Show TOP NOTES AND BANK NOTES no other pr ma donna of any age or general on equaled patti as a salary booster adelina patti never suffered ered from he financial timidity of a jenny lind not only was she a supreme vocalist but as col mapleson remarked no one ever approached her in the art ot of obtaining from a manager the great est possible sum he could by an pos sivility lity contrive contri ie to pay but the mu miracle was the spoiled darling of her day and she never failed to obtain exactly what she wanted says the bookman she was first engaged in london in 1861 by mapleson to sing four nights on approval and in case of success to obtain a week this contract was never ful filled however for being hard pressed financially she had borrowed from a rival manager and her receipt proved practically a contract this was wag the beginning of a career so dazzling that its successive steps are simply a series of increasing bank notes in 1872 she obtained in lon don guineas a night since she in aisted on having more than christine nilsson who was receiving 1000 she sang twice a week ten years later she was given 5 a night her famous contract to sing in amer lea provided that the money should be paid to her at two 0 clock on the day she sang also a drawing room and sleeping car to be especially built tor for her with conservatory and fernery etc e tc further there was to be de posited to her credit 50 for pay ment of the last ten performances patti s favorite device she thus re celvid about 20 times what mario and grisi grist got her private car incident ally cost 60 and contained a silver bath and gold keys to the doors to say nothing of a 2 piano patti only gave the manager her voice and her costumes her drawing ca opacity justified this lucia as an example was sung to tolan an average of 14 bravata Tr avata drew more since she sang more notes it was a frequent occurrence among the poor mu sic lovers to buy a club ticket and each take turns at hearing her for 20 minutes it if one overstayed his time he paid for the entire ticket some mathematicians computed by dividing number of notes sung by sum paid that in Semira mide patti received 42 cents tor for each note this was found to be just 7 cents per note more than rossini got for writing the whole hole opera |