December 30, 2005
“I will sing in San Francisco if I have to sing in the streets, for I know that the streets of San Francisco are free.”
It was 1910. San Francisco was still in a bad way following the great earthquake and conflagration of 1906, and in fact, the whole decade had been kind of rough. The brightest spot without question in this opera-mad city had been the sudden emergence of the zaftig soprano Luisa Tetrazzini, the “Florentine Nightingale”. She rose to prominence in San Francisco, but talent and fame soon took her away to the bright lights of the world’s great stages.
On Christmas Eve of that year, however, she finally came back… and it was magic.
For further edification:
» bio, beautiful photos and sound recordings
» short bio and sound
» biographical book review at SF Museum.org
» Monadnock building murals
» chicken Tetrazzini recipe
- #54: The Notorious Lola Montez
- SFist — whiskerless waiters at the palace hotel
- #60: Starr King and the California Civil War (pt. 2)
- Sparkletack Interview: Amateur Traveler Podcast transcript!
- San Francisco Timecapsule: 05.11.09
thanks to Martin Herzberg for the use of “Walk for Change”, courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network.
Sparkletack was the blog and podcast of a guy obsessed with diggin' up San Francisco history. The site is on permanent hiatus.
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January 9, 2006 at 12:20 pm
I really liked this one – very interesting tale and I finally learned where Chicken Tetrazzini came from !
January 3, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Enjoy the info and history on San Francisco. found the web site via Budget Travel magazine.
January 26, 2006 at 12:21 pm
I’m still catching up on my holiday podcasts and had to say that while listening to your Tetrazzini piece on the drive into work this morning, I was quite moved. You have a rare talent for telling a story and painting an image for your listeners just as clear as day. When you got to the part about Tetrazzini’s return to the city, I found tears streaming down my cheeks I was so caught up in the moment. Great job!
June 11, 2007 at 10:10 pm
great story telling! so much history … i had to go see the fountain for myself … thank you! (i hope you don’t mind me linking this page from my photo) :)
June 24, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Thank you so, so much for this podcast. I realize it’s years after the fact, but the information you included was priceless for some research I’d been doing in regards to this event. The images as well–the painting was especially helpful, as was the first-hand perspective you described of the concert. This was a fantastic resource.
July 27, 2008 at 7:26 am
Thanks. Like the last person who wrote the last post, I too found this way after the fact. But it was exactly what I was looking for.
July 27, 2008 at 9:07 am
@ Jane, @ Letters form Santa:
You’re welcome, and I’m delighted my telling of the story was useful. There’s really no “late”, though, the information is still as fresh as can be … after all, Luisa’s Chirstmas performance was almost 100 years ago!