FEMALE SINGERS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 575, 23 September 1869, Page 4

FEMALE SINGERS.

Popular applause is lavished on public singers in a manner that scarcely any other woman can possibly enjoy. When Piccolomjni sang in Italy, they not only showered bouquets upon her, but now and then a white, dove fluttered to her feet. When Jenny Lind sang at Stockholm, the rush for seats was so great that they were put up for auction, and realised fabulous sums, all of wliich went to a fund to establish a school there for decayed artists. As a body, there is no one more charitable than musical artists. When, in 1847, the Misses Perm (then not so well known to fame) heard that a sooiety for jiomeless children must fall to the ground for want of funds, they volunteered, unjifiked, to g}ve a concert for its benefit, which was eininently successful. Clara Novello's triumphs ought not to be forgotten. At Genoa, her audiences threw bouquets containing valuable coronets at her feet, to say notliing of camelias worth twenty $ye guineas a. pierce, and they es , ported her home with torches and flambeaux. A greater triumph, however, has scarcely been achieved by any singer than the unparalleled reception given to Patti pf late in Russia. The sums which fortunate Ringers realise, too, is almost incredible Everybody, doubtless, remembers Gabrielirs reply to Catherine 11. of Ilnssia, when she expressed her astonishment at her demanding 8000 ducats for singing, by saying-—" Why, I don't pay a field-marshal as much as that." "Well, then, get the field-marshal to sing to you." The Einprees seems tp have seen th,e force pf the argument, a,nd pajd the demand. There are go fevf firstrrate voices in the world that they can always secure their price. The sa : d Gabrielli made a large fortune, and lived in the greatest splendour. The anecc" ptes of her extravagance are endless. One will suffice. A Florentine noble who came tq pay his cpurt to, her caught a cosijy lace ruffle in the trimming of her dress and tore \b. As a cptnpensa_tiqn, she sent him six pottles of Spanish wine, cprked with Flemish lace. Mrs Billington at one time realised an inpome of L 14,000 a-year. Rubini's, income pne year amounted to L 90,000. In these days, when money is so necessary, no wonder people wish to make tljeir maple pn the stage.