265.—A DRESSING-ROOM WAR.
A disturbance took place among some of the prominent singers of the Mapleson company at Chicago, in the season of 1879, that shows the lengths to which selfishness and spite may be carried at the risk of reputation.
The season was opened by Madame Gerster. On each side of the stage were dressing rooms, and though they were alike in every respect, Gerster happened to choose that on the right-hand side. From this fact that room came to be called the "prima donna's room."
On the second night the opera given was Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro," in which Mme. Roze and Minnie Hauk took prominent parts. Thinking to secure the prima donna's room for herself, Miss Hauk went to the theater at three o'clock in the afternoon and had her trunks and dresses placed in it. But at four o'clock Mme. Roze's maid, discovering what had been done, told Roze's husband, and he had Hauk's trunks taken to the opposite room, and his wife's belongings placed in the coveted apartment.
An hour or so later, Minnie Hauk's agent happened in to see if things were all right, and found Roze's costumes where Hauk's were supposed to be. So he ordered the baggage reversed and had a padlock put on the door.
When, at six o'clock, Mme. Roze put in an appearance at her dressing-room and found it locked, she secured a locksmith, had the door opened, and ousted Hauk's belongings and proceeded to personally occupy the prima donna's room. On Minnie Hauk's coming early, as she supposed, to steal a march on her rival, she found Roze had outwitted her.
But one thing was left the fair Minnie to do, and this she did. She went back to her hotel and declared she would not sing a note that night. It was only after the manager and his lawyers had labored with the irate songstress for some two hours that she was finally persuaded to go back to the theater and assume her part, after the opera was one-third finished.