The customs agent stationed on the wharf wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing. An imposing, dark-haired woman with large brown eyes was preparing to board a ship for a voyage to the United States. Wrapped around her shoulder was what appeared to be a fur stole, embellished with an animal’s head (a rather gruesome accoutrement popular in the early 1900s). But was he dreaming, or was the head moving? “What is that?” asked the agent, suspicious. “Oh, it’s an Italian police dog,” the woman replied nonchalantly.

The agent allowed her onto the ship, probably having no idea that she was Rosa Ponselle, the dramatic soprano who was the pride of the Metropolitan Opera as one of its first native-born singers to achieve great renown.