THE LADIES’ WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2748, 1 March 1910, Page 3

THE LADIES’ WORLD.

OPERATIC STAR HISSED BY AMERICAN SOCIETY WOMAN.

The “San Francisco Call” publishes details of an extraordinary scone, which occurred recently at Pittsburg, in which Miss Geraldine Farrir, the “star” of the Metropolitan Opera Company, who a year ago- roused the wrath of theAmerican people by declaring art was an ‘ ‘mistrengthened urchin” in that land, further inflamed an elite Pittsburg audience by a display of temperament—or temper—that ended the opera, “Madame Butterfly,” in an uproar of indignation. Miss Farrar developed a storm of abuse by her attitude towards an rnai’nt whom she employed in the last scene. The child began to whimper at the time Miss Farrar was singing a frantic relinquishment of mother love to a father’s care, all of this prior to her own suicide. When “Baby”, Carroll cried, the star was disturbed. She tried to husli the infant, and failing, became excited by the crash of brass music which resulted from the efforts of the orchestra leader to drown the effect. She clasped the child closely, still singn.-g, and changed tke business of the scene to permit her to walk the stage. Then, according to eye witnesses, the child began to scream, and the star, provoked beyond all control of impulse, grasped him by the neck and muffled Ills face in her kimono.

A woman, richly gowned as becomes one of the first families of -a city, arose from -her seat and cried “shame!” Th's was the signal for a general hissing "otest throughout the house. Tim women made the violent protest, crying to one another concerning the actress’s conduct. The men, naturally, voiced the women’s plaint. The climax came when Miss Farrar, entirely bereft- of self-composure by the storm "of protest directed against her, rushed towards the wings, and in her extremity tossed -the infant out to a stage hand in waiting. This action was oil to the flame of fury that was raging throughout the house. None could sec that a maid caught the child, and the general supposition was that the infant had been ruthlessly thrown aside. Geraldine Farrar with artistic Pittsburg was the queen, but sentimentally hated. After the performance persistent efforts were made to secure Miss Farrar’s version of the scene, but she would not talk. Her mother, also, was extremely reticent.

Mrs Patrick Carroll, however, the mother of the “(prop infant,” had much to say.

“My baby’s neck is bruised where she shut off its wind,” she said. “I was willing to trust him to the singer because she looked a kind and gentle woman, but .she choked off his cries and bruised him. I think I’ll have the law on her.”

Pittsburg critics excoriate the artistic temperament of Miss Farrar, and the news columns as well are brimming with individual criticism of the last scene of “Madame Butterfly.”

KATHERINE GREY AND DUSE. Miss Katherine Grey, who appeared for the first time in Australia as Shirley Ross-more in “The Lion and the Mouse,” in Sydney recently, has met many distinguished pecple, and is particularly proud of the fact that she was the only actress in America whom Eleonora Duse received while playing in New York. “I used to semi her lilies,” Miss Grey narrates; “they were my favorite flowers, and hers, too, 1 also discovered afterwards. Ghe asked James H. Herne, who was producing for her. to whom she was indebted for the lilies, and he said quite mysteriously, a-young actress he was- training. ‘I would like to meet her,’ Duse said. 1 couldn't believe Mr Herne when he told me. “At the time the great Italian actress was living at the Holland House, the most exclusive hotel in New York. She had a suite of rooms, and I remember the first thing I noticed on visiting her was that all the furniture war- pushed back against the walls. Presently Duse entered at the other end of the room, and the space between us by reason of the absence of furniture seemed miles to me.

“Talk about being shy! 1 was shy enough, in all conscience, but Duse could give me aces and spades, as they say in my country. It was a. strange meeting. I couldn’t speak Italian, and she couldn’t speak English, so wo conversed in French—hers excellent; mine execrable.

“But I could understand her perfectly, and she told mo many little things about herself. She believed absolutely in the public never knowing an actress, except on the stage. Her personal private life she said belonged to her. She gave no press interviews; did not go into society. Ail New York’s wealthy 600 tried to draw her, nut in vain. The more she refused the more she was besieged by invitations. Not to be beaten, the newspapers took their cut from her attitude, and wrote about and cartooned her, all America being -anxious to- know something of the life from which she shut but the world. One New York editor, on learning that I had seen Duse, offered me a big price for the story. When I told Duse I had refused this, she impulsively kissed me.and said l u'as to come and see her every day. “Duse is the greatest actress that lives, greater than Bernhardt! There is no question about it when you have seen the two. They were playing in New York at the same, time in the same plays—‘Camille,’ ‘Fedora,’ ‘Magda.’ Duse’s Magda 1 I can see her now. I will see her as long as I live. ‘Magda’ I consider one of the really great plays. It is not a German play. It is universal. It is true in Australia, it is true in China. ‘"‘lt is always said of Bernhardt that she has a voice of gold. Duse impressed upon mo that when the voice is laboring under great emotion it is not clear. Bernhardt’s was always clear. Duse differentiated. Again, Bernhardt always played the seductress. There was something feline about her: the animal was there —sometimes the tigress. Duse- was always a- woman, and never sounded a note that was not essentially feminine. “She always looked up to the man. That was her strength in love scenes. She could hold you to her that your very pulse seemed to Ixiat in unison with hers. And when she showed emotion it was so real, so human, so feminine, there was no withstanding its appeal. Duse and Bernhardt approached' their characters from different points of view. The great" Italian triumphed for tho reason that she was always a woman —a womanly woman.”