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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4579, 23 November 1875, Page 3

The correspondent of the New York World supplies the following incident in the career of Mdlle. Titiens :—“ On one of her fingers she wears a solitaire diamond, a lovely threecarat gem which is associated ■with a remarkable incident. During the great musical festival in Birmingham, in September, 1864, Titiens was one of the great solo singers. There were also Adelina Patti and Mme. Kudersdorff. On the last day of the festival Kudersdorff was to sing in an oratorio, but when the time came the audience was kept waiting, something unusual at these festivals. Suddenly an honorary steward elbowed his way to the place where Titiens sat and handed her a slip of paper on which was written : ‘Dear Teresa: For God’s sake sing my part; lam dying—Kudersdorff.” The fact was that Kudersdorff had come to the hall sick, and was at that moment lying, as she thought, dying, in one of the committee rooms. But the worst of the business was that Titiens had never sung the part in her life, and actually knew nothing of the music. The plucky prima donna hesitated but a single moment, and walked bravely up to the orchestra and took the place of Kudersdorff. She simply delighted the audience and astonished Sir Michael Costa. He knew the feat she was undertaking, and felt a thousand times more nervous than the great singer. It was a feat of reading notes at sight ■without preparation, and a complete success. Sir Michael Costa declared it was a musical feat unparalelled to his knowledge, and the music-loving managers of the festival were not ungrateful. As a token of their appreciation, they had a fine diamond set in a ring, and presented to the gifted singer with great ceremony after the festival.”