The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-09

from the fact that in one season she
appeared 125 fines. In ordinary cir
cumstances the prima donna who is
able to sing fifty or sixty times feels
that she has done a seasons hard
work
Last year Nine Nordica sang about
eighty times and her colleagues were
filled with. envy at such powers of en-
durance, and none of them would have
aspired to 125 appearances. Mrs.
Strakosch now lives at her country
place in Connecticut coming to New
York from time to time for the opera
season and spending an occasional
winter in Europe; and she has no
grounds for worrying over financial
matters.
Pauline Lucca, although her career
extended over a considerable number
of years-she made her first appear
ance in 1859 and sang until the early
'SOs-did not evidently save enough out
OF her earnings to support her in leis-
ure after her retirement, and she is a
teacher in Vienna. Her earnings in
this country were considerable and that
so little of her fortune remained for
her later years may have been due to
the fact that she had three husbands.
Matrimony in the case of a prima
donna does not result in economy. In
the great. ma jority of cases, operate
husbands are costly Injuries.
Marie Marimon, who had a successful
career as a light soprano and sang
here at the Academy of Music under
the Mapleson banners, is now teach
er of singing In Paris, having been
unable to retire to leisure when the
time came for her career to close.
Etelka Gerster, her much greater con-
temporary, was compelled to retire af-
ter so brief a career that the necessity
for her to devote herself to instruc-
ton could readily enough be under
stood. She began in 1876, and ten years
later the sudden and unexplained loss
of her voice. just as she was approach
ing the climax of her career, COM
PEELED her retirement.
Marie Sasse and Pauline Viardot
We're popular singers in their day, but
they were both compelled to teach
when it was no longer possible for
them to earn a livelihood on the stage.
The same is true of Desiree Artot,
who was in her time one of the most
popular light sopranos of Europe, and
Travelled from one country to another
with immense success; of Marie RoZe,
who was a regular member of the COM
panies at the Academy of Music here;
of Marie Krauss, so long the famous
dramatic soprano of the Opera in Par
is. None of these women was ever
an operate star in this country, and
it is doubtful If their compensation
was very great at any time, compared
to the sums paid to singers here from
1880 to 1895, when the prices were larg-
est.
Marietta AIboni, who died eight
years ago in Paris. had not sung for
eighteen years. and lived in comfort on
M fV.n nd lAff n Of 10
size. So did Teresa Titiens. But the
earnings of these women were out of
the ordinary.
Amelia Materna belonged to the
group of Wagnerian sopranos that has
almost disappeared. She was the ear
lest of them.
Teresa Malten is still singing in
Dresden, where she began twenty-nine
years ago. She was Kundry at Bay
reuth in 1882. Mathilde Mallinger. who
was the first Eva in die Meistersing-
err" at Munich in 1868. is now a teach
er of singing in Prague, but. as her
operate career was altogether cOnfin-
ed to the German stage, it is not sur
prising that she was compelled to take
mp another line of work when she laid
down the first.
Marianne Brandt. who celebrated
her S0th birthday a few weeks ago,
is a teacher of singing at Hamburg,
and Rosa Sucher, who is younger than
any other members of the group. re-
tired four years ago from the operate
stage to become a teacher in a Berlin
conservatory. None of these women
had accumulated wealth, as their an
pearance, with the exception Marianne
Brandt, had been almost exclusively
confined to Germany.
I.illi Lehman, who has now prac-
tically retired. although she OCCASION
ally gives a concert. is on the other
hand, a very rich woman. She has al
ways been prudent in her expenditur
her earnings have been large and she
has come to the end of her career with
a large fortune.
The singers who really make money
in any notable amount during their
careers are not likely to lose it through
extravaganza in living nowadays. The
prima donnas are generally a prudent
class, and those who end their days in
poverty are usually those who never
earned as much as they We're supoos-
ed to.