>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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