History of the Opera from its Origin in Italy to the present Time: With Anecdotes of the Most Celebrated Composers and Vocalists of EuropeEdwards, H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland)
History
History of the Opera from its Origin in Italy to the present Time: With Anecdotes of the Most Celebrated Composers and Vocalists of Europe
Edwards, H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland)
Opera
When she appeared at the King's Theatre in 1824, and sang in Mayer's
_Fanatico per la Musica_, the frequenters of the Opera, who remembered
her performance in the same work eighteen years before, were surprised
that so long an interval had produced so little change in the singer.
The success of the first night was prodigious; but Mr. Ebers (in his
"Seven Years of the King's Theatre"), tells us that "repetitions of this
opera, again and again, diminished the audiences most perceptibly,
though some new air was on each performance introduced, to display the
power of the Catalani. * * * In this opera the sweet and soothing voice
of Caradori was an agreeable relief to the bewildering force of the
great wonder."
In one season of four months in London, Madame Catalani, by her system
of concerts, gained upwards of ten thousand pounds, and doubled that sum
during a subsequent tour in the provinces, in Ireland and Scotland. She
sang for the last time in public at Dublin, in 1828.
[Sidenote: CATALANI'S AGREEMENT]
As to the sort of engagement she approved of, some notion may be formed
from the following draft of a contract submitted by her to Mr. Ebers in
1826:----
"_Conditions between Mr. Ebers and M. P. de Valabrèque._
"1. Every box and every admission shall be considered as belonging
to the management. The free admissions shall be given with paper
orders, and differently shaped from the paid tickets. Their number
shall be limited. The manager, as well as Madame Catalani, shall
each have a good box.
"2. Madame Catalani shall choose and direct the operas in which she
is to sing; she shall likewise have the choice of the performers in
them; she will have no orders to receive from any one; she will
find all her own dresses.
"3. Madame Catalani shall have two benefits, to be divided with the
manager; Madame Catalani's share shall be free: she will fix her
own days.
"4. Madame Catalani and her husband shall have a right to
superintend the receipts.
"5. Every six weeks Madame Catalani shall receive the payment of
her share of the receipts, and of the subscription.
"6. Madame Catalani shall sing at no other place but the King's
Theatre, during the season; in the concerts or oratorios, where she
may sing, she will be entitled to no other share but that specified
as under.
"7. During the season, Madame Catalani shall be at liberty to go to
Bath, Oxford, or Cambridge.
"8. Madame Catalani shall not sing oftener than her health will
allow her. She promises to contribute to the utmost of her power to
the good of the theatre. On his side, Mr. Ebers engages to treat
Madame Catalani with every possible care.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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