SINGER’S WIFE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 191, 2 November 1927, Page 1

SINGER’S WIFE

Divorce Protest CHALIAPIN SUES “HIS GLORY, MY SUFFERING’ Ejj Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. MOSCOW, Monday. Madame Chaliapin, wife of the famous Russian bass singer, is now staying at the former town house of her husband. She says she has received v'ord that Chaliapin is about to petition for a divorce, and the case iB set down for hearing on Thursday. “The news is staggering,” says madame. “The action can only be described as an attempt on the part of someone else to secure my husband’s fortune. When I married Chaliapin he was an unknown singer. X earned more as a ballet dancer than he did as a singer. “When Chaliapin first went to New York in 1921 I returned to Russia for his sake and lived in seclusion. [ have suffered for 22 years while others have reveiled in my husband’s glory, but I have kept this secret from my children. He has now mentioned alimony publicly when he might quietly have continued his previous payments. Money cannot pay for my years of suffering. I have sacrificed my whole life for him.”—A. and N.Z. Feodor Chaliapin was recently deprived by the Soviet of his property, his citizenship and his title of “the People’s Singer” because of assistance he rendered to Russian refugees. At a Press reception tendered to him in Vienna last May the basso said he had 10 children, and that, including his relatives and servants, lie had to provide for no fewer than 26 persons. Further, he declared, a singer always had to take the eventuality of the loss of his voice into consideration.