not until after five years of close application to
study that she made her debut in Madrid, playing Rosina in "Il
Barbiere," with Mario as Count Almaviva.

For many years Trebelli-Bettini remained one of the best of the galaxy
of opera singers which the operatic stage has displayed during the last
half of the century. In 1884 she made a tour in the United States with
Mr. Abbey's troupe. She was born in Paris in 1838, and died in 1892. Her
proper name was Zelia Gilbert, which expanded and Frenchified into
Gillebert and reversed gives Trebelli(g), the Italian name which has for
some years appeared to be necessary for all those who wish to succeed in
opera.

When Gounod's "Faust" received its first performance in England, in
1863, the cast included Tietiens, as Marguerite; Trebelli, as Siebel;
Giuglini, as Faust; Gassier, as Mephistopheles; and Charles Santley, as
Valentine.

Since the days of Alboni there has been no contralto singer to whom the
adjective "great" could be so fitly applied as to Sofia Scalchi. She was
born in Turin, and her parents were both singers. She made her debut in
1866 at Mantua, in the part of Ulrica (Un Ballo in Maschera), when she
was only sixteen years of age. Her first appearance in London took place
two years later, and from that time she remained a favorite in England,
where she sang in the memorable season of "Cenerentola," and every
season afterwards for more than twenty-five years. Madame Scalchi is
well known in America, where she first appeared under Mapleson's
management in 1882. She had been singing in Rio Janeiro, and reached New
York after a stormy voyage of twenty two days, which left her in such
an exhausted condition that she was incapacitated for a month, and her
illness played havoc with Mapleson's managements.

[Illustration: _Sofia Scalchi._]

Scalchi was the possessor of a voice of delicious quality and unusual
range, every note in its compass of two and a half octaves being of a
wonderfully soft yet penetrating tone, and of great power. Her
popularity was such that Patti and other prima donnas feared her as a
rival, and regarded with jealousy the applause which attended her
performances. Scalchi was imbued with the prima donna temperament, and
had the regulation parrots and other pets during her travels. Concerning
this portion of her equipage, Mapleson tells an anecdote to the effect
that Scalchi's parrot died the night before the company reached Salt
Lake City, in 1