MME. BERNHARDT DYING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18278, 20 December 1922, Page 9

MME. BERNHARDT DYING

TAKEN ILL SUDDENLY.

0\ EVE OF NEW PLAY. ; AirtßliH! and S.Z. Cable Action j (BNd. 6-40 p.m-1 VXSa. Dec. 18. I Madame Sarah Bernhardt is dangerously 11! and is not expected to live through the niefet She had a sudden attack ot illness i *hen going to a dress rehearsal of a new P l av ir which she was to appear with Lena Guitxy. There was no time to advise the critics, who arrived at the theatre 'to find the doors closed and the rehearsal cancelled-owing to Madame Bernhardt. illnes a.

With the death of Sarah Bernhardt will ; ■ n» awav one of the greatest geniuses. 5Tr produced by the French stage. To j the Jorld. outside Pans and Madame Bernhardt, who was born /7 years ago has become a great figure ot thTpast-it v, nearly 30 years ago since TS, visited Australia-bat her amazing vkaUW Has hitherto defied the advance 1, and she has continued in her Litre at Paris .not only to revive o.d t&eatre at «"» -.„.,♦* new parts, this triumphs but to creaW ne ™ 4~ ' : go Eminence in gj-jj j! the queen in Victor Hugo 9 Ray »Im. and above all as Zanotto in Francois CopW s "Le Passant," When peace was Jeered after the Franco-German *«£• left the Odeon for the Comed.e Francauc. From that time she steadily. ""eased her reputation. In 1879 she had a famous oea»n at the Gaiety in London, and by then her position as the greatest actress of her dav was securely established. Her amazin- *-ower of emotional acting, the extraordinary realism and pathos of her death scenes, the magnetism of her per■onalitv, and the beauty of her vols d or made the public tolerant of her occasional Sarah' Bernhardt also developed some skill as a sculptor, and exhibited at the Salon, iter comedy, " I/Aven, was produced at the Odeon in 1888 with much BOCcess. iter relations with other society res of the Comedie Francaise became strained, however, and in 1880, when enraged by an unfavourable criticism ot her i acting, she threw up her position on the , dav following the first performance- of Kmile Augier's " L'Aventunere. in» obliged her to pay » forfelt ° £4 ,0C0 ? bres'ch of contract. Immediately after the | rupture she pave a series of performances in London. Tours of Denmark America and Russia followed. In 1832 she married Jacques Dnmala, a Greek, in London, but separated from him at the end of the fol- I lowing year. After a fresh triumph m ■ Pans with Sardou's " Fedora" sho became I proprietress of the forte St. .Martin. "Nana Sahib" (1883), "Theodora (TB84) : "La Tosca" (1887), " Jeanne d Arc j (185oi. and "Cleopatre" (1890), were among her most conspicuous successes there. In 1893 she became proprietress ot the Renaissance Theatre. During those 1U years she made several extended tours, including visits to America in 1886-7 and 1888-9. Between 1891 and 1893 she again visited America, Australia, and the duel European capitals. In 1893 she opened the Renaissance in Paris, and again there followed many of her notable stage triumphs. _ , ~ For the next few years Sarah Bernhardt visited London regularly, and also appeared in America. In December, IB9b, an elaborate fete was organised in Pans »n her honour, when she received cordial greetings from all parts of the world. By this time ehe had played 112 parts, od of which she had created. In 1899 she removed from the Renaissance to the. Theatre des Nations, a larger house, in *hich she opened in a revival of "La Toisca." In the same year she made n bold experiment of a French production °f " Hamlet," in which she played the ♦'tie role. She repeated the production in London. Of the successful productions °f her later years perhaps none was more rernarkablp than her impersonation of La Tinbe in Victor Hugo's romantic drama, "Angelo."