Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Elizabeth Finkler" <mightymezzo@h...>
Date:  Mon Jul 10, 2000  9:36 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] How did they do it? (sing with a corset)


>From: sopran@a...
>Dear List:
>
>The women in the family were experiencing shortness of breath, and the
>cause
>was determined to be their corsets, which they were supposed to wear
>tightly
>laced, in keeping with the fashion of the times.
>
>It got me wondering how the divas of the day--Melba, for instance, or
>Tetrazini--were able to sing the way they did in those contraptions.
>

D**ned if I know. But one of the MANY accounts I've heard of the invention
of the brassiere has a lingerie designer making one for a Parisian soprano,
who complained that her 1880s corset impaired her breathing and did not give
sufficient support to her breasts.

Elizabeth Finkler
http://home.earthlink.net/~mightymezzo/
mightymezzo@h...

"Singing is the lowest form of communication." --Homer Simpson

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