HOW PATTI HELPED A SHOEMAKER TO " GO BEYOND HIS LAST,"

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1095, 2 June 1882, Page 2

HOW PATTI HELPED A SHOEMAKER TO " GO BEYOND HIS LAST,"

\ A protege of the great Piya Patti, who now been studying for some time, has now been enable through her assistance to remove with his native place in Wales to reside in L/cmdon, and benefit by the first-rate instruction to be found there. The circumstance under which the notice of the Diva was attachted towards her protege are interesting. The place recently chosen by Patti as her retreat in Wales is picturesque, and well calculated to inspire that divine melancholy which poets declare to be the first element of artistic surroundings. One evening Patti was leaning on the balcony of the window overlooking the valley when she was led by irrestible impulse to break forth into the air sung by Desclemona in Othello — an air, be it remarked, which she never sings in public. The silence was unbroken during the time she was executing the air, and when it was concluded, and she was about to retire from the window, her ear was caught by the sound of a magnificent tenor voice endeavoring to repeat the notes just uttered by the Diva, and failing of success burst into one of those lovely Welsh melodics — wild, soft, and melancholy — which still linger about the monntains. In rapture of delight at the purity and correctness of the intonation, Patti immediately despatched a messenger; in search of the

singer, who proved to be a village shoemaker, the " Suter Johnnie "of the placa Without a moment's hesitation, Patti undertook to provide for his musical education, and Lady Hughes, an enthusiastic lover of music, generously supplied the material wants of the family during the time of the father's studies. According to report, the voice of this new musical prodigy fa so extraordinary that Patti has declared that even that of Mario would have seemed of small account by comparison.