Malibran Fever

Some prima donna careers read like fiction—because the crowds treated them like royalty.

Take Maria Malibran. On her last visit to Venice, her arrival looked less like a concert tour and more like a general returning from victory. As her gondola entered the Grand Canal, trumpets blared, bands roared, and huge crowds shouted her name. The hysteria didn’t stop there: whenever she appeared in public, the crush was so intense that armed police had to protect her. When she rode in a gondola, the swarm of boats following her was so thick it could block the canals.

When she finally left Venice, the fans presented her with a magnificent diadem studded with diamonds and rubies.

Milan wasn’t much calmer. One night she was literally showered with bouquets whose leaves were made of gold and silver. The audience called her back twenty times—no wonder she fainted at the end of the performance.