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Lina Cavalieri
Italian soprano (Viterbo: 25 Dec 1874 - Florence: 7
Feb 1944, during an allied air raid). |
Beautiful Italian Prima Donna Wrested Success From Poverty
“From a
tailor’s bench to the operatic stage is rather a far cry. From a hard earned
wage of a few sous a day to a singer’s salary of thousands a night is
considerable of a progression. Yet from the one to the other Lina Cavalieri, a
beautiful Italian girl, has traveled in a few short years. But they were not
easy years. She left behind her on the way a lovers’ tragedy and the sordid
tawdriness of the Italian café chantant….
Yet today Lina Cavalieri is
the idol of her countrymen. She is little known in America, though she has
conquered half the world with her beauty and sweet voice. Less than three yeas
ago she made her debut and now the announcement that Lina Cavalier will sing is
sufficient to insure a full house.
She is a slender slip of a
girl, this great singer, who is being hailed as the most beautiful woman in
Italy. She has a peculiar fascination that all acknowledge. Her face is
classically beautiful, such a one as the great masters loved in the days gone
by. It is a tender Italian face, whose chiefest claim is a certain wistfulness,
a questioning, that attracts and interests at once. Perhaps it is her story
written in her expression that is so wonderfully appealing. It is a sad little
tale --- that of an orphan girl left to fight her own battles at 15….
(continued at right)
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Lina
Cavalieri's Beauty Secrets
After her
retirement from the stage, Cavalieri managed her cosmetic salons in Paris.
She was undoubtedly asked many times to offer her beauty hints for
publication. In 1914 she published My Secrets of Beauty, which
offered "More than 1,000 Valuable Recipes for Preparations Used and
Recommended by Mme. Cavalieri Herself." Earlier in 1911 Cavalieri
contributed her beauty tips to the Femina magazine in Paris, which
resulted in a lengthy and interesting testament to the time and thought she
must have put into her own personal care. The goddess Hygeia would be
pleased with Cavalieri's sensible recommendations of ample amounts of
fruits, fresh air, exercise, and rest. Her bathing regimens, however, are
questionable. Her bath water was mixed with table salt, glycerine, extract
of violets, and aromatic vinegar that she would mix constantly in the water
to ward off neuralgia or rheumatism. She would rub her body vigorously with
a bath brush and lavender and then rinse in cold water to close her pores!
Cavalieri's other beauty suggestions included massaging the nose frequently
to keep it in shape, bathing the eyes in an eyecup of rose water to keep
them brilliant, washing the face in the warmest water that can be tolerated,
using warm compresses to prevent wrinkles and redness, washing the hair once
a week, and sleeping with the head low to avoid developing a double chin.
Cavalieri's most bizarre beauty concoction was her own cold cream mixture,
which consisted of bee's wax, spermaceti, rose water, rose oil, and oil of
almond, blended in a double boiler with a wooden spoon. Cavalieri would
apply the cream to her entire body while sitting in front of a mirror where
she could search, "without pity" for wrinkles, and if found she would
massage the area for ten minutes. After the cream was absorbed into her
pores, she would wipe off any excess grease. In 1911 when the best indoor
lighting was provided by the sun, she would powder her body and then stand
in front of a window with a hand mirror for a final inspection!
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Her story is one of
hardship and deprivation. Before she was 16 she had to find for herself. She
was penniless until she found work in a tailor shop, where for three years she
toiled, stitching away faithfully, singing sometimes over the pantaloons she
finished at so much a dozen…. Stitching was bread and butter, and Lina
stitched on till the fairy prince came and brought about her awakening.
Her fairy prince was a
young lieutenant in the army, son of a rich and powerful roman family. He was
attracted by the girl’s unusually beauty, her large, soft eyes, her waving
masses of lustrous hair, black as midnight; the transparent fairness of her
delicate skin, the faint flow of her cheeks, the scarlet pomegranate of her
lips, her perfect figure, tall and slender almost to fragility, yet
wonderfully graceful, won the young man. He sought her acquaintance and,
convinced of his sincerity, Lina fell desperately in love with him and for a
while was ecstatically happy.
But the law stepped in and
put an end to their dream of bliss. For the law---the Italian low, that is ---
says that an officer in the army shall not marry unless his proposed bride has
so and so much of money…. A lieutenant’s rank entails on his bride the
possession of not less than 40,00 francs --- about $8,000. And Lina---where
was she to get 40,000 francs, she who spent her days stitching in a tailor’s
shop? If he could have deposited the sum in her name! But he could not raise
the money, and his parents would not help him. Their son marry a tailor’s
apprentice? Not if family influence counted for anything at all! And it does
the world over. So they managed to have the young man transferred to another
city, ‘to break off this unfortunate affair,’ It was broken off. The young
people never met again.
Lina
Cavalieri went on with her work, but she no longer sang at her bench. One day
she put down her work and left the shop. She never returned.
That night as she passed
a café chantant the lights attracted her and she slipped in. It was one of the
most fashionable resorts in the city …. For two years she sang in the café
chantants of the city For two years she lived in the atmosphere of their
temptations, performing her part of the programmes, but refusing all overtures
of friendship, going her way quietly, steadily, but alone. Then she
disappeared.
She had saved enough to
go to Paris, where her voice and beauty at once won her a place in a
fashionable resort. She became a fad, had a distinct vogue of her own, and in
six months she saved enough to begin her studies under Mme. Marchesi. All her
critics had admitted her rare beauty and her rare voice, ‘But,’ they said, ‘it
needs training.’ She was now ready to give it training. And it was severe
training, too. For two years she stayed in Paris with Madame Marchesi. Those
who knew her knew Marchesi as no easy task mistress, but Lina Cavalieri
studied almost feverishly under her. Then she went back to Italy, and studied
for one year under Mariani Masi of Milan. Then she was pronounced ready to
enter the ranks of the grand opera singers. The tailor’s apprentice of five
years ago, the singing girl of the cafes had developed into one the world’s
great singers.
Her debut was in Rome,
the scene of her early struggles. It was in a small part, but her friends of
the cafes had not forgotten her gave her rousing greeting. They called her
before the curtain repeatedly and would not be satisfied till she had sung
them one of her old songs. For ten months she stayed in Rome, gaining steadily
in popularity and in power. Then she went to Russia and sang there all the
leading opera roles. The Russians raved over her. She created a furor. So
great was her success that at the end of her season they gave her a ‘gala’
night, a performance not unlike the benefit of the American theaters, except
that it is given purely as a compliment, not to relieve need. Friends and
admirers send the person honored flowers, jewels, etc. It was estimated that
Cavalieri received on that night jewels valued at over $100,000.
Back once more to Italy,
she received at Rome an ovation that will not soon be forgotten. And yet she
remains unspoiled. Wherever she sings in Italy standing room is at a premium.
In Milan it is told that once when she was announced to sing the manager
raised his prices. But Cavalier refused to sing if he charged any more than
the usual admission. She argued that she was not as yet a great diva, but
merely a beginner. ‘All I ask,’ she said, ‘is that the public shall judge me
fairly….’
Her greatest success has
been in the opera “Manon.” Her taste in dress is an exquisite as her beauty is
unquestioned. But it is the charm of her personality that has eon the world,
her rarely sweet smile and her manner absolutely free from affectation. It is
not yet three years since she made her debut, and already she has amassed a
fortune. She owns a beautiful home in Florence, where her kindness to all, and
particularly her love for the little ones, is proverbial.
20 November 1902
[Note: One
may not exactly know how much of the above newspaper article is fact or
fiction but it is clear that Lina Cavalieri's story was subject to
interpretation and gossip very early in her career.]
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