The San Francisco call., 1896-07-05
American Prices at MOSCOW

Readers of the daily papers interested
In the descriptive articles on the Car S
coronation in the old capital of Muscovy
may have seen among other paragraphs
the important statement, evidently cabled
over to America for the special benefit OF
al OF US, that "foJ ty-nine eminent singers
have been engaged for the festivities and
that Slegfried Arnoldson, one of them, will
slIg ten times and receive $1,000 for each
performance"
10 doubt much alarm will be created in
Europe by the publication of this item,
particularly after the information gets
back again to Russia on the return wave,
where CONSERVATION may ensue. It does
not make so much difference to us here
because we are battling with great finan-
cial problem as it IS. But it must not be
forgotten that the appropriation for the
Moscow coronation festivities was long
since fixed, the sum of 1900, 600 rubles
being put aside for the fetes, and now this
Arnoldson engagement of ten perform
snces at $1,000 each, which means Sic, 900,
or 1000 rubles, Will upset things most
damnably at the Kremlln. 1t may event
ually lead to the hnal dismissal of Pobo-
donistieff, for it is he who has overlooked
this great outlay IN the original eSlmates
and it is he who will be blamed by mil
lions of moujiks and billions of the cream
OF Iartary, who, in consequence, Will now
be deprived of their vodki.
And what a storm of indignation will
arise when old man Pob and General Igna-
tieff and the old duck, Vladimir, and
others learn that this same singer sang
wisely, but not too well, in this country
for Maurice Grau at the Metropolitan
Opera-house for about two hundred cold
plunks, or 400 rubles night, and a mighty
price it twas-considering. Shades OF Ru-
binstein's Ivan the Terrible How you
xuiI Init hon m in
OF Arnoldson in Moscow and the price she
got on Thirty-ninth street-and then was
not engaged for the next season either.
1t is not reported who the other forty
eight singers are who have been giving
vent to their acquired feelings before the
Car and his court at Moscow during those
twenty days of anti-nihilistic fun and
jewbilation, but if each one has press
agent who can get the newspaper manager
at Moscow to do as Fischoff, who is Arnold
sons husband and agent, has succeeded
in doing in this case, the total sum at
tached to their names would 4SXl600,
which is 76 800 ten times for the ten per-
formances, and for all the forty-nlne. in
cluding Arnoldson, the sum of $74S, 900, or
in bles 1858, 600. No wonder we have
been exporting gold to Russia. 1t is for
Fischoff and his wife and the other forty
eight great singers, and if we had had no
gold, if silver were now current at Is to /,
which would of course signify that the
gold had ali been drawn out of the coun-
try, Russia could not have secured any
without a premium and Fischon would
have bankrupted that nation, for all it
needed on top of these salaries was the
premium.
Who is the genius to be credited with
getting up that corner in singers for the
Moscow operatic racket? Was it Fischoff
himself? When he married Arnoidson
no one considered him genius; but the
marrying of singers oftentimes has re-
markable effect upon otherwise ordinary
men.-Musical Courier