Patti and her Shoes.

Manawatu Herald, 11 April 1899, Page 2

Patti and her Shoes.

By way of illustrating the life of an impresario and the relationship of the prima donna with the management, Mapleson's experience at Boston, in the United States, has a certain impulse of excitement in it that is, perhaps, more characteristic of the other side of the footlights than the front of the house. "On the second night of our engagement," he says, " we performed •La Traviata.' That afternoon about 4 o'clock, Patti's agent called upon me to receive the £1,000 for her services that evening. I was at low water just then, and inquiring at the bookingoffice found that I was 200 short. AH I could offer Signor Franchi was the trifle of £800 as payment on account. The agent declined the money, and my contract with Patti at *an end, Two hours afterwards, however, he reappeared. * Give me the £800, and she will make every preparation for going on the stage, and she empowers me to say she will be at the theatre in good time, dressed in the costume of Violetta, with the exception of the shoes. You can let her have the balance when the doors are open and the money comes in from the public' I thereupon handed him the money. After the opening of the doors an extra sum of £160 had come in. I handed it to the agent, and begged him to carry it straight to Madame who having received £960 might, I thought, be induced to complete her toilette pending the arrival of the balance. Nor was I altogether wrong. With a beaming face Signor Franchi came back and communicated to me the joyful intelligence that Madame Patti had got one shoe on. 'Send her the £40,' he added, ' and she will put on the other.' Ultimately the other shoe was got on, but not, oi course, until the last £40 had been paid. Then Madame Patti, her face radiant with benignant smiles, went on to the stage, and the opera hegan and continued brilliantly until the end." Mapleson sorrowfully adds that in the New York season of 1883, after paying Madame Patti her thousand pounds and distributing a few hundreds among the other members of the company, he often had only from 22 to 23 dollars a night left on an average for himself.