The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-07
HIGH PRIcRs FOR SONG.
Earnings of Famous Singers in Times
Past and Present

| Past and Present
| Eron the Nel1 Yors Sun.
A common complaint among musical
managers on the Continent IS that the CONS
pensation of the great singers of the day is
beyond all reasonable proportion to their
services. That for the single performances
ola role in an opera or for a song or two in
| concert even a Patti should command
thousands of dollars is regarded as an abuse
which is becoming ruinous to the
| reputation OF the musical art. The
| wide gap between the rewards the best three
| or four and the ten or twelve next best is
| described as the result OF musical caprice or
popular inability to correctly estimate rel
alive merits. 1.-THE favorites.n said con-
tinental critic recently, "are the cancers OF
the modern opera.n The compliment is as
old as the subject of it, and both are far
| from being the exclusively modern phe-
nomena which Europeans In their attacks
on the methods Of American impressarios
allege.
| When Catherine Gabrielli went to St.
Petersburg in the latter half of the last CEN
tury she demanded 10000 roubles salary,
Twenty thousand roublesl" cried Katha-
rine IL. For that | could support two
| field narshals.
"Very well, :" answered the singer, "your
majesty may then have them to sing for
| YOU"
Julius Perotti, the tenor, gave a similar
answer recently when his salary was under
discussion. Beaiczy, manager of the Royal
| Opera House In Pesth, was negotiating with
| him. Twelve thousand dollars for eight
months and the Order Of the Iron Gross, ~
were Perotti's terms.
II have nothing to do with the Iron
Cross" was the managers answer, land
therefore cannot give it to you. I have,
ks.k hall -
them to you"
A colleague Of Perotti demonstrated:
"How can you expect $4,000 for eight
months when Count Szapary, the minister
president. gets only sl2,S0O for twelve
"Yes, yes" was the tenor's reply, "hut 1
doubt that Count Szapary gives the public
half the pleasure that do"
Devils people, that's what they are, the
Astrua aud the Caristini," wrote an old
Hohenzollern king. "They demand their
| release. l am o thousand times tired of
them. need my money for cannon. They
are the DEVILS people-let the devil take
| them.n
Complaints of the extravaganza Of the
demands of musical artists have an ancient
history. Early In the sixteenth century the
citizens of Wurtemoerg protested that the
expenditures Of their sovereign for musi-
| clans were running the land In 1915 Duke
| Ulrich gave his lords the assurance that
their complaints had been needed, aud that
in the future he would cut down as low as
| possible his budget for singers and trumpet
| era. His successor, Duke Christoph, how
ever, was guilty Of the wild extravagance
Of engaging several new singers at salaries
| OF from SIS to S25 each for the season.
| Generally in those times the salaries of
singers were in figures which seem ridicu-
lously small. The Italian Pergamin received
at the end Of the sixteenth century from
Landgrave Morit3, in CasseIl, about $3.50
annually and his board and lodgings. His
salary was, however. equal to that Of high
minister OF state. Under Duke Eberhard
Ludwig Q077-l733), three singers in Slut
! CART we're paid by the court. Magdalena
Sybilla Beck got $3.50 annually and was
| regarded as unreasonably high-priced. In
Dresden, under Johann George I'LL, who
diet in 1891, the most famous song,
stresses in central Europe, Marguerite Sail
cola and Rosana Santinelli, had annual sala.
ries Of 81, 100 each. Charles vi. in Vienna.
| early In the eighteenth century, paid each OF
several soloists So, 400 year.
The more the Italian opera, with It's vir-
| tuosos, spread TO the northern courts and
thence TO the northern audiences the larger
became the rewards of the great artists
| England Is supposed to have been response
| BILE for the enormous and sudden increase of
salaries which gradually raised prices on
the continent, as America is supposed to
have caused the corresponding phenomenon
in the operatio world of to- day.
| Cuzzoni, in l725, refused the offer Of
| $48, 600 for q continental tour from an
Italian impressario because she could do
better In England. She died, however, in
the most abject misery, after having squan-
dered dozen or more fortunes. Gertrude
Elizabeth Mara, whose maiden name was
Schmeii5g, was for some time content with
| s2, 200 annually al court singer Of Frederick
the Great In Berlin. In 1880 she received
an offer of 81, 900 and s12, 500 travelling sx-
penses for half dozen concerts in England,
The great Hohenzollern, angered by this
foreign composition, refused TO grant her a
leave of absence, 80 she simply broke her
contract and hurried off to London, where
for many years she got ten times the income
which thu German stage could give her.
After Catalani had sung twice before
Napoleon l. she was rewarded with 81 600
cash. life pension Of 81, 400 annually, and
two benefits which brought her $4,000
| more. Nevertheless, she was not satisfied.
After hearing her in St. Cloud, the en-
peror went TO her dressing room and In.
CURED:
Where do you go from here, MADAME
Remain in Paris and I will give YOU
$50, 900 and two months leave of absence
annually"
Catalini bowed and went to London.
where she got $50, 600 from an engagement
and $50. 900 from concerts during her leave
of absence. She sang "God Save the Kingn
at receptions for 81, 600 time, and she was
worshiPcd there as no singer before and
her few since. Her parsimony was alb
normal, and rendered her the subject OF in
Vulnerable curious anecdotes. Among the
divine Angelica's" most favorite
admirers was tho Marquis OF
Buckingham. He entertained the
singer and her husband, M. de Valabregue
at his country plGos for several weeks.
Numerous receptions were given there in
her honor, and at each she responded to the
urgent requests OF the guests by singing
one song. At the end OF the visit NJ, de
Valabregue, in bidding the marquis good
by, pressed in his hosts hand paper bear
ing the bill Of Catalina" for singing seven.
teen songs, Zoo sovereigns." The marquis
looked at il, wrote out his check for 1,7OO
sovereigns for seventeen working
days" Of Mime. Catalina, and
remarked dryly: 81 regret exceed
ingly that did not before know that M.
de Valabregue was the cashier Of the Cata-
lint hrm." This incident injured Catalini
greatly in England. as it had injured Mara
IN Berlin, that she refused TO sing at bene-
for wiz ouytz md L..