PRIMA DONNA IN CHANCKRY.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 87, 4 September 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

PRIMA DONNA IN CHANCKRY.

(Ftom the Qucou) ■ r • > ' An article,, the good taste amj'feel- * * Ppea l Id alsHn another of the >*T*lve?s It affected > give a . daily papery which had< be6Q f urn^ r Le vice-chancellor Stuart in heard befrfrevc rdianship of Pn to' r r Xi custody ft was proposed ' a Tlt of the hands of her own * nwand to place her under the pro?,?I of " he? next friend," or "pro? ? ■ jf«£ as in the old Norman- ' ftTeh WPW there are often importint movements in domestic life/con- " " nleted with wards in i chancery and i 3V hear;, privately, for in no Country in the World is the sanctity of home more respected than -iv England A man's house is his castle, his domestic interior is looked upon as cured; family affairs no journal with { L slightest pretensions to respectability would ordinarily dare to pry into and pubiish- details: thereof It has heen the editorial practice therefore of ]eadin" newspapejs not to penetrate through the mystery of private proceed- ' i nKB iS chancery, and to respect the crivacy sought for by the parties in the suit, and, by the judges who recognise ' the susceptibilities of the applicants. ' it is with . extreme regret, therefore, that we find the newspapers to gratify the morbid curosity, prompting certain 1 classes to peep into the interior of artistic life, should. have published an ex varte statement so filled with errors, and so little calculated to afford a real notion of the incident which has caused crief and sorrow to a respectable family. The whole story of Adelina Patti's appearance in the Court of Chancery is comprised within the narrowestcompass. / She was born in February 1843, in Madrid, of Italian parents, both father and mother being operatic singers, the father a tenor, the mother a prima donna. Indeed, the later played Nortna at the Madrid Opera House the night before Adelina was born. At an early age she was taken by her parents to America, the parents singing in theatres of which Herr Maurice Strakosch was director. He was a GeVroan pianist of fame, a first-rate musician and singingmaster. He married a sister of Adelina and Carlotte Patti, and the union 1 naturally brought him into closer relations with the family. Seeing the extraordinary ability evinced from her earliest days by Adelina, he became her master, and to her brother-in-law, .Maurice Strakosch, Adelina Patti owes , her musical training. As a manager himself, no one could be better qualified to look after the material interests of the family, and he brought Adelina to London /with her father, and made her first engagement with Mr Gye at the Royalltalian Opera. He subsequently * organised all her provincial and continental tours, business engagements exacting tact and judgment. In Belgium the Pattis formed the acquaintance of a Baron de Ville. Being much about the same age as Adelina, no surprise can be felt that the young prima donna fell desperately in love with the Baron. He represented himself as a man of large fortune, who was anxious to take her from the stage. The father, seeing that i his daughter was attached to the Baron, k interposed no obstacle ; he only re- ! quired that the assent of the young ■:, lover's family should be obtained,' and 5; that due time should be allowed to see ' that it was not an ephemeral impression ■: on either side. Circumstances trans- : pired which induced the Patti family to ■\ alter their opinion, and they at once declined to sanction the continuance of the match. It is probable that the 'liking of a young girl of nineteen ? { survived the antipathy with which her \ lather looked upon the connection ; and % there can be but little doubt that Baron Ide Ville, having carried . on a secret with Adelina, has rejjceived letters from a yoi^ng and inexIperienced girl. Now an operatic life ps)sat the best, wwhateverr r may be the (•enormous gains of an artiste, but a life ]of slavery. A singer "'must' live by rule land.. -rote. Rehearsals have to be .(attended to, and the duties of the fevening's performance are imperative. ;In short, it is a life of agitation and junnriatural excitement, and, although Adeliua was born, as it were, on the jstage; it cannot be considered strange ifii she found the discipline and routine §so irksome 'and severe, that only the prospect of a marriage with' an independent ! man would free her from the „ But when circumstances /happened which tended to convince her (Jhat this prospect of freedom. Jwas but a one, it is not to be wondered' 1 that dreamland gave way to conamonsense considerations. Xet any woman /)f feeling «md delicacy read the annexed |etter B&rpn de Yille, published in ; Daily TeUgraph, and she will easily . how, it was that Adelina SfPatti came: to alter her opinion of her {matrimonial prospects : —- " To the jEditor of '■■'< the Daily < Teleffi-aph:— Sir,-—, $t has long^ since become a matter pf ; public record" thaj.iliex object of the IproceedirigSji^ the Court of Chancery ■was neveri? explained to- Miss' Adelina ; -?atti : by those whofwouldhave acted in lier interest^ but thai, oh the;-cbntrary, •they did it^whio at the same time were giving iuppii , her^ kariiingsy and whose |ees are ,p^d-^f6y/*pu]t:bfj them— -under Mioge in|^n^e r ,she k was ]ivihg^.^Every I one who knows ibje will ipity Miss Patti, |}»hen she cbuld^erjndjUced. ..to^. .swear ibatshe diitniq!iob t eligye:;,^tHat';.i./enter--lainedT:. honorable.- intentions, -to her; l^hether she* wa%> so; prevailed iupon^ «r |hethei i ' ihe- did i thw?pf^ her owtf free gull, I was atlonw, determined to give IP ' all'thbught8 < |ipf {& ipeirsdn : .who; would Jjreak.,pff kni.enga.gement: in this JjbelIpas and perfidious manner. I beg, |jereforej that you wiU ; give it the |tmofit publicity that there is not the

remotest probability of <my marrying Miss Patti, and some day it may be an impossibility. * This affection •at one time was sincere ; but Strakosch and S. Patti,' who had a moneetary interest at stake, were determined it should not last. I have demanded a return of my letters and a mutual exchange ; but _it has.npt been complied with-^latn, sir, yours, &c;, 'De Vn^E; 4^ Old Cambridge Terrace, 30 th May.'' : ■ Kimber and $ilis, the solicitors to the Baron de. Ville ; scarcely displayed the acumen of sharp lawyers in filing .the i bill, /^hy ,did they not make' proper inquiries;? Here was ■Mr;:Gye,"' who holds a , public position, who could never, with the press under his eyesi sanction the ill-treatment of an\ artiste'!; There was Mr Costa, a highly honorable man, to whom the solicitors could have applied for information. More than this, if the lawyers had taken the -trouble to investigate the allegations of the Baron de Ville, the numerous friends of the family, men of honor and character, well acquainted with the domestic interior, could have proved how utterly unfounded were the charges of cruelty and ill-treatment. Before the bill was filed, Kimber and Ellis might, without difficulty, have conversed with Adelina Patti herself. "Authentic information"'is not to be trusted from a dismissed lover, and if Kimber and Ellis had seen some of the letters from the Baron to the young lady, they would not so easily have given faith to his " very material allegation," which the young prima donna has denied so emphatically. It is quite unnecessary to publish the affidavit of Adelina Patti, dated the 11th of May, in which she formally denies "any share, direct or indirect, in the bill filed by James William Macdbnald, of No. \5 Howard -street, Strand, whom she never saw or heard of until the promotion of the suit. To the kind conduct of her father and brother-in-law she testifies to in the strongest terms ; but even if there had been a certain amount of watchfulness and restraint, quite necessary in the case of a young and handsome girl in private life, much more so when she is on the stage, what can justify the Baron de Ville in trying to deprive her of the guardianship of a father, and to create an eternal separation between parent and child ? We regret the publication of this case. Journalism should steer clear of private life — the natural authority of a parent should be upheld, not weakened ; and young girls, whose experience of the world is so limited, should be protected from the dangers which beset them at the most critical period of their careers. A prima donna like Patti, who can earn her hundred pounds per performance, is a rich prize. She has a lesson for the future ; but at any rate she has learnt that there is a Court of Chancery ready to protect a prima donna of note from her " next friend." " Heaven save me from my friends," must be the future motto of Adelina Patti.