After a late lunch the soprano Luisa Tetrazzini removed her corsets before a matinée. Later, as she lay dying as the consumptive Violetta in La Traviata, the tenor John McCormack tried to lift her. It felt, he said, as if he was fondling a pair of Michelin tyres. As they both got the giggles, it must have looked as if he was fondling a jelly.
