New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1883-01-10
Prima Donna and their Clothes

Iluul<s AODOGC, dCCOrQln0 TO 1he 81
Loxss Glob- Democrat; Is aiways ready
Tor an interview. Aireporter met hel
behind the scenes at the opera house The
other night, as happy as lark, and
when questioned by the newspaper man
about the cause of her happy frame Of
mind answered that she had won 4 dia-
mond ring from her husband on Cleve.
lands majority. She wagered that the
Democratic candidate for governor OF
New York would get over &c, 600 ma
lority; he got over 10000, and she pot
the ring, fve-karat solitaire, which,
sparkled upon one of her fingers
IF had lost" said Miss Abbott, 81
would now feel very much IS Nine
Gerster used to feel Just about this time
when she sang Amina. How is that?
Well, she got very mad, The costumer
who made dresses for her when she was
with Strakosch-Nina Cerol-told me
that Nine. Gerster always tore the
bridal wells she wore in Somnambula' to
pieces. So, too, when she sang Lucia,
she kept picking ut the waist of her
peasant dress until it was in ribbons,
and when she came off the stage took a
scissors and cut the front. She wouldn't
wear the same dress twice. Strakosch
paid for her wardrobe, so that it did not
cost her anythingto indulge her passion
to destroy the garments. Cerbi said
Gerster was very sweet off the stage,
but always got mad as q hornet when
she appeared in opera; she couldn't
sing without first getting mad. AS Cerbi
said, ''The more she get mad, the more
good she sinr,,
"Mme. Cerbi, I suppose, knew all
the prima donnas?' the reporter sug-
gested.
"Oh, yes, and told many stories about
chem. Nilsson, she said, was greatly
feared by the costumers, because she
was so extremely hard to please. Patti
was just the contrary-very easy to suit;
she took everything just as it came.
Minnie Hauk was particular only about
her boots; she liked pretty boots, and
was fond of showing her nicely-shaped
feet"
Il am glad to see," said the prima,
"that Salvini has met with such nice
reception in New York. He is an old
and dear friend of mine. met him in
Florence when was studying in 1875,
and he took me to his home on tho
Arno. where saw his sweet little Eng
lish wife, with her blue eyes and fair
hair, worshiping her husband rs if he
were god. Why, one day he fixed up
very ordinary pedestal in one of the
rooms and covered it with green baize
and had brass tacks sticking out at
every point. A cheap carpenter could
have fixed it up ten times more artisti.,
cally, yet the tragedian's wife, went in.
to ecstacies over it, and thought and
said there was nothing like It. "a very
simple thing butt shows how much she
thought of him and of what he did. But
l ought not to talk of Salvini in this
way. he was very good to me aud
gave me letters that proved Of great
service. He also encouraged me to work
hard saying that all his own success had
come only from the hardest kind of la
Dor. He told me he had studied Othello
four years before attempting to play it
on the stage and 1 see by the papers
that he gave his King Lear the same
lengthy study and attention" 1
Miss Abbott wanted to say something
about her own success the present sea-
son, and excellence of her company,
but the reporter cut her short, and was
moving away when the prima called
out: 1
''Be kind enough to say that Denver
baby does not exist. 1t is a first-class
myth. We have nothing of the infant
caliber in our company, although Gus
Hall and John Gilbert, whom we call
Jumbo and Bolivar, have asked to be
cast for the babies in Norma which
we are soon to produce