Musical history is slyly footnoted by the mishaps that befall famed artists. Metropolitan Opera veterans still chuckle over the horse that ate Hagen's beard years ago in Gotterdammerung, the slap Geraldine Farrar gave Caruso in Carmen, the hot potato he mischievously pressed into Nordica's hand. Playing Tosca in Vienna before the War, Jeritza fell on her face, coolly sang the tender aria Vissi d'arte prone. Margaret Anglin once stalked out onto the Carnegie Hall stage to declaim Electra's grief, was appalled to find a cat peering out of her flowing Greek gown. Once...
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