Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Soprano Emma Albani (1847-1930) / Angels, Ever Bight and Fair / Theodora (Handel) / Recorded: December 29, 1903 in London, England (re-recorded May 3, 1935 in Camden, New Jersey, USA) --
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/5412/Albani_Emma_Dame_vocalist_soprano_vocal
EMMA ALBANI: November 1, 1847, Chambly, near Montreal - April 3, 1930, Kensington, England. Originally Marie Louise Cecelie Emma Lajeunesse. She sang operatic airs at a concert when she was eight years old, accompanying herself at the piano. When she was fourteen her parents moved to Albany, New York. There she sang solos in St. Joseph's church and was also choir leader and organist. The bishop of the diocese advised her to study singing in Europe and she became a pupil of Gilbert Louis Duprez in Paris and later of Lamperti in Milan. She made her debut in Messina (1870) as Amina in La Sonnambula. After guest appearances in Florence and Malta she had a sensational success in 1872 at the Imperial Operas in St. Petersburg and Moscow (1874). In October of that year she sang at the Academy of Music in New York. In 1878 she married the impresario Ernest Gye in London. She was very successful for many years at Covent Garden, but was especially noted as a concert singer. She created for London both Elisabeth in Tannhauser and Elsa in Lohengrin. She was the favorite singer of Queen Victoria. She sang at the Metropolitan Opera (1891-92). In 1896 she retired from the stage and in 1911 from the concert hall. She wrote Memoirs of Emma Albani: Forty Years of Song (London, 1911). Her voice was based completely on classical bel canto techniques. She joined great musicality and rich expressiveness with an uncommon mastery of technique. (A Concise Biographical Dictionary of Singers / K.J. Kutsch & Leo Riemens / translated by Harry Earl Jones / Chilton Book Company / 1969) The last years of Albani's life were clouded by financial difficulties that forced her to teach and occasionally to perform in music halls. Her plight, as a result of the war and bad investments, was such that in 1920 the British government voted her an annual pension of £100 to provide some relief. In 1925, on the initiative of the Australian singer Nellie Melba, a great benefit concert was organized for her. Reports of her penury reached Montreal, where La Presse sponsored a recital on 28 May 1925 in the Théâtre Saint-Denis to raise money for the singer; more than $4,000 was collected. The Canadian and Quebec governments were urged to come to her assistance, but they declined to contribute on the grounds that Albani was more a British subject than a Canadian citizen (she had lived in London since 1872). She was widowed in 1925 and died on 3 April 1930 at her home on Tregunter Road, Kensington London. (Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online)
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Soprano Emma Albani (1847-1930) / Angels, Ever Bight and Fair / Theodora (Handel) / Recorded: December 29, 1903 in London, England (re-recorded May 3, 1935 in Camden, New Jersey, USA) --
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/5412/Albani_Emma_Dame_vocalist_soprano_vocal
EMMA ALBANI: November 1, 1847, Chambly, near Montreal - April 3, 1930, Kensington, England. Originally Marie Louise Cecelie Emma Lajeunesse. She sang operatic airs at a concert when she was eight years old, accompanying herself at the piano. When she was fourteen her parents moved to Albany, New York. There she sang solos in St. Joseph's church and was also choir leader and organist. The bishop of the diocese advised her to study singing in Europe and she became a pupil of Gilbert Louis Duprez in Paris and later of Lamperti in Milan. She made her debut in Messina (1870) as Amina in La Sonnambula. After guest appearances in Florence and Malta she had a sensational success in 1872 at the Imperial Operas in St. Petersburg and Moscow (1874). In October of that year she sang at the Academy of Music in New York. In 1878 she married the impresario Ernest Gye in London. She was very successful for many years at Covent Garden, but was especially noted as a concert singer. She created for London both Elisabeth in Tannhauser and Elsa in Lohengrin. She was the favorite singer of Queen Victoria. She sang at the Metropolitan Opera (1891-92). In 1896 she retired from the stage and in 1911 from the concert hall. She wrote Memoirs of Emma Albani: Forty Years of Song (London, 1911). Her voice was based completely on classical bel canto techniques. She joined great musicality and rich expressiveness with an uncommon mastery of technique. (A Concise Biographical Dictionary of Singers / K.J. Kutsch & Leo Riemens / translated by Harry Earl Jones / Chilton Book Company / 1969) The last years of Albani's life were clouded by financial difficulties that forced her to teach and occasionally to perform in music halls. Her plight, as a result of the war and bad investments, was such that in 1920 the British government voted her an annual pension of £100 to provide some relief. In 1925, on the initiative of the Australian singer Nellie Melba, a great benefit concert was organized for her. Reports of her penury reached Montreal, where La Presse sponsored a recital on 28 May 1925 in the Théâtre Saint-Denis to raise money for the singer; more than $4,000 was collected. The Canadian and Quebec governments were urged to come to her assistance, but they declined to contribute on the grounds that Albani was more a British subject than a Canadian citizen (she had lived in London since 1872). She was widowed in 1925 and died on 3 April 1930 at her home on Tregunter Road, Kensington London. (Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online)
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