Motherhood or Fame?

From the New York Times Archive 12.01.1913:
"CHILDREN ABOVE FAME, SAYS CALVE
Singer Writes from America to Paris Friend Wishing She Had Family Instead of Glory.
HER VOICE STILL 'BRAVE'
French Papers Say Her Outburst Is Human, but She Would Have Lamented a Home Life.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
PARIS, Jan. 11. - A letter from Emma Calve, written from St.Paul, Minn., in which she speaks mournfully of the flight of time and says that she wishes she were the mother of five or six children rather than a great cantatrice, has provided Paris editorial writers with a subject for profound philosophical reflections. Mme. Calve writes the following to a famous woman friend, who communicates the letter to Le Temps:
"Let me reassure you at once as to my health, which is not bad, and to my dear, beautiful voice, which is still brave and sonorous, more touching and a more intense sensibilty than ever - doubtless in order that it may be the more regretted.
"I weep for it, as for a sister. I have come to treat my voice as some winged, mysterious being, independent of myself. I believe that, if I lost it, it would return to me omy deathbed, so that I would sing with my last breath."
Mme. Calve, after referring to her operatic successes adds:
"But after all, that is not happiness. I would have preferred to be the mother of five or six children. They would have been my lullaby."
The newspapers say that the letter reflects the common belief of people that they would have been happier in any but their actual circumstances, and assert that if Mme. Calve had simply been the mother of five or six children she would have lamented the hard fate which tied to the cradle and home a woman destined for popular triumphs."