34 Facts About Emma Albani

Emma Albani's repertoire focused on the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Wagner.

Emma Albani began her musical studies with her mother, and at age five her father took over her musical lessons.

Emma Albani's father was a proficient musician who was skilled with the violin, harp, piano and organ.

Emma Albani kept her on a strong practice regimen, with as much as four hours a day of lessons on the harp and piano.

Emma Albani was awarded a gold medal for musical composition from that convent.

Emma Albani's father was unable to give her the training which her very fine voice deserved, but she obtained a place in the cathedral choir, where her singing attracted much attention, as it did in concerts, in which she not only sang but played on both the piano and harp.

Emma Albani spent six months in Paris, training with Duprez.

Emma Albani then travelled to Italy, where she studied Italian opera singing with Francesco Lamperti.

Under the guidance of her elocution instructor, Signor Delorenzi, she changed her name to the simpler Emma Albani, which sounded more European.

Emma Albani made her debut at Messina using the surname Albani.

Emma Albani's funds began to run low, and although her training was not yet complete, she began to look for work to help support her schooling.

Emma Albani found a position in Messina, and her operatic debut was on 30 March 1870, in Messina, playing Amina in La sonnambula.

Emma Albani returned to Milan after her contract in Messina had expired, to resume her instruction by Lamperti.

Emma Albani soon accepted the role of Gilda in Rigoletto, performing it in Cento.

Emma Albani was impressed by her talent and signed her to a five-year contract.

Emma Albani was scheduled to make her London debut in the spring of 1872.

Emma Albani then went to St Petersburg, where the Tsar Alexander II viewed her performances.

Emma Albani was accompanied by Frederick Gye's son, Ernest Gye, who was acting on his father's behalf.

Emma Albani learned the role of Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin in two weeks, performing it at the Academy of Music in New York.

Emma Albani returned to London for her fourth season at Covent Garden in 1875.

Emma Albani became pregnant, but continued to tour and perform until shortly before the birth of her son, Frederick Ernest Gye on 4 June 1879.

Emma Albani agreed to appear in the role of Elsa, which she had previously sung in Italian, and relearned the part in German.

Emma Albani made her debut with New York's Metropolitan Opera on 20 November 1891 as Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, a performance which took place while the company was on tour in Chicago.

Emma Albani sang Donna Elvira and Eva on tour in Boston.

Emma Albani was not vocally perfect, yet it had so many excellences that her hearers must have been inclined to forgive the departures from the pitch which seem to have become an inseparable accompaniment of her singing of late.

Emma Albani did much to atone for them by the intelligence of her work and by the dramatic earnestness with which she imbued all her singing.

Emma Albani earned a fair share of the honors of the evening.

Poor investments resulted in the loss of much of their wealth, and Emma Albani was forced to give musical lessons to earn income.

Emma Albani's husband died in 1925, compounding the situation, but benefit concerts arranged by friends provided sufficient income for Albani.

Emma Albani died on 3 April 1930, aged 82, at her home on Tregunter Road, Kensington and was buried with her husband at Brompton Cemetery.

Emma Albani received the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1897, often known as the "Beethoven Medal".

In 1925, Emma Albani was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

The second, avenue Emma Albani, was named 19 March 1969 by the city's council.

Emma Albani is depicted in a stained-glass mural by Frederic Back in the Place-des-Arts metro station in Montreal.