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For the 1883 American season music agent James Mapelson wanted to beat out a new competing opera company so he dared to bring together two of the most temperamental singers in the world.[1] He would soon find out that his biggest problem was not his competitor, but his two divas[2].

Mapelson already had a big star, Adelina Patti[3]. He kept her with his company by paying her more than $5,000 per performance and providing her with a private railway car[4] that cost $60,000 and included a solid silver bathtub[5] and a key of 18-carat gold. For the new season Mapelson brought in a singer sought by his upstart[6] competitor. She was Etelka Gerster, whom he took to be “a most admirable singer, and a charming woman into the bargain[7].”

The strife began in Baltimore when Gerster noticed a playbill with Patti’s name in bigger print than her own and admission prices that were higher than hers.[8] Gerster fled on a train for New York, where Mapelson finally tracked her down and agreed to all of her demands. Then, in Chicago, Mapelson boldly cast both prima donnas[9] in the same opera, The Huguenots. Confusion over bouquets led to Patti receiving most of the floral tributes after an act in which Gerster had done most of the singing.[10] The audience responded by rewarding Gerster with a wild ovation, convincing a hysterical Patti that Mapelson had plotted against her.[11] In St. Louis, Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden stole a kiss from Patti, of which Gerster said, “There is nothing wrong in a man kissing a woman old enough to be his mother.”

Patti went on to San Francisco, where her performance as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata caused such a stir[12] that the entire police force had to be called out to protect the theater. A journalist noted, “I doubt if twenty women in the house heard the music in the ballroom[13] scene. La Diva treated the house to a view of as many of her diamonds as she could carry without being brought in on trestles[14].”

A few months later the opera war ended when Patti and her husband sailed for Europe, taking with them the comforting proceeds[15] from the contentious American season—fees totaling $250000. And a battered Mapelson took satisfaction in having trounced his competitor, the fledgling Metropolitan Opera.[16]