REAL ROMANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 5 March 1932, Page 6

REAL ROMANCE

A SINGING CINDERELLA. / SLUMS TO £2OO A NIGHT. A Cinderella girl who eked out her Jiving selling pennyworths of sueets to tile New York slum children has risen to be opera star at a salary of £2OO a night. She is pretty Serafina di Leo, who at the age of T 9 made a triumphant Cehut in “11 Trovatore” with the Chicago Civic Opera Company. No fairy story could be more romantic that that of Serafina. Born in the slums of the east side of New York, the daughter of a poor Italian emigrant, she underwent hardships that probably no other opera star has ever experienced. \\ hen school was over in the evening there still was plenty of work for her to do, for by running a tiny sweet shop her mother managed to add a few pennies to her husband’s meagre income. So Serafina had to help jn the shop at night. While sellng sweets by the pennyworth to other children Serafina used to' sing snatches of the songs her mother had taught her. Aiyl it was in tins drab little shop that romance first came to her. While she sang a sad Italian ballad a slim figure wearing an expensive dress, who introduced herself as Mrs Remsen Voorhis, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, listened entranced. Next day as Serafilm’s eyes almost popped out of her head a big van drew up at the shop and four men commenced to unload a brand new piano. To her amazement they told her it was' hors and that there was no trick attached to it—no money tp pay. A few minutes later Mrs Voorhis returned and informed her that arrangements had been made for her to attend a singing instructor. From then on Serafina went every day to Madame Novelli, Italian opera singer, formerly of the Hammerstcin opera in Now York, who gave her a thorough course in voice production.

Then came an invitation to live in Mis Vonrhis’s mansion and devote herself entirely to voice culture. Here was the fairy godmother taking Little Cinderella to her fairy palace indeed. After intensive study Serafina seemed mi audience from Giovanni Marielli, the Metropolitan Opera House tenor, who was so enthusiastic over her possibilities that lie introduced her to a group of patrons who financed the depletion of her studies in Italy. A few weeks ago she sang La Sen la in Milan, and her success was followed within a Tort time by the contract from Chicago by which she now receives £2OO a night.