterlinck himself. In "La Reine Fiamette," "Thais," "Aphrodite," "Cherubin," her success has been no less great.

She fulfilled an extremely lucrative engagement in New York, where she appeared under the direction of Mr. Oscar Hammerstein. Miss Garden often receives as much as L200 a night for a performance.

Miss Mary Garden Henri Manuel