A press conference announcing the Summer Garden Party was hold today in the garden pavilion of No1 Regent St in which the famous Impresario, Sergei Diaghilev unveiled the details of the most anticipated Event of the Social Calendar surrounded by two of the brightest Stars of the Era, Actress Sarah Bernhardt and Opera Singer Maria Malibran !
In what will be front page material to society magazines such as the Delineator ( London ), La Gazette du Bon Ton ( Paris ) and Cosmopolitan ( New York ), the article will read :
"Sergei Diaghilev can be seen on the steps of the Garden Pavilion announcing The Event of the Season with two of the most celebrated Women of their time, Sarah Bernhardt who has just returned on the latest Cunard Steamer from her triumphant tour of the major American cities theatres and Maria Malibran who has recently delighted the Imperial Courts of Europe with her unique voice, which they say can be heard simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic !
The two Celebrities are seen together for the first time in years as they are well known for not sharing the limelight with anyone and their venue to No 1 Regent St will certainly bring its lot of gossip, tantrums and demands.
We heard that the gardens which are currently being redesigned by the famous Gardener, Miss Periwinkle, will host amongst other events, an evening play by Monsieur Alexandre Dumas called "The Three Musketeers" in which Sarah Bernhardt will be Constance and Maria Malibran will delight the distinguished Guests which list willl be read like a Who's Who of Victorian Society, with the opera arias she is so famous for !
Maria Malibran can be seen wearing her signature black, red and gold dress with a black hat sporting a red feather and Sarah Bernhardt a pink dress with a pink hat sporting a white and green feather.
The press conference also attracted Ladies of the London Society which can be seen here dressed to the latest fashion for our great delight !"
Sarah Bernhardt 
(October 22, 1844 - March 26, 1923) was a French stage actress.She was born in Paris as Henriette Rosine Bernard, the eldest surviving illegitimate daughter of Judith van Hard, a Dutch Jewish courtesan known as "Youle." Her father was reportedly Edouard Bernard, a French lawyer, and she was educated in French Catholic convents. To support herself, she combined the career of an actress with that of a courtesan - at the time, the two were considered scandalous to a roughly equal degree. She was sponsored into the Conservatoire de Musique et Déclamation by the Duc de Morny in 1859 for theatrical training.
Her stage career started in 1862, largely in comic theatre and burlesque. She made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand all over Europe and in the United States. She soon developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the title, "The Divine Sarah"; arguably, she may have been the most famous actress of the 19th century.
Although primarily a stage actress, Bernhardt made several cylinders and discs of famous dialogue from various productions. One of the earliest was a reading from Phèdre by Jean Racine, at Thomas Edison's home on a visit to New York City in the 1880s. Multi-talented, she was involved with the visual arts as well as acting, painting and sculpting herself, as well as modelling for Antonio de La Gandara. She was also to publish a series of books and plays throughout her life.
Her social life was as continuously active. She had an affair with a Belgian nobleman, Charles-Joseph-Eugene-Henri, Prince de Ligne, with whom she had her only child, the writer Maurice Bernhardt, in 1864 (he married a Polish princess, Maria Jablonowska, 1863-1914). Later lovers included several artists (Gustave Doré and Georges Clarin) and actors (Mounet-Sully and Lou Tellegen). She married Greek-born actor Aristides Damala (aka Jacques Damala) in London in 1882, but the marriage, which legally endured until Damala's death in 1889 at age 34, was quickly collapsed, largely due to the young actor's dependence on morphine.
Bernhardt was also one of the pioneer silent movie actresses, debuting as Hamlet in Le Duel d'Hamlet in 1900. (Technically, this was not a silent film, as it had accompanying cylinders with dubbed dialogue.) She went on to star in eight motion pictures and two biographical films in all. The latter included Sarah Bernhardt à Belle-Isle (1912), a film about her daily life at home.
Sarah Bernhardt was made a member of France's Legion of Honor in 1914.
In 1915, ten years after a serious injury, her right leg was amputated, confining her to a wheelchair for several months. Nonetheless, she continued her career, in spite of the need to use a wooden prosthetic limb. She died in the arms of her son Maurice. She is buried in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.
Sarah Bernhardt has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street.
The actress La Berma, a fictional character in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time was inspired by Bernhardt.
Sarah Bernhardt's quotes :
“Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third.”
Maria Malibran 
(24 March 1808 – 23 September 1836) The mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran, was one of the most famous opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality and dramatic intensity, becoming a legendary figure after her death at age 28. Contemporary accounts of her voice describe its range, power and flexibility as extraordinary.
Malibran was born in Paris as María Felicia García Sitches into a famous Spanish musical family. Her father, Manuel García, was a celebrated tenor much admired by Rossini, having created the role of Count Almaviva in his The Barber of Seville. García was also a composer and an influential vocal instructor, and he was her first voice teacher. He was described as inflexible and tyrannical; the lessons he gave his daughter became constant quarrels between two powerful egos.
Malibran first appeared on stage in Naples with her father in Paër’s Agnese, when she was 8 years old. When she was 17, she was a singer in the choir of the King's Theatre in London. When prima donna Giuditta Pasta became indisposed, García suggested that his daughter take over in the role of Rosina in The Barber of Seville. The audience loved the young mezzo, and she continued to sing this role until the end of the season. When the season closed, Garcia immediately took his operatic troupe to New York. The troupe consisted primarily of the members of his family: Maria, her brother, Manuel, and her younger sister, Pauline García-Viardot, who would later become a famous singer in her own right.
La Malibran, François Bouchot (1834). musée de la Vie romantique, dépôt du Louvre, Paris
Malibran's Hotel 1899 -town hall todayThis was the first time that Italian opera was performed in New York. Over a period of nine months, Maria sang the lead roles in eight operas, two of which were written by her father. In New York, she met and hastily married a banker, Francois Eugene Malibran, who was 28 years her senior. It is thought that her father forced Maria to marry him in return for the banker's promise to give Manuel Garcia 100,000 francs. However, according to other accounts, she married simply to escape her tyrannical father. A few months after the wedding, her husband declared bankruptcy, and Maria was forced to support him through her performances. After a year, she left Malibran and returned to Europe.
In Europe, Malibran sang the title role at the premiere of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda The opera, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Mary Stuart, aroused the fury of the censors, who demanded textual amendments, which Malibran typically ignored. Malibran became romantically involved with the Belgian violinist, Charles de Beriot. The pair lived together as a common-law couple for six years and a child was born to them in 1833, before Maria obtained an annulment of her marriage to Malibran. Felix Mendelssohn wrote an aria accompanied by a solo violin especially for the couple. Malibran sang at the Paris Opera among other major opera houses. In Paris, she met and performed with Michael Balfe.
In 1834, Malibran moved to England and began to perform in London. In late-May 1836, she starred in The Maid of Artois, written for her by Balfe. In July 1836, Malibran fell from her horse and suffered injuries from which she never recovered. She refused to see a physician and continued to perform. She died several months after the accident in Manchester. She is buried in Laken, Belgium.
Sergei Diaghilev
(31 March 1872 – 19 August 1929)Born to a wealthy family, Sergei Siaghilev (or Sergey Pavlovich), was born in Novrogod, Russian, on March 31, 1872. He completed Perm Gymnasium and studied law at St. Petersburg University while also enrolled in music and singing at the Conservatory of Music. One of his music professors was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He was primarily aided by Alexandre Benois in belonging to the influential circle of artists and in focusing to develop Western and Russian Art. Initially, his dream was to become a composer.
With strong support from influential associates including Alexandre Benois and Leon Bakst, he published an important art periodical Mir Iskusstva (The World of Art) in St. Petersburg and mounted a massive exhibition of historical portraits. From Russia, he travelled to the West – first in Paris, with an exhibition of Russian painting, concerts of Russian music, and the first production outside Russia, of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov with Challapin.
Through ballet, Sergei Diaghilev found an art form which combined the disciplines of choreography, music and painting: his passion for experiment along with patronage of artists in these fields produced numerous 20th-century masterpieces. Ballets Russes had a profound influence on Europe's cultural life. He died aged 57. Diaghilev's enormous achievement can be measured by the range of artists he employed and often 'discovered':
Maria Malibran is no stranger to the Mansion on No1 Regent St as she already performed last year for an unforgetable evening of Songs to the great delight of our hosts
