Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-10
THE ARTISTE's WIFE.

w ere not DoSn celebrated ana nanusome
Did they not both sing in the same pieces,
and live every night, during five acts, the
same artificial, passionate life {? 1t is dam
gerous to play with fire. One cannot say,
twenty times month. II love you" to the
accompanying signs of the flute and tre-
molos of the violin, without finally being
overcome by the emotion of his own voice.
At length the mighty passion came to
them in the fullness of the harmony-in
the flow of the rhythm, in the splendor of
the costumes and all the magnifcence of
the stage setting. 1t reached them through
the window that Elsa and Lohengrin open
to the vibrating tones and shimmering
brilliancy of the night, saying:
Come, let us breathe the intoxicating per
fume"
1t glided between the airy colonnades of
the balcony, where Romeo and Juliet
linger, bewailing the approach Of dawn;
at is not yet near day;
1t was the nightingale, and not the lark.
Anu anonymously II SUI pIlSeu lAeIl, as
Faust and Marguerite, in the silvery
moonlight, which enveloped the rustic
seat and the vine-embowered window:
"Let me, pray you, behold thy face
Soon all Paris knew of their love, and it
became the chief attraction of the season.
1t was SO delicious to watch those two
stars gravitating gently towards each
other in the musical armament of the
opera. Finally, one evening, after an en-
thusiastic recall, as the curtain slowly fell,
separating the hall, still laundering ap-
plause, from the flower-strewn stage on which
the white robe of Juliet trailed on crushed
camelias, the two singers were seized with an
irresistible impulse, as if their love-some-
what unreal hitherto-hsd awaited for its
revelation the emotion of great triumph.
Their hands met in clinging grasp, and
rapturous VOWS were exchanged amid the
prolonged and distinct braves of the hall.
The two stars had come into conjunction.
After their marriage they retired for a
while from the stage. Then, their leave
of absence having expired, they made their
Temperance together in the same piece.
This Temperance was a revelation to
Tile hOIlQ ISNlOuo W lHdI udg
of the two singers it had been the man
who carried off the honors. Being older
and more accustomed to the public, with
whose weaknesses and preferences he was
more thoroughly acquainted, he swayed
his audience at will by the magic of his
voice. In comparison with him, the other
seemed but highly-gifted pupil, who
gave promise Of future genius; her voice
was too immature and angular, as were her
fraiI and slender shoulders. Therefore,
upon her return, when she appeared in
one of her former roles, and the full, rich,
mellow tones poured forth from the very
first note, abundant and pure as water from
a living spring, a murmur OF pleasure and
wonder passed through the assembly, and
the interest of the evening was concen-
trated around her. 1t was for the young
wife one of those happy days when the
air which surrounds one becomes limpid,
light and vibrating in order to transmit all
the rays, all the adulations of success. AS
for the husband, people almost forgot to
applaud him, and as all dazzling lumina-
ries cast lesser lights into shadow, he found
himself relegated like the veriest fgurant
to the most obscure corner of the stage.
Still that marvellous passion which now
revealed itself in the acting of the singer,
and in her voice-softened with grace and
tenderness-were inspired by him. He
alone kindled the fame in those dark and
lustrous eyes and that thought should
have made his heart swell with pride, had
not the vanity of the actor been the
stronger passion. When the piece was fin
ished he sent for the chief Of the cIdque,
and berated him soundly, declaring that
they had not marked his entrees and exits;
that they had failed to recall him in the
third act, and in fact had so ignored him
that he would complain to the Director.
Alas notwithstanding all his grumbling,
and the most vigorous applause of the
claque, the favor of the public was from
that time forth completely captivated by
his wife, and could not be diverted from
her. There seemed to be happy fortuity
in the very character of the roles assigned
to her, so appropriate were they to her
talent and her beauty, and she assumed
them with the ease and graceful assurance
of belle entering ballroom, attired in
her most becoming colors and confident of
an ovation.
at each new success her husband APP
peared gloomy, nervous and irritable. He
felt as if he were being robbed of that pop
ularity which had left him only to offer
its sweet incense to his wife. For long
time he endeavored to conceal, above all
from her, the agonizing jealousy which
he dared not avow; but, one evening, as she
descended the stairs leading to her room,
holding with both hands her dress, laden
with bouquets, and still quivering with
the excitement of her triumph, she said
to him, in voice yet shaken with the
plaudits of an admiring crowd:
ave had a fine house tonight"
"Do you think SO? ?" he replied in
voice so ironical, so bitter that the truth
suddenly dawned upon her mind.
Her husband was jealous not with the
jealousy of the lover who wishes his wife
to be beautiful for himself alone, but with
the cold, fierce, implacable jealousy of the
artistic. At times, when repeated braves
were showered upon her from every side,
he would affect an impossible, distraite ex-
preston, and his far-away gaze seemed to
say to the spectators: "When you have
finished applauding, l will sing"
But oh ! the music of applausel that
grateful sound, which re-echoes so sweetly
through hall, and corridors, and wings
When one has known the rapture of it,
how can it be foregone? The great COM
edians die neither from sickness nor age
they simply cease to exist when no longer
So the great tenor sank into
the gloom of despair at the indifference of
the once admiring public He grew thin,
fault-fnding and disagreeable In vain
did he reason with himself, in vain did he
look his incurable malady in the face,
saying to himself, before going upon the
stage:
"She is my wife, and love herr
Amid the glamour of the theater, he
lost sight of real feeling, and though he
loved his wife, he detested the singer. She
fully realized the unfortunate feelings
which clouded her husbands mind, and
endeavored to humor his unhappy mania
as one would the whims of sickiy child.
At first she had determined to lessen her
success by not exerting herself-by not
giving full scope to her voice and ability
but her resolutions, like those of her hus-
band, could not withstand the overmaster-
ing inspiration Of her art when she
stood in the glare of the footlights. Her
genius, as it were, independent of her will,
struggled to soar to its accustomed hight.
Then she humbled herself, and attempted
once more to assume the role of pupil,