REAL ROMANCE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3442, 12 March 1932, Page 3

REAL ROMANCE

A SINGING CINDERELLA. A Cinderella girl who eked out her living selling pennyworths of sweets to New York slum children has risen to be an opera star at a salary of £2OO a night.

She is pretty Serafina di Leo, who at the age of 19 made a triumphant debut in “II Trovatore” with the Chicago Civic Opera Company.

No fairy tale would be more romantic than that of Serafina. Born in the slums of New York, the daughter of a poor Italian emigrant, she underwent hardships that probably no other opera star has ever experienced. When school was over in the evening there still was plenty of work for her to do, for by running a tiny sweet shop her mother managed to add a few pennies to her husband’s meagre income. So Serafina had to help in the shop at night. While selling sweets by the pennyworth to other children, Serafina used to sing snatches of the songs her mother had taught her. And it was in this drab little shop that romance first came to her. While she sang a sad Italian ballad, a slim figure wearing an expensive dress, who introduced herself as Mrs. Remsen Voorhis, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, listened entranced. Next day as Serafina’s eyes almost popped out of her head a big van drew up at the shop and four men commenced to unload a brand new piano. To her amazement they told her it was hers and that there was no trick attached to it—no money to pay. A few minutes later Mrs. Voorhis returned and informed her that arrangements had been made for her to attend a singing instructor.

From that on Serafina went every day to Madame Novelli, Italian opera singer, formerly of the Hommerstein opera in New York, who gave her a thorough course in voice production.

Then came an invitation to live in Mrs. Voorhis’ mansion and devote herself entirely to voice culture. Here was the fairy godmother taking little Cinderella to her fairy palace indeed.

After intensive study Serafina secured an audience from Giovanni Martelli, the Metropolitan Opera House tenor, who was so enthusiastic over her possibilities that he introduced her to a group of patrons who financed the completion of her studies in Italy. A few weeks ago she sang at La Scala in Milan, and her success was followed within a short time by the contract from Chicago by which she now receives £2OO a night.