HOW PATTI HELPED A SHOEMAKER TO “GO BEYOND HIS LAST.”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 638, 17 May 1882, Page 2

HOW PATTI HELPED A SHOEMAKER TO “GO BEYOND HIS LAST.”

A protege of the great diva Patti, who has now been studying for some lime, has now been enabled through her assistance to remove with his wife and family from his native place in Wales to reside in London, and benefit by the first-rate instruction to be found there. The circumstances under which the notice of the diva was attracted 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 Desdemona in Othello —an air, be it remarked, which she never sings in otfblic. The silence was unbroken during the time she was executing the airland when it was concluded, and shawas about to retire from the window, ner 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

Wtlsh melodies —wild, soft, and melancholy—which still linger about the mountains. 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 the village shoemaker, the “Sutor Johnnie” of the place. Without a moment’s hesitatation, Patti undertook to provide for his musical education, and Lady Hughes, an enthusiastic lover of music, generously supplied the material wants of the i family during the time of the father’s studies. According to report, the voice of this new musical prodigy is so extraordinary that Patti has declared that even that of Mario would have I seemed of small account by com-1 parison.