Emma Albani - Childhood

Childhood

Albani was born Marie-Louise-Emma-Cécile Lajeunesse in Chambly, United Province of Canada to the professional musician Joseph Lajeunesse and his wife, Mélina Mignault. Her date of birth is usually given as 1 November 1847, but other authors have placed her birth in 1848 or 1850, and Albani's memoir puts her birth in 1852. She began her musical studies with her mother, and at age five her father took over her musical lessons. Her father was a proficient musician who was skilled with the violin, harp, piano and organ. He kept her on a strong practice regimen, with as much as four hours a day of lessons on the harp and piano.

The family moved to Plattsburgh, New York in 1852. In 1856 after the death of her mother, she continued her education in a Montreal convent-school, run by the Dames du Sacré-Coeur where her father had obtained the position of Music Master. This afforded her a better education than she might otherwise receive, and additional musical instruction. On 24 August 1860 she and Adelina Patti were soloists in the world premiere of Charles Wugk Sabatier's Cantata in Montreal which was performed in honour of the visit of the Prince of Wales. However, she was ultimately unable to finance a musical education in Quebec, where singing and acting were considered unsavoury careers for a woman, and her family moved to Albany, New York in 1865. There she became a popular singer, an organist and teacher of singing and saved enough money to continue her studies.

In 1868, she travelled to Paris, where she studied with Gilbert-Louis Duprez at the Paris Conservatoire. She spent six months in Paris, training with Duprez. She then travelled to Italy, where she studied Italian opera singing with Francesco Lamperti. Under the guidance of her elocution instructor, Signor Delorenzi, she changed her name to the simpler Emma Albani, which sounded more European. In 1870 she made her debut at Messina in La Sonnambula using the surname Albani.