Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-27
HUSBANDS OF SINGERS
Cause No End of Trouble for
operate Impressarios.
RECENT LOCAL INCIDENT
Mill on Stage Between French and
italian Sopranos.
CURTAIN WAS RUNG DOWN
How Belgian Contralto Subdued the
Husband Of a Danish Rival-Musi-
cal Conductors Spiteful Act.
RECENT LOCAL INCIDENT
CURTAIN WAS RUNG DOWN

at local theater last week during the
performance Of an opera. With the COM
pany rendering the opera were three
sopranos, who sang in their regular order
at the different performances. Hungarian
woman, the supposititious star OF the pro-
duction, gave her study OF the leading role
on the opening night in Washington. This
Hungarian singer is provided with an at
tachment known as the bette noir OF all
operate impressar ios-a husabnd who trav-
els with his wife.
Tuesday evening an American girl a very
engaging, wholesome, pleasant American girl
assumed the leading role. She was born
and reared in Duluth-of all imaginable
places-studied abroad for several years.
and sang the opera in which she appeared
here in the presence Of it's composer in
Italy, to the composers satisfaction. Her
performance Tuesday evening at the local
theater was considered delightful. The book
called for the portrayal of an extremely In
nocent. guileless. unworidly maiden. inc
Duluth girl played the part In that meter
The first act of the opera closes with
beautiful duet between the senor and the
| soprano. The Duluth girl was singing her
part in this duet Tuesday night in such
| manner that many of those in the audience,
upstairs and down, were leaning far for
ward in their seats 1t was an imprisoned
outburst a song Of youth and love, to
which even the most callous could not fail
to respond At the supreme moment came
succession Of sharp misses from the gal
lery. The utterly shocked men and women
seated near the hisser turned upon MIN
angrily. They found him to be a youngish
chap. of a foreign exterior. wearing an
Inverness raincoat. The certain fell while
he was still Kissing. When the curtain had
descended upon the last encore. the hisser
! left his seat and went down the stairs. A
number of the men whom he had annoyed
! by his kissing followed him. He went into
1oI~1, ~ In tIAa ynr md lntt ad
around there In a proprietary sort of way.
He was pointed out to the management of
the theater. The management Of the the
alter instantly recognized him, of course. as
| the husband of the supposititious star of
| the production.
| He was not allowed to re-enter the thea
| ter that night. He was excluded from the
| theater entirely the following night, not
| withstanding he protested vigorously to the
| doorkeeper and members of the operate
| companys business staff. and appeared to be
very much insult" On the following day.
however, he was taken In hand by the gen.
eral representative Of the operate impress
| sario. This gentleman-the general repre-
sentative-pCsseSSes a very superior COM
mand Of the French language. although he
! is an American. The things that he said to
| that Hungarian husband. in incisive. not to
| say scalpel French would not look well in
family newspaper, even II printed In the
| original The Hungarian husband hung his
! head and had nothing by way of reply.
! He was allowed to enter the theater after
that. But he looked very 5hangdog, very
| sulky. very insult" for the remainder OF
| the week.
Experience With Husbands of Singers
| In the intervals between seasons. and
| during their relaxed hours, back in the nine
| ties, I often heard Maurice Grau and Henry
| A. Abbey narrate. both of them with a GER
tain mournful humor, their experiences
with some of the husbands of prima donnas.
- ufn cd
stage dog fight, and then the fight that came
ut was at Philadelphia" said Mr.. Abbey
1.-The two soprano mafnstays or my COM
pany were famous singers. One was French.
| the other an Italian woman. They both had
| extraordinarily violent tempers They hated
! each other with a malignant abandonment
OF hatred that was all but weird. There
1 were times when / confidently looked for
| them to go at each other with poinards
They did not sing at the same perform
ances. of course. but grand opera people
| have great way of hanging about the
| theater and stage when they are not work
ing, and when they might better be at their
hotels resting.
curiously excitable. not to say frenzied
| husbands who did great part OF their
| talking with their hands and shoulders The
husbands. too. hated each other with an un-
speakable ferocity. When tell you that
| thew used to make horrible faces at each
1 other in the theater Hobbies you may know
| how much they loathed and despised each
other 1t was awful, really. TO see them
Both of the sopranos possessed idolized
dogs. The French woman's dog was
snoopy wheezy. contemptuous. very high
| faIutin' little King Charles spaniel, valued
| at 81 500, that some king or other had pre-
| scented to the prima donna. The dog was
| probably valued that way because of the
length of his ears. which tratied on the
ground as he walked. He lived on an ex-
| elusive diet OF chocolate almonds and con-
served fruits. and he was very much stuck
up, indeed
She was a sympathetic woman, and she
had picked the poor little cur up on one
| of the streets of Moscow when she was
singing there The frozen little oesgar
and she had adopted him. She loved him
| If he was 'yaller.' for he had plenty of
sense and dignity and amiable ways
s"Tte French woman. with her hlgh-grade
h-yi. was. naturally, forever making depre-
catory remarks about the Italian woman's
mutt-the lack of lineage on the part of
got back with raps about the state of mind
any woman must be in who would delb-
erately kiss a chocolate-fed brute with an
offensive breath right on the nose.
One Night It Happened.
''It became one of the tasks of my life
to keep those two singers and their two hus-
bands and their two dogs apart. 1 knew
what would happen II any pair In that
sextet ever came into collision. But one
night at that Philadelphia theater I was
rnomentarily off my guard and it hap
pened.
1.-The opera was 'Traviata with the
French woman in the main role. The Ital-
ian singer, with her husband carrying the
mutt fitted around In the wings. la-la-ing
and talking volubly of the horribly squeaky
character of the French wonans voice
that night. The French woman's husband
gIoomed upon the pair of them. making
furt.ve faces at the italian husband when
he got the chance. The French woman's
King Charles spaniel was always kept in
that diya's dressing room on her perform
ance nights and the door closed on him
when she left the room SO that he would
not wander onto the stage. Her maid had
absentmindedy left the d-essing-room door
open after arraying her principal for the
second act however The King Charles
wandered snoopingly out into the wings
when the second act was half over. The
Italian womans cur. reposing in the arms
of the Italian husband, was the first to
catch sight of the King Charles. He wrig
gled out of the arms of his mistress hus-
band made two hops Of it for the King
Charles, and began the overture on the
King Charles. long right ear. The King