SIR CHARLES SANTLEY - AUTOGRAPH MUSICAL QUOTATION SIGNED 10/25/1905 CO-SIGNED BY: DAME EMMA ALBANI GYE - HFSID 22078

CHARLES SANTLEY and EMMA ALBANI
Autograph Musical Quotation by the English baritone and the signature of another Victorian-era opera star
Autograph Musical Quotation signed: "25 Oct. 1905 C. Santley", 1 page, 5x7. Above signature he has written two measures of music captioned "Elijáh" with the lyric "It is e-nough". Also signed: "Emma Albani Gye/Dublin 1902". CHARLES SANTLEY (1834-1922) was a star of English and world opera and concert stages for more than half a century, beginning in 1857. He was closely identified with the title role in Mendelssohn's Elijah, which he first performed in 1858. Santley, whose sister Kate Santley was herself a musical and comedy star, wrote four books, two of them autobiographical. In 1907 he became the first singer to be knighted. The opera and oratorio soprano known by her stage name of EMMA ALBANI (1847-1930), born Emma Lajeunesse in Quebec, has signed here with her married name of Gye. (In 1878 she married Ernest Gye, son of the director of London's Covent Garden.) She performed at the Metropolitan Opera - then newly formed - in 1891. After retiring from the Covent Garden stage in 1896 after 25 years of performances there, she toured around the world. She was soloist at Queen Victoria's funeral in 1901. Santley and Albani toured together in 1905, the year he signed this AMQS. She also published an autobiography, Forty Years of Singing. Albani was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1925. Lightly soiled. Lightly creased at left edge. Otherwise, fine condition.