Viva to the Diva!

Okay, this one you can blame on Peenee, for mentioning, even in another context entirely, the name of the great Tetrazzini, that legendary lady of song now remembered more for her turkey than her trills.

Due to a youth misspent in listening to this sort of thing rather than playing good wholesome outdoor sports, the name always brings immediately to my mind this rather marvelous little number by dear Mr. Victor Herbert, a ditty entitled "Art is Calling for Me," sung here by the lovely and talented Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (I actually prefer Miss Sills's rendition, but alas cannot find it on video; Dame Kiri does just fine).

The song is the plucky story of a beleaguered (and stout) princess who wants nothing so much as to break out of her gilded cage and become (one of my favorite internal rhymes of all time) a "Screechy Peachy Cantatrice/Like other fat girls that I know!" - certainly a sentiment familiar to more than a few, I have a feeling, of my Gentle Readers...

Enjoy.