AN ANECDOTE OF PATTI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9244, 22 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN ANECDOTE OF PATTI.

WHAT IT TOOK TO COMPLETE HER DRESSING. SIGNOR Franchi reappeared. "I cannot understand," he said, "how it is you get on so well with prime donne, and especially with Mine. Patti. You are a marvellous man, and a fortunate one, too, I may add. Mine. Patti does not wish to break her engagement with you, as she certainly would have done with anyone else under the circumstances. Give me the £800 and she will make every preparation for going on to the stage. She empowers me to tell you that she will be at the theatre in good time for the beginning of the opera, and that she will be ready dressed in the costume of Violetta, with the exception only of the shoes. You can let her have the balance when the doors open and the money comes in from the outside public and directly she receives it she will pub her shoes on and at the proper moment make her appearance on the stage." 1 thereupon handed him the £800 I had already in hand as the result of subscriptions in advance. " I congratulate you on your good luck," said Signer Franchi, as he departed with ■ the money in his pocket. After the opening of the doors I had another visit from Signor Franchi. By this time an extra sum of £lli() had come in. I handed it to my benevolent friend, and begged him to carry it without delay to the obliging prima donna, who, having received £160, might, I thought, be induced to complete her toilet pending the arrival of the £40 balance. Nor* was 1 altogether wrong in my hopeful anticipations. With a beaming face Signor Franchi came back and communicated to me the joyful intelligence that Mme Patti had got one shoe on. " Send her the other £40," he added, "and she will pub on the other." Ultimately the other shoe was got on ; bub not, of course, until the last £40 had been paid. Then Mme. Patti, her face radiant with benignant smiles, went on the stage, and the opera, already begun, was continued brilliantly until the end.—Memoirs of Mapleson.