AN ALL-STAR BATTLE

Evening Star, Issue 20328, 9 November 1929, Page 22

AN ALL-STAR BATTLE

QUESTION OF PRIORITY DRESSING ROOM DISPUTE. Austria’s own inimitable . Marie Jeritza has again been embroiled in one of those fantastic quarrels that have so often delighted the theatrical world in Vienna. She recently called in the best decorators, and at her own expense had the “star’s” dressing room at the Vienna Opera House decorated to suit her luxurious taste. She then had a new lock put on the door and took away the keys. But Frau Schwartz, a soprano $f the Berlin Opera, thinks she is something of a “star” herself. When she arrived to sing in ‘ Rosenkavalier,’ she made preparations to move .into the “star” dressing room. Finding it locked, and hearing that it was Madame Jeritza’s ‘‘own,” Frau Schw.artz served an ultimatum on Herr Clemer.s Krauss, the director of the opera, who had hardly finished his first week in Vienna. She would not sing unless she could use the room. . The young director tried to explain that Madame Jeritza would be difficult to appease, but Frau Schwartz declared she herself would be.more difficult still. Only when the curtain was half an hour late did Herr Krauss call in a locksmith and have the door forced, whereupon Frau Schwartz entered triumphantly. Later on Madame Jeritza arrived to sing in the Johann Strauss Opera, ‘ A Night in Venise.’ She flew into a rage when she heard the news of Iran Schwartz’s victory, declared she would not sing, and rushed from the opera. Herr Krauss followed her to her apartment, and battled with her so effectively that he actually won. Looking worn, but with the light of victory in his eye, Herr Krauss mado it known that the dressing room “belongs to the opera,’.’ and that in future during Madame Jeritza’s absence others could use it. Madame Jeritza said that was a compromise. Anyway, she sang again in the opera.