New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-10
Paris, January 30.


The melodramatc suicide Of Mile. Fernando
Devoyod. q girl Of remarkable beauty. student
at the National Conservatory of Music, and
member OF a family of artists that during three
generations has been prominently before the
theatrical public in Paris and St Petersburg.
comes as 2 terrible object lesson for the eleven
hundred, girls including ninety-three Americans.
who at this moment studying for the lyric
or dramatic stage in Paris, and who have set
their hearts upon becoming future PATHS Melbas
or Sarah Bernhardts. Mile. Fernando Devoyod
killed herself because she failed TO pass her ex-
animation for opera at the Conservatory. More
over she is the seventh girl art student in Paris
who since last November has committed suicide
out of despair at ever attaining success as ac-
tress, singer or painter What stirring drama
might be written on Scarrons theme of The
Victims Of the Theatre? Hundreds of girls are
to-day struggling with the same difficulties under
which Nile. Fernando Devoyod succumbed. They
encounter the same heart breaking receptions
and obstacles that prevent them from appearing
on the stage. It should also be borne in mind
that the supply is greatly in excess of the de-
rnand The Grand Opera and Opera Comique in
Paris cannot engage more than half dozen So
pranos or contraltos each year, and all the other
Paris theatres combined do not offer annual va
cancies for more than thirty actresses at the out
side To i'll. say, fifty new engagements on the
Paris stage there are each year over a thou
sand applicants These figures should be noted
by the hundreds of American girls who come
each year to Paris TO study for the grand
opera" The impressionable girls who fail TO
become ''star" singers or actresses now regard
suicide as a simple conclusion-as a denouement,
ct once natural and logical, in their life drama.
They form a sort Of girls suicide club, on lines
imagined by Robert Louis Stevenson. The fourth
act, which they cannot play the stage, takes
place in a modest bedroom, and the revolver, or
the fumes of charcoal. assure twenty-four hours
notoriety denied them at the grand opera"
The odyssey Of this latest victim among girl
art students in Paris is essentially typical that
IT is worth relating. Mile. Fernando Devoyod
was the goddaughter of the King Of Portugal.
Her grandfather, a singer of repute during the
reign of Louis Philippe, appeared in the operas
of Mozart and of Rossini in minor roles oesloe
Rubini and Lablache. Her father was pronh-
nent BARITONE who had brilliant success IN Paris
and in Russia and who two years ago died on the
stage at the Theatre St. Michel at St PETERS
burg while singing Rigoletto. Her Two cous-
ms. Miles Suzanne and Marthe Devoyoo' are
we'll known actresses who have attained success
in Paris at the Vaudeville. the Odeon' the Gazette
and at the Porte saint-Martin theatres.
T1evovod. the popular barytone, married young
Russian lady belonging TO family of the hlghesl
sristocracv and who was often seen at the court
of Alexander III. among the circle OF frlenos Oh
the Empress Marie eodorovna, now the EN-
press Dowager. Devoyod earned over S+o'ooo
wear at the St. Petersburg Opera House ana oy
his fees at concerts given by the Car by the
Grand dukes and by the grand duchesses His
wife brought him no dowry, and as he lived lie
OF luxury verging upon extravaganza IL was
found that at the time Of his sudden oeath ne
left no fortune whatever. There were eight chill
Ta. of these was AtAe.
Fernando Narie-Felicia Devoyod, who was born
ar lisbon. where Devoyod was singing at the
time. on February %. 1885. King Ferdinand OF
Portugal became her godfather and from him
she took the name of Fernando, and when the
King married in May, 1856, Princess Marie
Anelie Of Orleans sister Of the Due dOrleans'
the Queen wrote to the parents Of the little Fer
nande sending a present to the little child ask
ing that the name of Marie be given her IN