The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-03-10
Has to Be Invited.

an entertainment without an invitation"
Has to Be Invited.
The card arrived within an hour after
this conversation. There was no doubt
that the woman would never have come
unless she had been formally invited
In addition to inviting singers who are
going to get several thousand dollars for
their services, the hostess must meet
them in the dressing room, and usually
they sit by her during the concert. rising
to sing their numbers quite after the
style of amateurs who are having a lit
tie music at home. Unusually the guests
are all taken up and presented to the
singer as If she were the guest of honor
Not long ago a soprano who had been
engaged to sing at one of the largest
houses on the avenue arrived with her
maid and was ushered into the room re-
served for the artists She was slow in
removing her wraps and concluded after
she was part of the way out of them
that it was time for the hostess to come
to welcome her.
So she told her maid to put them on
again after she had inquired of one of
the servants where the lady was When
he saw the preparations for departure
he rushed in haste to the hostess.
She had been detained at the dinner
table, as a dinner of very elaborate char
acter was preceding the musical. 1t was
reached the hall, however, just as the
singers ample form was disappearing
through the portere.
"Ah, Mrs Smith," the singer said
Then I am in the right house? l was
going out to tell my coachman We had
made a mistake else you would have
been al the door to meet me-
The hostess looked as If she would like
to speed her fight into the open, but her
guests were soon to arrive and she did
not dare risk offending the star attrac-
ton at her biggest party of the winter.
Some of the singers made it a condition
that no other woman shall be engaged
and no musicians of any kind without
consulting them. A young hostess last
winter sent out cards to invite her friends
to hear a great prima donna sing. After
ward she heard from her friends of all
kinds of wonderful performers that she
might also have engaged.
As the money question played no part
in her plans the young woman began to
engage them. BY the time the night of
the party arrived she had, in addition to
the soprano. a hand of choir boys who
would look beautiful marching down heI
marble stairway. n band oflNenetian gon-
doliers who would be charming at the
entrance to the music room carolling
Santa Lucia" a barytone who sang
beautiful love songs in excellent French
and a voice soft as pomade, a girl
who could pound the piano with the best
of tho men players and a quartet that
played antique music on near antique in
struments.
The prima donna arrived and beheld
in the artists room this job lot OF musical
entertainers. The hostess hurried in ia
greet her.
But surely the prima donna said,
you don't need me when you have so
much for your guests?"
Gave Her a Bracelet.
The singer was in earnest. She was
perfectly willing to go home and lose
her 5000 fee rather than be part of such
a musical vaudeville as the inexperienced
hostess had planned. Out of gratitude
because she consented to remain to make
the party success the young matron
sent the drlma donna a diamond bracelet
the next day.
On another occasion the singer engaged
had not begun to arrange q programme
and asked the agent to find out If there
was anything the hostess especially
wanted. This suggestion was made rather
| as relief to herself than as a loss what
to put on the programme.
The hostess sent her q list of the most
| difficult and exacting operate airs she
could think of. The prima donna took
| two out of the twenty she had been asked
| to sing and sent a message to the hostess
| that il she wanted the rest of the pro-
| gramme it would be necessary to engage
| her for month not for one night
| Another hostess asked prima donna
| to sing "Dearie,' and was surprised that
| the wogan ignored the request and did
not put the piece on the programme nor
| even mention it. Indeed, it rarely hap
pens that hostesses make any suggestions
about the music. They know that 1t Is
best for the musicians to choose.
1t occasionally happens that they sug
gest the color of dress to be worn, that
1t may harmonic with the room in which
the concert is to be given.
Some of the singers at the Metropolitan
| and at the Manhattan well are at liber-
| ty to make their own concert arrange
ments, but the majority of them are I'M
der sole contract to Mr. Conreid or Mr..
| Hammerstein. The impresarios charge
for their services whatever they see ht
The charge is usually much in advance
of the fee the artist actually receives.
Mr. Grau sometimes got more than twice
as much as the fee paid to the singer
One of the Conreid prima donnas sang
last week in a private house and her
fee was twice what she receives from the
opera house Those artists who make
their own arrangements in regard to pri-
vate concerts invariably receive more
than they demand for appearance on the
stage.
That the regular operagoers should have
so much of the singers In the theatre ana
yet want to engage them for appearances
in their homes, frequently astonishes peo-
pie who suppose that they might like
little variety This winter there has
been a greater demand than ever for
the artists from the music halls.
They are sometimes of sufficiently
refined and contained style to sing in
drawing room. They are more of nov
| elrty than the singers from the opera
houses and do not cost nearly so much;
nor are they SO exigent In the matter
| of etiquette.
Alfalfa for the South.