350 ADELAIDE PHILLIPS. I sang to him ' Pensa alia Patria." 1 He seemed "very much pleased with my voice. The place is Brescia, in Lombardy. They offer four hundred dollars a month for four months. The first part to appear in, Arsace. Papa will give an answer in a few days. Mr. Biandi brought me the opera of Semiramide and gave me some good ideas. I commenced studying Arsace." The offer thus mentioned was accepted, and she made her debut at Brescia. It was customary that the last rehearsal of an opera should be in full dress, but in a fit of girlish obstinacy, she refused to put on the armor of Arsace until the evening of the performance. The direc- tors and musical critics, who were present in force, showed their displeasure ; she retaliated by singing through the part in demi-voice. Her manager was in despair, and it certainly was a foolish thing for her to do, although she by no means realized its importance. The next night the house was crowded, and when she entered as Arsace, in full armor, she was received in silence. No applause followed her recitative and andante, and it was not until, provoked by their coldness to the utmost exer- tion, she gave the caballetta with superb power and pas- sion, that the audience, unable to resist longer, broke into a tempest of cheering. Her success was complete and triumphant. Other engagements followed ; then many disappoint- ments. Whenever she sang she pleased, but she could not always find an opportunity to sing, and sometimes when she did the managers could not or would not pay her. Cheers and tears from the enthusiastic Italian audi- ences continued to greet her wherever she went, and sonnets and flowers were showered upon the stage, but money was so difficult to obtain that in 1855 she left Italy to try her fortune again in America. Her operatic de'but in this country was made in Philadelphia, once more in
