AN OPERA SINGER AND A BULL KILLER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7840, 8 January 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN OPERA SINGER AND A BULL KILLER.

Madbid recently feted two of her most popular citizens. One is an opera singer and the other a ball killer. Sixteen years ago Gayarre used to get 3s a night for singing at a well-known little music-hall in the capital. Now he has just signed an engagement to sing fifty nights at the Opera, for which he is to receive £14,000. But one is accustomed to the ups and downs of operatic life. The great bullfighter's experience is more interesting. To the lasting sorrow of the Madrid public, the great Don Luis Mazzantini is on his way to Havana. A banquet was given to him the night before he started, Two hundred guests assisted, and the toasts, the uproarious cheers, and the pathetic adieu made the scene almost without parallel. The great manwho a. couple of years ago was a small station-master, with a salary of £4 10 s a m oath—is consoled in his grief at leaving the seen of his triumphs. Ho takes with him in rei\dy money £3200, a payment on account by his ; impresario of the £6000 which.hois to receiVe when he has carried out his share of the contract. He is to cross the ocean to take part in eight bullfights and to kill a minimum of sixty-four animals. To add to the charm of the performance and to guard against all "possibility of miscarriage, Don Luis takes hh* victims with him.. Sixty.four bulls were put on board the steamer at Cadiz, amidst the cheers of an excited populaoce.