A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters
When Luisa Tetrazzini and Nellie Melba met
There occurred the sort of precious set-to we ought not forget:
Both were booked at Covent Garden for a summer’s season; fame
Had not yet ruined Luisa nor was Nellie yet a Dame;
And neither of them threw things, and neither showed her claws,
Although Nellie was being Mimi, and Luisa? what she was.
Mrs. Butler at the Savoy was directing all the maids;
They were plumping up the pillows, they were pulling down the shades,
Combing furs, pressing flounces, all the painted paltry things
That color coloraturae as the bellboys run to rings
(And an unborn girl named Janis Joplin waits in the wings).
Nellie being Mimi is trilling to the sky,
A full-tilt aussie diva as Luisa mills on by,
So Luisa hearing Mimi says to Mrs. Butler, “Tell
Me, madam, have you many cats in your hotel?”
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