ENORMOUS INCOMES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2163, 11 April 1908, Page 3

ENORMOUS INCOMES.

The problem of America’s drain upon the European opera was discussed some time ago in the “Daily Mail,” when Gorman, Austrian, and Italian impresarios lamented the transference of tlie greatest singers to the United States. Herr. George von Hulseu, of the German Royal Opera-houses, urged tho necessity of some arrangement to put a stop to the offering of enormous salaries by rival New York impresarios and the consequent depletion of European operas. Italian complaints wero not less bitter. Signor Caruso’s £40,000 American salary and Signori Bond’s and Do Luca’s £lO,000 were attractions with which no Italian opera could hope to compete. Mine. Tetrazzini received £BOO for each performance at the Manhattan Opera-house. “When we Italians want to hear our greatest singers,” it was said, “we liavo the choice of crossing the Atlantic or listening to tlie gramophone.” Signori Zenatcllo, Sammarco, and Ansclmi are amongst the signers who have been drawn to New York by high salaries. Signor Gatti Casazza, director of tho Scala,, in Milan, who was recently appointed to be joint manager of tho New York Metropolitan, has bewailed the emigration of tho best singers to America. In reference to tho announcement that an international combine of opera directors was being formed in New York, with the object of reducing the enormous salaries paid to stall artists, Mr. Neil Forsyth, of the Covent Garden Opera Syndicate, told a member of the £ ‘Daily Mail” sta.fr that ho had received no comfirmation of the news. It is, however, ail open secret, says tlie “Daily Mail,” that, should the scheme be carried out, it would receive the support of practically every manager in Europe and America. It is realised that a limit must he put to the extravagant fees of stage idols. The salaries of tho principals average between £IOO and £2OO a performance. But even these figures become insignificant when they are compared with the princely sums demanded by stars of the first magnitude, such as Caruso and Melba, who have received as much as £6OO for a single appearance. Jean do Eeszke, in bis prime, was paid £4BO tor a performance, and two years ago, Melba received £9,000 for fifteen performances at the Manhattan Operahouse in New York, and in addition, £12;000 for a series of concerts during tlie same season. At the Metropolitan Ooera the salary,list is" said to amount to about £IO,OOO a week, or £240,000 for the season.