Meeting Lina Cavalieri

Meeting Lina Cavalieri
The famous Italian Lina Cavalieri is currently on a visit to St. Petersburg.
Yesterday we saw a charming woman with a slender, graceful figure, an incredible waist and fathomless eyes.
A black dress in the latest fashion with a small décolleté adds to the inherent elegance of this goddess. She is wearing a lovely black bonnet.
“I’m very glad that I’ve at last managed to visit your Hermitage”, she said. “It’s a home to so many wonderful things!”
“You love art, but you rarely favor the artists with an opportunity to write a portrait of you...”
“I love the art of painting, but I don’t like sitting for a portrait. Still, I had my portraits painted by the famous Boldini, Bakst, and many other artists.”
“Have you come here to sing?”
“Yes, I’m going to take part in Italian opera performances starting from the 20th day of the month.”
“Which new operas are you going to present to us?”
“It’s possible that I’ll sing Boito’s Mefistofele. Abroad, I sang Mefistofele with Chaliapin, and couldn’t ask for a better Mefistofele. He is an amazing artist!”
“What is your opinion of the latest ladies’ fashion? Don’t you find it ugly?”
“Quite the opposite. Thanks to a high waist, ladies can give up wearing those body-deforming corsets.”
“But a narrow skirt hinders your movements…”
“Who says so? You see, it’s quite easy for me to walk around… I started wearing narrow skirts while still in America, completely unaware that this cut will soon come into fashion. The same happened with hats. Some people say this fashion was copied from Russian “povoiniks”. This could be true, but the same bonnets were worn in Ancient Greece, too.”