In 1872 she permanently retired from the stage with four performances of "Fidalma" in Cimarosa's "Il matrimonio segreto", at the Paris Théâtre des Italiens but, in fact, she never gave up singing in private and in benefit concerts. When in 1887 the French and Italian Governments agreed upon moving the mortal remains of Rossini into the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, Alboni, then a sixty-one-year-old lady living in seclusion, wrote to the Italian Foreign Minister, Di Robilant, proposing that the "Petite Messe Solennelle", "the last musical composition by Rossini", be performed in Santa Croce the day of the funeral, and "demanding the honour, as an Italian and a pupil of the immortal Maestro," of singing it herself in her "dear and beloved homeland". Her wish, however, never came true and she was just given the chance of being present at the exhumation ceremony in Paris. The Paris correspondent of the Rome newspaper "Il Fanfulla" wrote on the occasion: "photographers snapped in the same shot the greatest performer of "Cenerentola" and "Semiramide", and what is left of the man who wrote these masterpieces".