| The Extraordinary Operatic Adventures of Blanche Arral |
Born in Belgium as Clara Lardinois, the youngest of 17 children, Blanche Arral was destined for a life wilder than fiction. During her travels, Arral befriended such legendary figures as Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari, Harry Houdini, Victor Hugo, Franz Liszt, Camille Saint-Saëns and Jack London, who based a character on her in his book Smoke Bellew. In Russia she met Rasputin, and in Turkey, the sultan Abdülhamid II. She describes her recording sessions with Thomas Edison and her run-ins with the difficult Nellie Melba. |
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