ndering
companies, in which he filled the position of second tenor; but in 1814,
at the age of nineteen years, he was singing in Pavia for a salary of
about nine dollars a month. Before the end of his career he was paid
L20,000 a year for his services at the St. Petersburg Imperial Opera.

Rubini's countenance was mean, his figure awkward, and he had no
conception of taste, character, or picturesque effect; but his voice was
so incomparable in range and quality, his musical equipment and skill so
great, that his memory is one of the greatest traditions of lyric art.
Like so many of the great singers of his time, Rubini first gained his
reputation in the operas of Bellini and Donizetti, and many of the
tenor parts of these works were composed expressly for him. The immense
power, purity, and sweetness of his voice have probably never been
surpassed, and its compass was of two octaves, from C in the bass clef.
He could also sing in falsetto as high as treble F, and with such skill
that no one could detect the change into the falsetto.

Rubini died in 1852, leaving one of the largest fortunes ever amassed on
the stage.

Another member of the celebrated "Puritani" quartet was Antonio
Tamburini, a native of Faenze. Without any single commanding trait of
genius, he seems, with the exception of Lablache, to have combined more
attractive qualities than any male singer who ever appeared. He was
handsome and graceful, and a master of the art of stage costume. His
voice, a baritone of over two octaves in extent, was full, round,
sonorous, and perfectly equal throughout. His execution was unsurpassed
and unsurpassable, of a kind which at the present day is well-nigh
obsolete, and is associated in the public mind with sopranos and tenors
only.

An amusing instance of Tamburini's versatility was shown at Palermo
during the carnival season of 1822, when the audience attended the
theatre armed with drums, trumpets, shovels, and anything that would
make a noise. Tamburini, being unable to make his basso heard, sang his
music in falsetto, an accomplishment which so delighted the audience
that they laid aside their instruments of torture, and applauded
enthusiastically. The prima donna, however, was so enraged and
frightened by the rough behavior of the audience that she fled from the
theatre, and the manager was at his wit's end. Tamburini donned the
fugitive's satin dress, clapped her bonnet over his wig, and appeared on
the stage