Luisa Tetrazzini, the most famous opera
singer of her day, became a street musician in 1910. “The streets of San
Francisco are free,” she had declared before singing to a crowd of 250,000 near
Lotta’s Fountain at the corner of Market and Kearney.
The super star was not, like many
street musicians, out to road test her performance. She was in dispute with
promoter Oscar Hammerstein who took her to court to prevent her performing at
the San Francisco opera house. She took to the streets.
Tetrazzini declared: “I never thought I
would be a street singer, but I want to do this for San Francisco. San
Francisco is my country.”
Luisa was also persuaded to do her bit during the First World War: there is a photo of her singing to bemused Munitions workers at Hayes (http://ourhistory-hayes.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_01_archive.html)
