TIME Goes to the Opera

1932: Lily Pons
"Lily Pons will make her San Francisco debut, sing in Lucia di Lammermoor, the opera which introduced her to Manhattan one blizzardy January afternoon two winters ago. That afternoon an apathetic crowd was prepared to be bored by the debut of an unknown in a trite, old-fashioned opera. Until she reached the mad scene only her youthful charm impressed. Then she swept the house out of itself. She sang her high F, managed chromatics and staccati with incredible ease. The audience made her take 16 curtain calls."
From: San Francisco Memorial, Oct. 17, 1932

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