MADAME ALBANI.

Southern Cross, Volume 15, Issue 21, 7 September 1907, Page 11

MADAME ALBANI.

Madame Albani (writes a Home paper of cur late visitor) has a very real sense of her own importance in the world of music. Long ago she set her terms at £l5O for a concert ; but of course, at festivals and on special occasions she asks and receives much larger sums. For the Leeds Festival of 1877 Tietjens had been engaged at a fee of 500 guineas. Unhappily the great artiste died suddenly, before the festival, and Madame Albani was asked to fill her place. Albani insisted upon 550 guineas, and stipulated that no oth. er singer at the festival should receive more. Her terms were granted, and when the festival was over she gave. 50 guineas of the money to local charities. Twenty years later Albani received 400 guineas at a Leeds Festival—a marvellous testimony thus to the lasting qualities of her wonderful voice.