| Show LOVE HOPE AND how lina cavalieri most beautiful woman of europe has won her way to fame and fortune by hard work IS AIDED BY HER SISTERS DEVOTION love affair with prince alexander Ba the beginning of resolve to give up easy life and fit herself for the trying roles written by the most famous masters of music now the idol of adoring pans paris that the most beautiful woman of europe may be discontent ed with her job is shown by the ex case of lina cavaleri As a music ball star of the first magnitude she was flattered and feted she 1 ad but to show her beautiful per ton and warble a few ditties to earn heavy money the world bad locally told her that her loveliness was all sufficient without talent lina cavalleri tossed aside the bril llant sinecure and plodded the hard road leading to grand opera when parisians learned it they shrugged at the unpractical choice and as good as her isow she has just given them a mighty olt by coming back as a grand opera star with a rumored engagement at the paris opera itself and furthermore she has just bought a splendid maneson in the avenue de messine but why she grew discon tented with being the most beautiful woman of europe and how she threw up the music hall sinecure on the off chance of succeeding in grand opera remains a secret the secret spring of linas change of base began with a great hope con linued through a great despair and ended in a great devotion the hope and the despair were those of worldly love but the devotion was that of a sister nothing could be more striking than the contrast between the lives chosen by the two girls when their widowed mother died in rome in 1889 ada was 15 bearg of age and lina 17 As there frere no relatives and the property was coall friends put them in a convent school of aristocratic connections whose side specialty was the edu cation of poor girls of good family for governesses and companions has world at her feet on account of her age lina s time in the school was short once in the world it did not take her long to de cade against the teaching career be eldes her beautiful person she had a pretty voice and even had the voice been less her first appearance on the must hall stage left no doubt as to the kind of success ehe might expect it was at this time that lina cavalleri gave her friendship to prince alexan der second son of a con koft sider atile russian house and a young man about paris prince alexander came to have am mense admiration for the talent the voice the beauty and the goodness or the girl you must cultivate that volee he told her you are wasting yourself on the music hall stage which Is not worthy of you take up opera he advised her on boad to grand opera like the camel that is being loaded una groaned in spirit like the camel she was slow in getting started but still like that reliable creature once started she kept going in 1896 7 the music halls saw no more of lina cavalier and it became known that the was diligently cultivating her voice under mme marian mas three years passed in work and love and hope then lina s chance came in asoo when she was allowed to make her debut at no less a musical center than the theater koyal ot lisbon as nedda in unhappily the lisbon public la a hard one when it pays for grand opera it insists on having something near perfection the debutante was young exceedingly lovely with a sweet voice but she showed inexpert inex peri ence did she not also display nerv ausness due to emotion over some lov ers one would prefer to think so tor the judging of prince alexander the first night the lisbon public made no sign the second night it simply chased the whole company from the stage of the theater royal alas tor work tor hope for love there was riot in front of the curtain 67 and panic and recriminations behind it and in a row that would not have been out of place in a latin quarter cafe una cavalleri and alexander baratin ski spoke their parting words we know no more than this was it one of love s hateful treasons was it desertion in the hour of need the girl had worked and slaved to please him the world would have liked to see him stand manfully by her in her hour ot failure that lina has never accused him proves nothing she may have been too proud or she may have been in the wrong and note that never defended himself prove nothing he may have been too chivalrous or he may have had no excuse fled to his yacht simply that cavalleri moved with dignity to the railway station on her lonely trip from lisbon to paris by the sud ex press accompanied only by a faithful maid the company disbanded who knows what bitter thoughts may have been hersa ah work that had all gone for nothing really I 1 know of no more pathetic figure than that of the disabused and lonely girl returning to A few weeks later in paris she learned that prince alexander had al lowed his paris apartment to be sold out by the sheriff the young folks never met again prince alexandea dei shortly afterward married the young princess Your levski morganatic daughter of the deceased czar alexan der II 11 living with her mother in high parisian society and lina cavalleri remained the most beautiful woman of europe mme carlani masi she began to hope and when at last lina was to make her debut in grand opera at lisbon she was waiting anxiously to learn the re suit when she learned the pitiful result ada cavalleri took a great decision quitting her place at genoa she hurried to paris she settled down beside her wound ed and reckless sister did she try to comfort hera how could the born old maid comfort hera but it is certain that the frigid ada wrestled with the fiery lina seven days and triumphed groaning in spirit like the camel lina again renounced the easy life and money of the music halls again she took up the burden of grand opera love with great shining eyes no long er beckoned her but on and on she bore the burden with her sister always by her how she finally succeeded Is well known in 1901 she was singing the principal part of in puccini s vie de boheme at no less an opera house than the san carlo of naples next she secured a billiani billi ant engagement for an entire season at the imperial theater of warsaw singing violetta in trav lata marguerite in faust in vie de boheme and taking fine re on the cruel lisbon public by an overwhelming triumph as nedda here the devoted sister intervened with force from her humble employ meat at genoa too beautiful for governess on leaving the roman convent school three years after her elder sis ter had quitted it ada cavalier to give her the family name adopted and made famous by the other had to face the same hard proposition that con fronted lina she was qute as beautiful as lina indeed as you shall learn if you have not already heard it the sisters look so much alike that photographs of one have been mistaken for the other also she had a voice yet she never hesitated she had been educated for a governess it was correct and hon arable to be a governess and a gov erness she would be even after she had lost her first three places by a strange and unique fault she never wavered surely it was a unique fault this young girl Is too beautiful to be a governess wrote her first era ip the of the school as sacr returned her her conduct has been irreproachable she Is goodness itself intelligent patient and with a talent for teaching yet I 1 will not keep her her presence cannot but prove a danger in a household at last a good and generous lady beautiful enough herself not to be jeal ous of another s beauty took the per secured signorina Signor lna ada as teacher tor aher two small children I 1 may not bave her name she was the wife of a foreign consul ada cavalier had watched her arll llant sisters triumphs with uneasy wonderment that grew to terror she had fought with lina give up he music hall career she had never ceased bombarding her with letters of expostulation later on she comero compro urged sister onward it you will not give up the stage be real artiste was her final appeal when lina had begun studying with JJ succeeding years confirmed this sue cess and artistic and social satis fac alons of grand opera ceased to cost her anything financially on the contrary ehe had never done so well in the halls at the theater of ravenna at the grand theater of palermo at the opera of st petersburg and notably at the ultra artistic casino theater at monte carlo she hag had repeated en gage ments in russia she Is all the rage her own country of italy has taken her to its heart and she has bought a mansion in the avenue de messine for her paris rest dence during her present summer vacation she will furnish it herself a work of peaceful satisfaction beautiful old maid it Is a quiet street and rich the avenue de messine it is a short street of only 34 numbers running from the statue of william shake speare in the little square of the boule vard haussmann to the delightful paro monceau surrounded by its palaces it Is a street of the newly rich per haps few great titled families live in it but those who inhabit it are snug and at peace with the world well imong all there will be none more snug than a most glorious old maid you know who it Is there can be but one such the most beautiful old maid in the world in her own way she Is happy Is it not strange here Is beauty gone to waste you will say well judge tor yourself some time ago the somber sister had a skittish moment it in cited her to prove her equal beauty how she dressed in one of una s gowns and posed to one of the first paris photographers as her famous sis ter Is a tale that has been more than once told for a time the counterfeit present ments circulated in commerce being practically from pho to graphs of lina cavalleri nowadays they scarcely exist |
