Kansas Lakmé
Pretty, blue-eyed Marie Wilkins hardly knew what to make of it. She suddenly found herself singing in place of Lily Pons at Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera.
Just a fortnight previously Marie had left Lawrence, Kans. to try the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air. Last year she had missed out. This was to be her last try. If she failed, she had decided to go on keeping house for her husband, University of Kansas Music Professor Joseph F. Wilkins, and their eight-year-old daughter.
Marie Wilkins never got her second Audition of the Air. As soon as she arrived in Manhattan, with a...