[Catherine Penna, soprano.] Autograph Letter Signed to '- Wilkinson Esq', accepting an engagement at the Brighton Aquarian, on the reverse of two pages of printed 'eulogistic criticisms' of 'Miss Catherine Penna'.

Author: 
Catherine Penna (d.1894), English soprano [Sir Julius Benedict; the Norwich Festival; Madame Albani]
Publication details: 
38 Marylands Road, St Peter's Park, London, W. 1 October [1881].
£90.00
SKU: 15911

Letter and printed text both on a 12mo bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Letter: 2pp., 12mo. Docketed with stamp of the Brighton Aquarium. She writes that she is 'happy to accept an Engagement for a Saturday Concert at the Brighton Aquarium as Principal Soprano' and will do her best 'to meet your terms'. Printed text: 2pp., 12mo. Headed 'MISS CATHERINE PENNA.' Giving extracts from 21 newspaper reviews, five of them under 'London' (Sacred Philharmonic Society; Crystal Palace Saturday Concerts; Philharmonic Society; Saturday Popular Concert; South London Choral Association) and 'Provincial' (Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Festival; Liverpool; Wolverhampton; Worcester; Lancaster; Rochdale; Southampton; Bristol; Birmingham; Stockton). At end: 'Similar eulogistic criticisms have appeared in numerous other Provincial newspapers.' The Times, 2 January 1895, recorded the death in the previous year of 'Mme. Catherine Penna, a once popular singer'. The Musical Times was more generous, describing her as 'an artist whom the Fates scarcely treated with the kindness she deserved'. The article quotes from an acquaintance of Penna's: 'As a reader of vocal music she has rarely been surpassed. It was because she was so thoroughly to be depended upon in this respect that the late Sir Julius Benedict engaged her, when still in her teens, as a soprano for a Norwich Festival after the list of artists had been completed, he fearing that the principal soprano (Madame Albani), then out of health, might not be able to fulfil her engagement.'