«For those who just don’t get it, opera will always be silly and unfathomable, the singers mad, its unrestrained diva worship craziest of all. What, one wonders, do these unbelievers make of Florence Foster Jenkins? More than 60 years after her death, Lady Florence remains an imperishable legend among those who rejoice in the improbable aspects of the art. Whatever she may have lacked — say, a voice — Florence Foster Jenkins had what the Italians call il sacro fuoco, “the sacred fire” [...]

Jenkins’s fierce self-confidence can be heard in every note of the recordings she made shortly before she died at 76, weeks after giving a sold-out vanity concert in Carnegie Hall. Some of the audience came to laugh at the charmingly deranged wealthy lady, oblivious to her vocal inadequacies. One aria reminded a critic of “a cuckoo in its cups.” But audiences appreciated her joy, as well as a quality she was blissfully unaware of: that poignant nobility often projected by harmless figures who take impossible chances and hilariously fail.»

- Peter G. Davis > New York Magazine

Este post de abertura da série-Callas-incompreendidas é dedicado à lebre, que nos introduziu à diva. (ia escrever "a esta diva" mas compreendi a tempo o engano: não existe "esta" diva; cada uma destas senhoras é "a" diva, a única diva.)