Lotta's Fountain

A contract dispute put a famous soprano in the open air on Christmas Eve.

Collection: San Francisco: More Stories · USA · Open in OpenStreetMap

Lotta's Fountain on Market Street · Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

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How the story begins

Office workers hung telephone receivers outside so their families at home could listen. There was no amplification. It was Christmas Eve 1910, and Luisa Tetrazzini was singing for free, in the street, at this fountain. A lawsuit had put her there. A month earlier a deputy marshal had served the soprano in her stateroom as her liner reached New York. The impresario Oscar Hammerstein claimed an old contract gave him an option on her American singing.

The rest is in the app. Peplos plays the full story when you reach the place. You can also listen ahead of time.