Ganna

Garmented in the magnificent arrangement of silk and tortoise-shell she had bought to wear in her Manhattan debut as Madame Butterfly with the San Carlo Opera Company, Ganna Walska, soprano wife of Millionaire Harold F. McCormick, knelt in tears at a dress rehearsal while Tenor Franko Tafuro sang "Beautiful Creature, Why Do You Cry?"

"And why," added Tenor Tafuro in a rasping undertone, "do you turn your head away from me? I must see the tears in your eyes."

"Why should I look at you?" shrilled Ganna, her voice curdling the syrup of the aria. "Can't you hear me sobbing?"

"I have sung this role 500 times under the greatest directors in the world," shouted Tafuro, "including the great Toscanini."

"You, you . . .," shouted Walska, "I have sung it 15 times all over Europe. I went over the stage business with Puccini himself. . . ."

A member of the company ruled that Tafuro was right; Walska, in a rage, left the theatre, refused to appear next night. Tamaki Miura, famed Japanese soprano, was "substituted" for her.