Autograph. An open letter. Lina Cavalieri.

Autograph. An open letter. Lina Cavalieri.
Without output data. Size 8.8 x 13.8 cm . " To Tair's friend in memory of our friendship. N. Cavalieri . 06/19/19. " the marginalia undesirable to the owner is painted over with ink.

Perhaps the postcard was intended for the director of the Chamber Theater Alexander Tairov. 

Natalina Cavalieri was born on December 25, 1874 in Onano, Viterbo, in a poor family. Due to the fact that she was born on the Christmas holiday (Natale), she received the name Natalina at baptism. As a child, she moved with her parents to Rome, to the Trastevere quarter. Lina worked as a newspaper packer in a printing house, as an assistant to a dressmaker, and sold flowers on the streets. Since 1887, she began to perform songs a little on the streets and in small cafes in Rome. Since 1888, she began to take part in beauty contests. In April 1894, she performed on stage for the first time, in a small theater near Piazza Navona, in Rome. In 1895, she performed in the programs of the Circus-Variety Show in Rome, in the cabaret "El Dorado" in Naples, — with a program of folk (mostly Neapolitan) songs. 

In 1896 she performed in Naples in the famous "Salon Margherita" and in Paris, in the Folies Bergere cabaret, danced and performed Italian songs to the accompaniment of an orchestra consisting of women playing guitars and mandolins. Lina Cavalieri sang mainly in French, "combining Italian simplicity with French chic." As a dancer, she was inferior to other actresses, but critics noted the "childlike simplicity" of her dances. She sang in cafes, music halls, pleasure gardens, cabarets and other similar establishments throughout Europe. 

   Lina Cavalieri was a member of the circle of French dancers and singers, better known as the courtesans of the "Belle Epoque": Cleo de Merode, Carolina Otero, Liana de Pougy, Emiliena d'Alencon. Contemporaries noted that Cavalieri's vocal abilities were modest. Her exceptional beauty brought her success; known more for her than for her musical talent, Cavalieri became one of the most photographed stars of her time. Cavalieri was called "the most beautiful woman in the world"; to achieve a slim silhouette, she followed the tradition of tight lacing, which prescribed women to use corsets to create an hourglass figure. L. Cavalieri was widely filmed for advertising, becoming the most popular fashion model of her time. She collaborated with photographer Leopold — Emil Rutlinger, who also photographed other popular singers and dancers. First of all, cards (postcards) with her image were a huge commercial success: for example, one of the St. Petersburg sellers in the early 1900s claimed to have sold about a million postcards with the image of Cavalieri.

In the summer of 1901, she made her first debut on the opera stage as Violetta in the opera by J. Verdi's La Traviata, in St. Petersburg, at the Aquarium Theater, deserved the praise of L. V. Sobinov. In the same season, with the same troupe, she performed as Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme, and as Margarita in Gounod's Faust. Later she shone on the world's outstanding opera stages.

Lina Cavalieri is also famous for her collection of jewelry of enormous value. Prince Baryatinsky's multimillion-dollar fortune allowed him to make valuable gifts to Cavalieri: according to Baryatinsky's orders, St. Petersburg jewelers K. A. F. Gan and Karl Ivanovich Bock made "a pair of emeralds, worth 150 thousand rubles... and a ruby set worth 60 thousand rubles", presented to Cavalieri by the Prince on August 26, 1898 at her benefit at the Aquarium Theater. Three strings of rare pearls ordered by Baryatinsky from Carl Faberge were estimated at 180 thousand rubles. "Peterburgskaya Gazeta" from 6 Dec. onethousandeighthundredninetynine He notes that at the opening of the Bear restaurant, "the Italian beauty was wearing diamonds, according to the most modest estimate, two hundred thousand." On April 28, 1906, the Kharkov newspaper "Latest News" notes that at Cavalieri's performance at the Kharkov Theater in the opera La Traviata, "Violetta was entwined with jewelry worth over three million rubles."

In 1897, L. Cavalieri received the first contract in Russia. In the spring of 1897 She performed in St. Petersburg, at the Krestovsky Garden Theater and restaurant (nab. Srednyaya Nevka, No. 2, the property of the merchant Habibulla Yalyshev).

Since 1897, she was in connection with Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Baryatinsky (1870-1910), a graduate of the Page Corps, an officer of the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment, an aide-de-camp to Duke Eugene of Leuchtenberg. Prince A.V. Baryatinsky belonged to one of the richest families of the Russian Empire. He was the son of General V. A. Baryatinsky, who stood very close to the imperial court, and the brother of the writer V. V. Baryatinsky. In 1901, Alexander Baryatinsky commissioned in Paris, from the Italian painter J. Boldini painted a portrait of Lina Cavalieri and asked Emperor Nicholas II to give him permission to marry her. The reason for the highest refusal was, first of all, the laws of that time: an officer in the case of marrying a "cafe singer with an illegitimate seven-year-old son" would have been forced to resign; in addition, A.V. Baryatinsky belonged to one of the most notable Russian surnames and could not discredit the family with such a marriage. Having received the highest refusal, in 1901 Prince A.V. Baryatinsky married His Serene Highness Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Yurievskaya (1878-1959), the illegitimate and legitimized daughter of Emperor Alexander II.

From 1897-1903 she lived in two cities, in Paris and in St. Petersburg. 

In 1898, she performed in St. Petersburg and Moscow, signing contracts with the St. Petersburg impresario Georgy Alexandrov for performances at the Kamenny theater of the Aquarium amusement garden on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt and with the Moscow impresario Charles Omon for performances in the Aquarium garden.

In the summer of 1901, she made her first debut on the opera stage as Violetta in the opera by J. Verdi's La Traviata, in St. Petersburg, at the Aquarium Theater, deserved the praise of L. V. Sobinov. Cavalieri performed as part of a French opera company assembled by impresario Raoul Gunsburg; in the same season with the same company she performed as Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme, and as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust. In the 1910-1911 season she sang at the Zimin Opera House in Moscow.

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