ame Albani has made her home for so many years, she
is as popular and as highly respected on account of her domestic life,
as on account of her artistic career, and her friends are not only
numerous but include many of the most intellectual people of the day.

Notwithstanding the success which Madame Albani made in England, France,
Russia, and other countries, she had her trials and disappointments. At
one time, when she was singing at La Scala, in Milan, she was suffering
from a slight hoarseness. Most audiences would have been indulgent, but
not so the Milanese, who are particularly cruel to singers who have made
their reputation in other places. The Milanese hissed and groaned.
Huskiness in a singer was, to them, a crime. The tenor, seeing how
matters stood, was taken with a sudden indisposition, and left Albani to
carry on the performance alone. The opera was "Lucia," and it proceeded
no farther than the mad scene, for Madame Albani, indignant at the
treatment accorded her, turned her back on the audience, and in a most
dignified manner, marched off the stage, leaving the curtain to fall on
a scene of confusion. No entreaties or arguments on the part of the
impresario would induce her to finish the opera, or even to continue her
engagement at La Scala.

Colonel Mapleson tells this story concerning Albani's first London
engagement. He heard of her singing at a small theatre at Malta, and,
thinking that she would be successful, he made her an offer, through an
agent, of a contract to sing at Her Majesty's Theatre. She agreed to it,
and went to London, but, on arriving there, she told the cabman to drive
her to the "Italian Opera House." He, instead of going to Her Majesty's,
took her to Covent Garden, which was also devoted to Italian opera. She
was shown up to the manager's office, and stated that she had come to
sign the contract which Mr. Mapleson had offered her. Mr. Gye, thinking
to play a joke on his rival, Mapleson, made out a contract, and Albani
signed it. Mr. Gye then told her that he was not Colonel Mapleson, but
that he could do much better for her. He offered to tear up the
contract if she liked, but told her that Nilsson was singing at Her
Majesty's and would brook no rival. Albani decided to let the contract
stand, and thus became one of the stars of Covent Garden, eventually
marrying the son of Mr. Gye.

Concerning Albani's singing in Berlin, the _Berliner Tageblatt_ said:
"The lady possesses an exce