MELBA'S GRAND OPERA COMPANY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 30, 4 August 1923, Page 11

MELBA'S GRAND OPERA COMPANY

in , am'k °"'tSlr o of the diva herself, in he Melbourne Grand Opera Company v, v 1? li T T Austral>a early next JJ •]■ ,b? Mmc- Daimonte, an out.s a ding lyric soprano of Italy, whom whir f h ln L"cia" at Scala, rl r, , f" CCnf WaS Said to have b«» ™,Sv%f Hy T Cef inthis com«'?.."H a,derad/ ago, when Melba Mouied a uumoer of fi ne s i nge rs for a moderate outlay, M'Cormack drew £150 a week, but it is stated that in the 1924 company more than that will be paid to the second tenor Altogether, the company s salary will run into £20CO a week J-ioie than the old. The contracts aJ! s jpulate. in respect to the principals, time they shall be paid in the current value ol exchange in lire, the lira being; worth 3ii exchange," ordinarily, about bid in English money. Thus, there will 1)0 tiie problem of millions of lira, when the pay, envelopes «-.re being sorted out. J'astidiuus persons, tluj; "heavies" in the opera world. They have" not only set ;i problem for financiers, but they will probably want theu- own favourite "vegetables, and a laboratory for producing artificial sunshine for their voices if they strike a wet and cold snap. Mine. Dalmonte will avoid the "dreaded sea voyage'; considerably, we are told, by starr-ing-in South America and New York and coming across the Pacific. It certainly pays to b e a prima donna of the same constellation a 3 Melba.