HOW SINGERS OBTAIN GOLDEN NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14109, 10 July 1909, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOW SINGERS OBTAIN GOLDEN NOTES.

Those of us who have had the opportunity to hear the stars of the opera will enjoy a novel picture of these personalities which is sketched by George , Middleton in the May Bookman.. "Top Notes and Bank Notes" is his caption, and he goes on to prove that usually these who have the first are well able, despite temperamental eccentricities, to obtain the second. The writer tells Jenny Lind's story thus: — ifehance discovered Jenny Lind's voice; as is not generally known, she was a successful child actress. Her real future, however, was marked out for her from the first song interpolated by accident in. a play. She was soon cast in' operatic roles, and at the Royal Theatre, Stockholm,. in 1840, for 69 performances received about £100 a year. In 1841 she studied with Signor Garcia, a brother of Balibran, and it is instructive to note she paid 20 francs an hour. In 1844 she refused ian annual salary of about £1000, "with benefits," to stay permanently in Germany. She knew her voice belonged to the world. She sang five times in Vienna (1846) for £50 a performance with extra benefit. It was in 1847 she made her second contract to appear in London, the first one with Bunn having caused her endless ] legal complica-, tions. '■'. - , ■ - ' The Lumley contract was substantially as follows:—. ~ •- - f -„ -n, .. , . 1. An honorarium of 120,000 francs for the season, reckoned from April 14 to August 20, 1847. • ■ • ■ 2. A furnished house, a carriage, and a pair of horses free of charge,'-for the season. 3. A further sum of 20,000 francs, if Mile. Lind wished to spend a month in Italy before her debut, for the purpose of studying the language or for rest. 4. Liberty to cancel the engagement if, after her first appearance, she felt dissatisfied at the measure of its success and wished to discontinue her performances. 5. Mile.., Lind ; was not to sing at concerts, public or private, for her own emolument. ' „ • -v . .-'

In 1846, the, now famous diva refused an unparalleled offer from the Tsar to sing five months at St. - Petersburg for a salary of 56,000 francs per month, a sum equalling £11,000. It was her appearance in America under P. T. Barnum's management, however, which brought Jenny Lind's name near to us. She was to receive 1000 dollars a performance and all expenses for 150 concerts to be given within one year. This was eventually' changed, so that she received a half-share of the profits whenever the receipts , were above 5500 dollars. As the returns sometimes equalled 15,000 dollars, her share on the first -*six concerts alone was 30,000 dollars. Incidentally it is recorded she gave away that sum in New York for charities. At the expiration of her contract with Barnum she sang 40, additional recitals on her own speculation. She appeared little after this and lived a retired life for nearly 40 years. Adelina Patti was even a greater financial genius than Jenny land. The writer quotes Colonel Mapleson •as saying that "no one ever approached Patti in the art of obtaining , from a manager the greatest possible sum he could by any possibility contrive to pay." We read further: ' " The musical miracle was the spoiled darling of her day, and she never failed to obtain exactly what .she wanted. She was first engaged in. London in 1861, by Mapleson to sing four night "on approval," and, in. case of success, to obtain £40 a week. This contract was not fulfilled, however, for being hard pressed financially, she had borrowed £50 from a rival manager, and her receipt proved practically a contract. This was the beginning of a career so dazzling that its successive steps are simply a series of increasing bank-notes. A few statements will suffice. In 1872 she obtained in London 200 guineas a night, since she insisted on having more than' Christine Nilsson, who was receiving £200. She sang twice a week. Ten years later she was given 5000 dollars a night! Her famous contract to sing in America provided that the money should be paid her at two o'clock on the day she sang, also a drawing-room and, sleeping-car to be 1 especially built for her with conservatory and fernery, etc. Further, there was to be deposited to her credit 50,000 dollars for payment of the last 10 performances— "favourite device. She thus received about 20 times what Mario and Grisi got. Her private car, incidentlly, cost 60,000 dollars and contained a silver bath and gold keys to the' doors— say nothing of a 2000-dollar piano. Patti gave to the manager only her voice and her costumes. Her drawing capacity justified this: "Lucia," as an example, was sung, to an average of 14,000 dollars. " Traviata" drew more, since she sang more notes: it was a' frequent occurrence among the poorer music-lovers to buy a club ticket and each take turns at hearing her for 20 minutes if one overstayed his time he paid for the entire ticket. - Some mathematicians computed, by dividing number of notes sung by sum paid, that in '' Semiramide" Patti received 42| cents for each note; this was found to be just 7 1-10 cents per note more than Rossini got for writing the whole opera. Interpretative art has always earned more than \ the : creative, as this illustrates. During the "Patti epidemic" in San Francisco she often sang 'to 25,000 dollars. She herself received at about this time 8000 dollars for each performance at the Cincinnati Music Festival.' In forming some estimate of the fortune she has earned it must be remembered, too, that she enjoyed over 40 years of actual, career. Her famous and habitual series of successive farewells alone were unparalleled '•, money-' makers, and though her last disastrous visit , to; America was humiliating ; to, a degree, she still draws, whenever she sings in London,; , for her English people are always loyal to a personality—-witness Albania also no matter what substance remains of a golden memory.