Photograph showing full length portrait of Madam Albani Gye seated in three-quarters left. She wears a dark coloured crinoline and velvet dress and a necklace of pearls with a cross suspended from it. She rests her feet on a small cushion. Signed at the bottom. Dame Emma Albani Gye (1847-1930), born in Canada, was one of the leading operatic stars of her day. Working as Emma Albani, she made her debut in 1870 and continued to sing publicly for about thirty years. She made a number of private performances to Queen Victoria and the Royal Family. ‘Sometimes the audience would fill the great room at the Palace, stretching out behind the two rows of Royalties, glittering and splendid in jewels and uniforms, and the Queen’s private band would be swollen out of all recognition by Costa’s additions from the various orchestras he conducted and a large chorus from the Opera’. Averil Mackenzie Grieve, Clara Novello, 1818-1908 Among Queen Victoria’s favourite singers, Clara Novello, the Italian bass Luigi Lablache (her own singing teacher) and the Canadian soprano Madame Albani, performed many times in Buckingham Palace concerts, as did Adelina Patti, Enrico Caruso, Emma Calvé and Clara Butt. The fiery Australian soprano Nellie Melba was a favourite of both Queen Victoria and Edward VII, and often performed at the Palace and at Windsor. She wrote of Queen Victoria that she ‘has such a gentle, pleasant manner, she puts one at ease without any ado. Mendelssohn was right in describing her as a connoisseur of good music, but her sympathies lean rather to the old Italian than the new school.’