JAPANESE PRIMA DONNA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2471, 24 August 1922, Page 4

JAPANESE PRIMA DONNA.

HUSBAND OBJECTS TO TOUR. A PLATONIC FRIENDSHIP. LONDON, July 31. Discord replaces harmony in the life of Madame Miura Japan’s leading prima donna, who will sail on August 2 for Afterica under contract to appear with the .Chicago Opera Company, and in New York with the Metropolitan Grand Opera Company. Her husband, Dr. Miura, attempted to prevent the issue of a passport, and is appealing to the authorities to retain his wife in Japan. What the Japanese , press explains as “an alleged too close intimacy” between the songstress and Signor Franchetti, an Italian accompanist, is alleged by her husband ns a reason for requesting the refusal of a passport. At the same time he is urging the authorities to administer “a moral admonition” to his. wife. Madame Miura not only refuses to cancel her .passage by the Tenyo Maru with Signor Franchetti, but also refuses to permit her husband to accompany her to America. A family council in Tokio of the Miura clnn, which lasted for several days, arrived at a compromise, based on the view that artists could not be judged by ordinary standards, and that platonic affairs must bo expected. Therefore, Madame Miura and Signor Franchetti will sail together for Honolulu, where they will separate, the former going to Chicago and the latter to Now York. A friend of the family will accompany them to see that the compromise is carried out. “Such is life when you are married to an artist!” Dr. Miura is quoted as saying after the family council broke up. Maclaine Miura. has just finished a triumphant tour of Japan. The Japanese press is ringing with the details of the affair.